Previously On Adventures in Leaning…. A glimpse into KIT’s Sequel Projects

This year KIT has worked with local families to unleash Robot labyrinths in Brent Libraries, conjure plays in a day in Thurrock and create wordless story-soundscapes in Harlow.These are all Sequel Projects, vital elements of our Bridge Adventure Programme, which is designed to use immersive theatre and creative development workshops to forge creative communities comprising Young People, their families, their schools and local community arts venues. KIT’s Theory is that Bridge Adventures can reach all kinds of Young People in schools and connect them with their local community arts venues through immersive theatre missions (staging undercover climate festivals, helping unexpectedly conscious robot teachers etc). Sequel Projects build on the positive experience young people have at venues during the first adventure, and invite their families along to explore their creativity. This year has given us Proof of Concept for our Sequel Projects, with a total of 291 people from culturally underserved communities in Brent, Harlow and Thurrock participating, and many Young People stating that their emotional connection with our stories and characters was a key factor in their participation.

“He was really nervous this morning about coming along but he didn’t want to let Charlie down… The project has had such an impact on their whole class. I was in the audience and thought it was great.” 

Parent describing her son’s character-driven motivation to participate. 

The Lost Musician Sequel: Photo by Charles Oni

This Year’s Sequel Projects were:

LeX at The Library [Brent Libraries]: Young People were invited by Agents of GOAT (the legendary Government Office of Aspirational Technology) to combine their coding skills and creativity to improve the storytelling capabilities of LeX, the world’s first robot teacher/librarian. Young People worked with our facilitators to create Dungeons and Dragons-style adventures built around a labyrinth, and then coded their robot friend LeX to navigate the labyrinth and evade the dastardly hazards they’d conjured with their imaginations and built alongside KIT’s makers. The session ended with a tense performance, where LeX’s coding was locked in and we sat back to watch whether she safely made it through the labyrinth…or not.

Classbot Sequel: Photo by Eleanor Pead

"I would like to work on again adventures like this because then we understand more about coding and also, like, it feels like we're actually in an adventure because it's like a lot of things happen in the story, and I think we should do like more activities like this…" Young Participant 1

[Joins in] "and you can see like real things that is happening!" Young Participant 2

"I felt a bit impressed because all of us just, you know, programmed a robot." Young Participant

The Lost Musician [Harlow Playhouse]: Young People and their families were reunited with Charlie, the ageing, mostly silent, but extremely gifted composer who they’d previously helped rediscover his love of music. This time they worked with Charlie and KIT’s team of actors, musicians and beatboxers to create a piece of music which told a vivid story… using music, rather than words.

“Our favourite part was the beatboxing and making an original story” Young Person.

75% of participants said they felt “very connected” to Harlow Playhouse after taking part in the activity and 100% said they would be interested in more activities like this.

The Lost Musician Sequel: Photo by Charles Oni

Musical In a Day and Skills workshops [Thurrock Thameside Theatre]: Working with our partners, START Thurrock, we hosted an exciting range of activities as part of their Green Light Program. Young People were reunited with Jem, a singer they’d previously taught how to sing again (after she fell in the shower and completely forgot her songstress skills). Our Thameside sessions included Young People creating musical plays in a day (covering such important topics as how to access Underwater Octopus-Robot Laboratories) and families working together to develop their beatboxing and storytelling skills alongside KIT’s artists.

Our Thurrock Sequels showcased how the programme forges connections between young people and their local community venue:

94% of YP would like to return to the theatre

49% 1st time visiting Thameside

68% 1st time performing on Thameside stage

43% 1st time performing on any stage

The Lost Voice Sequel: Photo by Charles Oni

EnviroTakeover [Thurrock Thameside Theatre]: Later this year, we plan to level up our Sequel Project ambition by working alongside a landscape gardening team and KIT’s facilitators to reclaim an overgrown outdoors performance space outside Thurrock Thameside, with young people and their families working first to build a community garden, and then “christen” it with a mini-festival of performances.

This amphitheatre project reflects the vision at the heart of our Bridge/Sequel programme: to use Young People’s proven connection with our characters and story worlds to create a legacy of a real-life creative community, with young people, their families, their schools and arts venues all collaborating to create future community-driven together. 

It's been immensely rewarding to start building these relationships through the success of our Sequel Projects this year. We've loved meeting local communities and helping them connect with the arts and cultural offers that surround them.

The final stage of our programme, designed to cement this legacy, will be follow up programme development alongside partner venues, shaped alongside Young People, where we lay foundations to ensure that the connections we’ve forged are sustained into the future with Young People and their families empowered to take the creative lead in future creative adventures.

If you or your young associates are in Brent, Thurrock or Harlow, please drop us a line at info@kittheatre.org to be kept up to date on upcoming Bridge and Sequel Opportunities.