A new project created by Company Three is being run in Coventry to help local teenagers connect creatively during the lockdown.
With schools across the world on lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve teamed up with our friends at Grapevine on a new project that aims to tackle the impact of isolation and anxiety on teenagers’ mental health, providing a space for them to explore and share their experiences of the lockdown.
The Coronavirus Time Capsule is a week-by-week project created by London-based youth theatre Company Three, which has been made available to groups of young people across the world. Groups create new videos every week responding to different topics linked to the lockdown.
Groups involved so far include youth theatres in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and in Ireland, Kenya, Brazil, Australia, Croatia, the Netherlands and the USA.
Here in Coventry, Grapevine and the Belgrade Theatre are now working with local young people to share weekly videos exploring themes such as home life, school, exercise and friendship. Each video aims to offer a window into the worlds of the participants involved, showing them at home, with their families and in their rooms.
At the end of the lockdown, the videos will be collected in one overarching time capsule, available for anyone to watch, and for the participants to look back on and remember this extraordinary time. You can now watch the first video below.
The Coronavirus Time Capsule project is available for free to youth theatres, educational institutions, student drama groups, amateur companies and community arts projects everywhere. It includes a 20 page blueprint, online working resources and other online materials. Groups can start now, or join later in the process.
Company Three Artistic Director Ned Glasier said: “We are so excited that Grapevine and Belgrade Theatre have joined with this huge network of youth theatres, schools and other youth groups to create their own Coronavirus Time Capsule.
“We know that the shutdown is particularly difficult for teenagers, living with all that the pandemic has brought and missing out on key rites of passage in their education and emotional development. So we wanted to provide something to provide support, connection and a space to be heard – and a chance to connect with teenagers in similar situations all over the world.”
The Coronavirus Time Capsule has been created by Company Three, published in association with Nick Hern Books and developed in partnership with the National Association of Youth Theatres, Scottish Youth Theatre, Youth Arts Network Cymru, the Unicorn Theatre and Central School of Speech and Drama.
