Orange Polar Bear was created through a great deal of involvement with teenagers, both in Seoul and Birmingham, from beginning to end. This happened because it is a key element of the avowed approach of the principal builder of the partnership, Hanyong Theatre Company, and so was a 'given' for this project. This page explores the way this was approached, and the impact and potential benefits of this approach in a cross-cultural collaboration.
13 Korean and 14 British teenagers formed the initial groups involved in Orange Polar Bear, and the very first stages were a series of workshops with these two groups. Led by Kim Mijeong in Korea, and by Dan Tyler and Lorna Laidlaw in the UK, they worked closely with Peter Wynne-Willson as Director, and with the two writers from the start. So a two-way process was set up from the beginning, with the writers involved in decisions about provocations and starting points for drama work, and the two groups aware that their every thought and idea and action was contributing to the development of a play.
Early in this process, the two groups also exchanged ideas, as can be seen in the compilation video put together by the Korean research team [Link to video] and in the Korean publication of this process. After several months of these workshops, three out of the British group were taken over to Seoul to work with the Koreans on the initial improvised drama - Jiyoung and William.
In her chapter about the Orange Polar Bear process, Professor Choi Young Ai examines the specific Korean concept of 'Jung I Byeong' - which literally means 'Year 9 disease' - 'the social characteristics of 14-15 year olds in Korea, which include rapid physical changes, emotional turmoil and heirarchical power relationships between peers' [Choi 2017, p. 41] This very Korean concept was a starting point for the exploration with the teenagers in both countries, and through extended drama and other exercises, a detailed picture was built up of the similarities and differences between the lives and issues of 14-15 year olds in the UK and Korea. Choi goes on to explore the way that taking part in the drama involving teenagers meeting each other and working together had particular value for their relationships, and their own self-understanding. This is reflected in the accounts of their involvement given by the UK group. But this same process was also an extremely rich source material for the writers of Orange Polar Bear, and the response of teenage audiences to the final play indicates that the whole project gained substantially from the depth of involvement of these young people, by reflecting closely the preoccupations and ideas expressed within these exploratory workshops. We have observed [in the page in this exposition around language] that the 'relatability' of the final piece was a crucial part in the level of engagement of young audiences both in Seoul and Birmingham, and this was achieved to a great extent by the committed and substantial involvement of these two groups.
Building on the child-led approach of the previous Hanyong projects, the company took the input of the teenage advisors seriously at all points of the process, so that even in the final stages of rehearsal, showings were arranged for them, and their comments fed back into the rehearsal process. This input took a number of forms. There is the obvious area of expertise, where teenagers were explaining their frames of reference, and helping with accuracy in all aspects of the world and characters presented - from clothes and music choice to language and attitude. But there was also philosophy and world view, and plenty of intelligent and inciteful theatrical suggestions too. Openness to the potential value of every young contribution was an important commitment. All sessions were filmed, notes were kept fully, every sketch and mind map was photographed and archived. After the 2014 Summer workshop, the NTCK produced a properly printed book [See image - NTCK 2014] detailing every aspect of the contribution made by the young people to that point. Link to whole publication The principles established on earlier less-resourced projects were very fully seen-through in this project with well-funded partners and it was clear from the production values of this publication that the role of these groups was being valued. It is certainly rare in the UK to see this kind of financial commitment being made to the dissemination of young people's contribution to a research process and it certainly appeared to make a difference to the way that process was viewed.
Within the full record in this booklet, published later in 2014, many of the preoccupations of the final play are already in evidence, and they can be seen to have come very directly from this stage of the process. You can also see in the document images that were introduced as provocations by Evan and by Sun Duck - so the process was an organic one in which the writers and director also made inputs, but they were listening, discussing, absorbing and reflecting on the work of their young 'advisors', and that had a major impact on the content of the final piece.
It was not only in the content of the play that the teenagers played a leading role. They also exemplified the process of working together across cultures. As Ko Sun Duck relates, 'The Korean and British young participants who met each other during our project were much quicker [than the writers] to dissolve boundaries. I hope the energy of these teenagers, represented through the characters of William and Jiyoung, and their ability to reach out to each other and connect, inspires our audiences as the young people in our project inspired us.' [Birmingham Repertory Theatre 2018]. The fact of this building of relationships going on as part of the process, was itself an element in the devising of the play, and the recognition of an intrinsically positive process is also discernible in the audience responses to the final piece. So the adults in the rehearsal room watched and discussed the way the young 'company' built its relationships and communicated, and this became part of the story. We followed the advise of the children leading our previous project - we "ate together and played together and then we were friends". [See the Interview for further details of this aspect of Looking for Yogurt] This process was then clear in the atmosphere around the production, and was picked up as positive by the audience, and became part of the 'story' of Orange Polar Bear.
The close involvement of teenagers in the research and development stages, and the committed valuing of that involvement, were critical then, not simply in making the content accurate and recognisable for the teenage audience, but also in giving the project a wider value and meaning. This aspect is not a token nod to access, or a generous act of charity, it is a sensible strenghthening of the artistic process itself, and gateway to deeper understanding and meaning in the drama.
References:
Choi Y.A (2018) The Third Space: Inter-cultural Youth Performance as a Catalyst for Change. In: Etheridge Woodson S, Underiner T eds. Theatre, Performance and Change [Palgrave MacMillan] pp. 39-46
Ko, S D (2018) Orange Polar Bear Programme Notes [Birmingham Repertory Theatre] p. 4
NTCK (2014) Jiyoung and William - Fifteen [Theatre for Young Audiences Research Centre]
