A student has used his degree project to bring young people from two youth groups together through a culture exchange project.
Kyle Collingwood, an Applied Drama student from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David devised and delivered an innovative Final Project for the end of his undergraduate degree where he worked with two youth groups in Carmarthenshire to facilitate a culture exchange project that resulted in a creative sharing and connection making event at Yr Egin on the Carmarthen Campus.
These were both organisations that Kyle has worked and volunteered with during his time as an undergraduate at UWTSD, and he had built up excellent relationships with both organisations and their directors.
Over two months Kyle ran weekly sessions in both youth groups, where participants curated a ‘culture box’ of items to share with the other organisation. Using these items, the groups were then tasked with devising a piece of drama to showcase at the final session, where they would come together. The scenes would reflect what they felt these items symbolised to the group that owned them.
Many of the young people involved had never done drama before they worked with Kyle, so he was not only creating a brave and safe space to explore specific youth cultures but also working with the young people to build their confidence and self-esteem.
Both groups decided to create a short film to show to the other group. The scenes were all based on the items in the boxes. The project culminated in an evening event at Yr Egin that was supported by the UWTSD Widening Access team. The groups met each other for the first time, played drama games and exercises together, shared their films and every young person was presented with an award for their contribution to the project.
Eleanor Shaw, Creative and Business Director at People Speak Up said:
“We found this project so beneficial for both our young people and for us as an organisation. Our young people were totally engaged with the project, and Kyle was electrifying as a facilitator – you could really see the skills that he learnt on his applied drama degree shine through. We are also in full support of creating opportunities for students to practice their work in a real-life situation, it’s the best place to learn. We have total respect and gratitude for Ali Franks at UWTSD, in training our future workforce in the fast growth arts and health sector.”
Ali Franks, Programme Manager MA Applied Theatre: Community, Education, Wellbeing at UWTSD, added:
“Kyle’s ability to build relationships was key here. Both organisations have offered Kyle work as a result of this and the young people have been hugely impacted by his empathy, compassion and creativity. We are looking forward to many more community projects like this as we launch our new MA Applied Theatre: Community, Education, Wellbeing this September, which we are proud to say is the first MA Applied Theatre coursein Wales.”
