Class Act – March featured work from Firrhill High School, Craigroyston High School, Tynecastle High School, Leith Academy as well as Intercultural Youth Scotland

Class Act Ukraine in Scotland 2024 – Tickets: £5.00 (Con. available)

Nurturing talents and unlocking potential for sixty years has been a core ethos for the Traverse Theatre. While many talented new and returning writers frequent its stages with a variety of shows, it is their flagship education project, Class Act, that encourages the creative potential of future generations of young people – not solely in preparing them for a career in the arts, but to facilitate inspiration, insight, and confidence in everyday avenues.

We were lucky enough to attend the March showcase of the group’s works with children all over Edinburgh. Within the current iteration of Class Act, they have been working with City of Edinburgh Council schools: Firrhill High School, Craigroyston High School, Tynecastle High School, Leith Academy as well as Intercultural Youth Scotland to come together in a life-affirming celebration of performance and one another. Each group works with a dedicated facilitator to work with them to realise these creative ideas to the fullest and allows young people to be inspired and work with some of Scotland’s most exciting creatives and performers. 

Culminating in a showcase, where each of the scripts is brought to life in a production of the collective work, some in tandem or connected, others entirely of their autonomy within the grander narrative, each is an exhibition of the skills the young people have garnered in working with some of Scotland’s leading playwrights and creatives.

Hosted under the charming and welcoming control of Trav Class Act Director Robbie Gordon, an evening of some impeccable humour, ruthlessly dark thrillers, and even some terrifically produced video productions from the brilliant Interabang!? (including a fantastic battle of the divas Taylor Swift and Beyoncé via their biggest fans). From the off, the level of skill and thought which has gone into this evening is remarkable and an encouraging sign of great things to come. Armed with a spotlight, a criminal, and a recurring skit which always ends in a grizzly manner, Class Act unleashes mad scientists, farmers, families, class-mates and thieves, all while raising questions of isolation and agism under the watchful gaze of our second host this evening, who has a bit of divine motivation to them. 

There is no single soul in the creative world outside of the classroom who could extract such intense hilarity and camaraderie from a singing bovine. And that’s a tiny fraction of what is on offer in an enormous project packed with fabulously creative and outspoken moments, which demonstrates not only the success of Class Act but the importance of schemes and projects such as this. There is no limitation to the voices of these young people, no matter how ludicrously fantastical the idea may be or how truthful and cutting the themes of sexuality, death, and racism may find themselves. There are no markers or invigilators making calls on the quality or merit of their pieces: they merely exist as an expression from talented young people across Scotland.

So, what next? Working with the University of Edinburgh, the Traverse has been hosting an intensive week-long variation of the flagship educational project, working with Ukrainian young people living in Scotland: with participants coming from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Falkirk, Hamilton, Stirling, Motherwell, and Peebles. These young people aged 11 – 19, have spent the past five days devising their ideas into scripts with acclaimed Class Act alumni facilitators Nicola McCartney, Sara Shaarawi, and Natalya Vorozhbyt, working towards two special performances for audiences on April 13th in the Traverse Theatre. 

Returning to direct, Gordon has with them a supremely dedicated and talented bunch of performed to bring the words from these young people to life, including Maureen Beattie, Dmitry Everdeen, Michael Dylan, Matthew Zajac, Vera Graziadei, Cindy Awor and Charlotte Driessler. As any who caught the March showcase can attest, the open and expressive space for reflection and guidance is enormously beneficial. And now, for these experiences with the present context, this special edition of the Class Act allows them the space for reflection (if they so choose) or the opportunity to craft something about anything with the freedom of articulation firmly within their hands.

This remarkable scheme possesses a vital power. One which can transform students into storytellers without concern for inhibition or restriction. The Class Act Project encourages stories they feel passionately need to be told or just the ones they want to share with the world. It’s an opportunity to look towards a potential future in storytelling and creative arts, and at the very least, a way to nurture confidence and form skills that they can carry into any avenue of life. We don’t think there’s any finer objective than that, and if you can be entertained or laugh, maybe shed a tear because of it. Well, all the better.

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