Gen-Z and the aftermath of the General Election: what Young People can teach us

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Gen-Z and the aftermath of the General Election: what Young People can teach us

During the afternoon of the vote for the 2019 General Election, #youthquake was trending in the echo chamber of Twitter, with hundreds of thousands of tweets sharing expectant excitement of the outcome the next generation could bring. Like 2017, we know the rest of the story. The majority of voters aged 18-24 did actually vote for Labour, but were outnumbered by the older generations. So what is the story for those young people?

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Youthquake Q&A with Toby Ealden

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Youthquake Q&A with Toby Ealden

Zest’s Artistic Director, Toby Ealden, has been making theatre for young audiences for over sixteen years, including youth theatres, school tours and national touring. His past work includes working as the youth theatre director for Nacro, the national crime reduction charity, before establishing Zest Theatre in 2007. We chatted to Toby to find out more about Youthquake and how it came to be.

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We Deserve Better - Letting Young People speak for themselves

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We Deserve Better - Letting Young People speak for themselves

Our second week of Youthquake research and development brought us to Hartlepool. The young people in Hartlepool had a strong sense that the system is stacked against them and apathetic to their needs. Within these stories, however, there was a determination that the narrative of deprivation in Hartlepool would not be an endless cycle. Not all young people want to leave their home city for something better – they wanted to solve the problems and change their home for the better.

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How To Start A Youthquake?

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How To Start A Youthquake?

Catch up on our first week of Youthquake Research and Development, as the Zest Creative Team headed to Norwich and Lincoln to delve into the lives and minds of teen Britain. We were excited. We were nervous. There’s nothing quite like starting to write a new show. The possibilities of what you could create are almost endless. At the end of R&D phase, the blank white page you started with is full of stories, all crafted together to make a proper script.

But where do we start?

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Keys For Change: Unlocking Unheard Voices

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Keys For Change: Unlocking Unheard Voices

What do we do when all our artistic experience and knowledge is challenged? On a recent participation project, Zest had to rethink everything they knew about making theatre, shaking the foundations of their process to its' core. What we discovered about ourselves and our participants has changed our practice for the better.

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Post Traumatic Growth - the psychology behind Thrive

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Post Traumatic Growth - the psychology behind Thrive

For the last twenty years or so, psychologists have studied the incredible strength of character that can emerge in a minority of people when they face painful events. Twenty years of research tells us that these events needn’t destroy us – in some cases, they can make us stronger. Some people become wiser, others kinder, others more connected. Pain develops people in all kinds of ways. This field of research is called Post Traumatic Growth, and forms the basis of the psychology surrounding the characters in Thrive.

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Interview: Dan Morgan - Life On the Road

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Interview: Dan Morgan - Life On the Road

You can wake up in one city, deliver a workshop in another and do an evening performance in another before heading back to another hotel. Most of the work I have done has been for young people and it isn’t unusual to engage with over 500 people in a day. A lot of the time, we take theatre to people that may never have experienced it before and it’s great to hear their stories when you chat to them afterwards and see how they connected with the work. For me, that’s a pretty powerful feeling.

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Stripping Away the Actor’s Ego – performing immersive theatre for young audiences

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Stripping Away the Actor’s Ego – performing immersive theatre for young audiences

As an actor, I’ve been very comfortable with immersive theatre for a while. In 2014 I took an immersive one-on-one piece (one performer, one audience member) to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And I performed it a lot. I’m talking 5 hours a day, 6 days a week for a whole month. Audiences laughed with me, cried with me, shared food with me. One person even asked me out on date. (I didn’t realise it was actually a date until I was on it – yep, that was awkward.) I was pretty sure I’d totally sussed out the immersive theatre vibe and nothing could throw me. But of course, immersive theatre with younger audiences is a whole different game.

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Understanding Difference - a look back on the R&D for Zest's 2017 production

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Understanding Difference - a look back on the R&D for Zest's 2017 production

Living in Britain, it could be hard to imagine growing up in a country like Australia. Over time you realise people make judgements about you based on where you’re from before getting to know you. For some, the questions (and the judgements) are far worse than “do you have a pet kangaroo?”

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Learning to Listen - my experience of making Zest's new show

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Learning to Listen - my experience of making Zest's new show

How do you react to someone who thinks completely unlike you? It turns out that joining an R&D process for a show about difference, otherness and broken communities was the perfect opportunity for me to learn how to listen.

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In Safe Hands - some thoughts on the next generation and the future of Britain

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In Safe Hands - some thoughts on the next generation and the future of Britain

Last week saw us begin the process of making a brand new show. A show about difference and how the fear of those ‘other’ to us can spill into hate. And what a week we chose to begin that process.

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6 Ways to Thrive When You Feel Low

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6 Ways to Thrive When You Feel Low

Our current touring production Thrive follows 3 young people as they face a pretty challenging experience. This is particularly traumatic for our characters, but we all go through times where we feel down, stressed or angry – it’s part of human nature. To mark World Mental Health Day, we asked some of our young people and staff what they do to to help them Thrive and stop them feeling down; here's some of their top tips!

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Thrive - Frequently Asked Questions

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Thrive - Frequently Asked Questions

Zest makes work that is often described as interactive, immersive, site-specific or promenade. Because our shows are a bit different, audiences can sometimes have lots of questions or feeling wary about coming. With the Thrive tour just around the corner, here are some of the frequently asked questions about Thrive to help you get the most from the experience.

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