News / Youth theatre to explore WWI
SHETLAND Youth Theatre has secured funding to develop a new project inspired by poetry, imagery and artefacts from the First World War.
The group has received £1,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the production In the Still of the Night Have We Wept, which will mix music, dance and drama.
The project will “focus on timeless emotions and emphasise the human stories among the mass carnage of the most cataclysmic war the world had ever experienced” and it will culminate in a performance at the Garrison Theatre in Lerwick after touring around the isles in locations particularly affected by losses in the merchant navy.
The development of the production will pool together assistance from schools, archivists and the wider community as the youths interpret what life was like during WWI, which is experiencing its centenary.
Shetland Arts creative projects manager Cara McDiarmid said the project will be both “interesting and innovative”.
“It is important to find ways to acknowledge and commemorate the lives lost 100 years ago, but also to understand the impact on local communities,” she continued.
“We hope that this project will have a lasting impact on the young people involved and on the wider Shetland community.”
Lucy Casot, head of Heritage Lottery Scotland, added: “The impact of the First World War was far reaching, touching every corner of the UK.
“Since April 2010, the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded over £70million to more than 1,300 projects – large and small – that are marking this global Centenary; with our small grants programme, we are enabling even more communities like those involved in Shetland Youth Theatre – In the Still of the Night Have we Wept to explore the continuing legacy of this conflict and help local young people in particular to broaden their understanding of how it has shaped our modern world.”
Anyone aged 11-25 can join the group for the production. For more information, contact Cara McDiarmid at Shetland Arts on info@shetlandarts.org.
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