The Rebirth of Chrysalis Festival
Scotland's forward-thinking youth theatre festival returns, bigger and better, for a second year
Following their successful debut last year, Chrysalis Festival returns to the Traverse Theatre this month. Continuing its mission to showcase new work within the youth theatre scene, the three-day event places its focus squarely on new and unusual works by youth theatre companies.
Run by Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, the festival was set up to provide a platform for new and provocative performances, for and by young theatre makers. Creative Scotland funding has been secured, as has a three-year partnership with the Traverse, and it's only right that Youth Theatre Arts CEO Kenny McGlashan refers to Chrysalis as “an important new festival on the capital’s cultural calendar” – at present it remains the only festival of its kind in Scotland.
Starting with their expansion from two days to three, Chrysalis organisers are aiming to build on last year’s festival by bringing seven different youth theatre groups from across Europe to perform their work at the Traverse. Accordingly, you'll see acts hailing from both the UK, such as Deptford's Sounds Like Chaos and The Albany, and much further afield, like Malta Teatru Manoel, a theatre company from Malta. Naturally, there's also a variety of Scottish talent, with Glasgow's own Platform Young Company and the Tron Young Company taking pride of place on the line-up. This year, the plays are set to focus on themes of war, propaganda, gender roles, a post-apocalypse world, grief and physics.
One new addition for the 2016 festival is the creation of the Chrysalis Emergence strand, an exciting venture which will see three 20-minute (and highly experimental) pieces of work-in-progress performed by up-and-coming theatre makers, giving the audience a chance to see bold, unusual and extremely unique work from around the world. After viewing the pieces, the audience are welcome to contribute their thoughts and ideas about the future of each one.
For those who want to learn more about youth theatre, meanwhile, Chrysalis Too is set to run alongside the main performance programme, presenting a series of workshops and talks with a focus on new trends in contemporary youth theatre, and the challenges it currently faces.
With Edinburgh playing host to other festivals throughout the year, McGlashan is confident that Chrysalis Festival will not only help give new work a platform, but also add to Scotland’s already impressive reputation for quality theatre. “With the 12 main Edinburgh Festivals confirming that they attracted as many visitors as the World Cup,” he says, “the nation can be proud of its creative reputation around the world.
“But there are other important grass-roots festivals helping to push the vanguard of new work and activity year round in the city. Chrysalis joins a number of other mini-festivals that help to grow Scotland's reputation for innovative arts.”
Chrysalis Festival, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 18-Sun 20 Nov. Full details and ticket info can be found at traverse.co.uk