Welcome to the TheatreSpace Project... “Imagine what this would have been like if it wasn’t any good”

The lights brighten into interval, movement and chatter. I mark the end of a row of students. Sitting in the balcony we look down, through the lighting rig, onto the other audience members; some hurrying towards exits, others chatting, stretching, reading programs, some young, some middle-aged, a few grey hairs. The boys next to me make eye contact with the group of girls they had spied when they first sat down. After a moment, I hear one of them ask the others, noticing the rapidly draining auditorium, “What’s going on? What do we do now?”

In another city, young people stand comfortably in a foyer with a view, next to adults with drinks in their hands. One flicks through a glossy program. Another ambles in the direction of the toilets, taking in the cast photos on the way. The bells sound and they instinctively reach for their tickets. A group of students in uniform tumble into the foyer at the sounding of the second bell. The teacher herds them in the direction of the ushers who prepare to ‘de-bag’ them before they can make their way through the doors and into the darkness beyond. One young person is overhead telling her girlfriend in the toilets at post performance, “imagine what this would have been like if it wasn’t any good."

"To date, the research team has surveyed well over 1,500 young people between the ages of 14-30. Researchers have also conducted over 500 interviews with young people, teachers and key stakeholders."