mhya’s footlights previews their original piece of theatre this coming weekend.
Footlights, the senior group of the youth arts section of Merchistoun Hall, Horndean has been awarded a Awards 4 All grant of £6,529 to develop the self written production ‘Scrapbook’. This production sees young people tackling issues that are important to them around the subjects of mental health, alcohol, depression, anxiety & grief. Young people are often overlooked until it is too late. mhya members have recognised the signs and symptoms that can affect everyday life and are working together as a group to express this through the medium of performance.
The hope is to raise awareness of these problems and by seeking advice through networking with professional local services throughout this process that young people themselves can help make a difference and if that difference is made to just one other young person then the objective will have been achieved.
Devised by the group and written by local writer and director Christopher J Davey we hope that this production can tour locally over the next year and with thanks to the Big Lottery Fund this is now a reality! ‘The Big Lottery Fund distributes half of the National Lottery good cause funding across the UK. The Fund aims to enable others to make real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need’.
Chair of the Section Becky Davey said on reciept of the grant “usually we run on very limited funding so it’s really exciting for us to have been granted some money it’s helped to focus and giving everyone a bit of excitement, to move on to bigger and better things”
Moving forward we hope to look for sponsors of the mhya programme and help us in our quest to get more young people involved in the performing arts. Who knows where this project may lead us.
For more information on the whole of the youth arts programme please contact youtharts@merchistounhall.co.uk
