Harrow Club
The Gate Theatre and the Harrow Club are working together to provide weekly drama workshops for local young people aged 8-19. At it’s heart this partnerships exists to make theatre more accessible to young people working with exciting guest artists and a professional creative team that culminates in an end of year production on the Gate stage.
Each term is focused on a specific theme or idea. Our guiding principle is that the young participants should feel ownership of the programme and the workshops are fun. We create this programme through repsonding to the young people involved and their interests. The 18/19 project ended with the show Rumble by Yasmin Joseph written especially for the group.
Two additional strands of activity, Page to Stage and tickets for shows, further complement the programme.
Past Open Gate Projects
Harambee
‘Harambee’ (meaning ‘coming together’ in Swahili) is a project created by our Young Associates in collaboration with members of the Notting Hill, Ladbroke Grove and surrounding community. Inspired by the rich stories from our area it shines a light on a vital political history which has often been of national importance. From Notting Hill Carnival to the Mangrove 9 and Michael X, many significant moments in recent British history happened on the doorstep of the Gate Theatre.
This intergenerational exchange between our Young Company and older community members, has gathered an audio archive that captures and celebrates the story of the community.
This project is supported by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Arts Grants Scheme.
Fun Palaces
If you haven’t heard of Fun Palaces, here’s where to find out more!
On the 7 October 2018, we built our Fun Palace at the Gate Theatre. Led by local people, for local people, it was a place to come together, make together, break bread together and celebrate the rich diversity of our community.
The idea of Fun Palaces was first sparked in the early 1960’s by Joan Littlewood and Cedric Price they envisaged a local building that would be a home to the arts and sciences, open and welcoming to all. One thing led to another, and for many reasons in 1961, the Fun Palace building that they had conceived did not come into fruition.
Fast forward to 2013, where Fun Palaces as we know it today was created by co-directors Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rowlings and producers Hannah Lambert and Kirsty Lothian. At it’s core it is an ongoing campaign for cultural democracy with an annual weekend of action every October.
We will announce our 2019 Fun Palace and details of how to be involved soon.
Future Kitchen
Future Kitchen is an attempt to radically imagine possibilities for the community we live in through the form of recipes. It is a project developed by the Gate Theatre’s Young Associates, with direction from theatre director, Lynette Linton.
The performance builds on the form of a TV-style cooking show, providing space for the audience to invent their own recipes for change.The idea is based on the work of German installation artist, Folke Kobberling, who’s project, Transit Kitchen, was an inspiration for us.
The first outing for the Future Kitchen was on 27 May 2017 at Portobello Market for New Youthquake.
