Nurturing young talent: The Royal Court rehearsed readings

February 24th’s readings marked the culmination of the work that Director John Tiffany and Open Court have been doing with Chelsea Academy since 2019, when they began working with the schools Year 9 GCSE class. Led by John, each student worked towards creating a short play that would be performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 2020. Unfortunately, this was not possible due to COVID, although work with the class continued online.

In 2022 the group are now in their final GCSE year and fast approaching the end of their time at Chelsea Academy. As schools re-opened last year John, along with Ellie Fulcher, continued working with the group, developing their writing. These readings were about finding an opportunity to celebrate the brilliant work the group have engaged with over the past 3 years, and to hear their plays performed before they leave the school this summer. 

The 12 students produced a brilliant script each of between 5-10 mins long, which John Tiffany directed a company of 8 actors, including me, reading in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

The plays were performed in front of a live audience of the students, their families and teaching staff, and I was blown away by their humour, imagination, empathy and insight. It was a real pleasure to see the kids see themselves as writers, and have their voices respected and creative vision honoured. Projects like this are all the more important in the wake of vicious cuts to arts education and the deprivation of resources in state education more broadly.

ACTORS

Ronke Adekoluejo

Isabel Adomakoh Young

Aysha Kala

Leila Ayad

Jonathan Ajayi

Camille Mallet De Chauny

Elliot Edusah

Taheen Modak

CREATIVES
John Tiffany - Director

Ellie Fulcher - Royal Court Participation Facilitator

Vishni Velada Billson - Director of Open Court