Impact Report 2022-2023

18 ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD

OX2 Collective OX2 Collective is a youth theatre running in partnership between The North Wall and St Edward’s School. The company included nine young people from The North Wall’s

Feedback from participants Has the experience had an impact on you? • Helped me understand drama and theatre work in a more professional context and understand the values of my talent. • I am so happy I got to meet so many more new people and proud to call all of them my friends outside of school. And even people who were from Teddies I felt closer to, as we had time to bond and share our interests for theatre. What skills have you developed since being part of OX2 Collective? • Confidence, public speaking, knowing my worth. • Speech projection and clarity, confidence and learning to play a character very different to myself. What are your thoughts on the group dynamic of 50% St Edward’s pupils and 50% North Wall participants? • It’s so cool working with people older than me and seeing everyone else’s talent, it’s really inspiring. • I love the mixture and diversity; I feel like I’ve made lifelong friends and it was amazing to socialise with people in and outside of the school that I may never have met otherwise. Also, The North wall is the perfect venue in collaboration with the school to provide all the services needed during the period. Feedback from parents/ carers Has the experience had an impact on your child? • My child can struggle socially sometimes. This project helps her hugely with her confidence, with feeling included and with feeling like she has a place she wants to be and will be liked for who she is. • Yes, she has benefitted from all she has learned on this journey and from being able to do so in a professional workspace with such creative tutors. It has strengthened her love of acting.

YouthLab programmes and eight pupils from St Edward’s School, who together worked towards a production of Strangers Like Me by Ed Harris, which was performed at The North Wall as part of the National Theatre Connections festival in April 2023. The company started their regular 90-minute sessions in September, which ran weekly during term time. The first few weeks focused on forming the company and building a good group dynamic. Towards the latter half of the Autumn Term the group started to unpick the play text and explore the characters in the play. Rehearsals officially started in January 2023, which gave the group around nine weeks (15 hours) to rehearse the play to a high performance standard. The group performed a ‘home performance’, which a director from the National Theatre attended who then gave feedback for the company to consider and implement ahead of the transfer to the festival.