CHOKKA has arrived! Our beat infused audio play by Luke Barnes and 20SH Youth Theatre. Directed by Nathan Powell. Produced in association with Unedited

Back in October last year, our youth theatre gang started work on a play with Luke Barnes, due to be premiered at the Unity Theatre in July. However after the Covid-19 crisis prevented the staging of the show, the group began to experiment with new ways of working remotely, and started to create a series of podcasts. With some help from the audio company Unedited: we are proud to release the fruits of this collaboration!

With original beats, flowing melodies and poetry to stretch your mind and heart. CHOKKA follows the journey of 16-year-old Jem who is coming to terms with the world around them. How they fit into a community in which they feel other and what happens when love punches them in the gut.

20 Stories High youth theatre each give their own voice to Jem as well as weaving in their own personal reflections on love, jealousy, depression and friendship.

LISTEN NOW 

Luke Barnes – Writer

Theatre has traditionally been hung up on the idea of a principal artistic genius – be it director or writer – who we’ve relied on to dissect our world and put it on stage. But how can one person speak for us all, and represent lives of which they have no experience? In the coming years, it’s vital we think of ourselves as enablers of conversation through Art, and that through theatre we enable communities to lead dialogue in the hope of moving forward as a society.

With this in mind, I feel privileged to work with 20 Stories High Youth Theatre. Not to capture a world and offer solutions, but to listen to what these exceptional young people wanted to talk about for the good of each other and their community and make it into a piece of theatre – or, as events have turned out, a series of audio plays! I am impressed by the resilience and perseverance of the group in bringing to audiences the play we created together and look forward to sharing it.

Rosie – 20 Stories High Youth Theatre Member

It’s been fun and engaging to find ways to develop our play interactively even though we couldn’t meet in person. Luke has created a thought-provoking storyline through a great collaborative process integrating pieces that we’ve written and we’re proud that our voices can be heard in this way. I am excited that we’ve found a way to bring this play to audiences as an audio play, and it’s been a real experience to learn about podcasts and see how amazing Unedited make our performance sound!

Nathan Powell – director

This is an extremely exciting journey for us to be going on as a Youth Theatre. It is a new way of working and an opportunity to make a piece that can reach far further than we originally imagined. Working with the young people and Luke has been a really special and collaborative process and we can’t wait to share what we create.

Suitable for ages 13 plus – Contains themes of mental health and strong language.

Accessible text transcript available at: https://bit.ly/36j7Xdx

Accessible visual transcript available at: https://bit.ly/2SvYbwF