From 2009 to 2010, I facilitated the collaborative Voices for Change programme at the Barbican Theatre, an integrated group of young people, youth workers and performers form diverse backgrounds, who wanted to use theatre to make a positive impact on their community’s multicultural future.

In the traditionally ‘White-British’ context of Plymouth, England, the arrival of migrants from around the world was challenging local concepts of cultural identity and belonging. The theater provided us with a safe space to exchange stories, creatively expressing and responding to personal experiences of social exclusion. We devised and delivered a participatory performance intervention for secondary schools, From One Extreme to the Other, challenging racism and encouraging peer-led dialogue around questions of being ‘normal’ or ‘different’.

More documentation: Voices for Change Summary

This practical project was the basis for by MA Dissertation in Devised Theatre at Dartington College of Arts:

Sarah Ashford Hart (2010) Voices for (ex)Change: performing dialogues of belonging to decanter racist narratives. Dissertation for Master of Arts in Devised Theatre, Dartington College of Arts.