Theatre group wants kids to get in on the act
PACE’s Jenni says Fest! has something for everyone
A great summer of theatre is in store for young people in Paisley.
Everyone from age three to 21 can get involved in PACE Theatre Company’s Fest!
There will be everything from musical theatre to serious drama for them to get involved in the town from June 28 to August 11.
And at the helm is PACE’s new artistic director Jenni Mason, who took up her post in March.
It has been a homecoming for the 38- year- old Houston woman.
“I was with PACE for a long time before,” she said.
“It was with PACE for I think nearly 17 years, from just after I graduated in 2000, and I left at the end of 2016 to go to the Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT).
“I had various jobs throughout my time with PACE and latterly, I was director of projects, so I had worked in a lot of the film and theatre projects that were sort of commissioned pieces because I do a lot of writing as well.
“It’s brilliant to be back, to be honest.
“I really missed it. I had a great year at SYT, learned lots but I did miss PACE and I missed working in Paisley and the creative community that we’ve got here.
“It’s an exciting time to be in Paisley in the creative industries because there’s a lot happening.”
As for Fest!, Jenni hopes there are lots of highlights that will attract young people over the summer.
“The aim was to create a varied programme that would appeal to a huge variety of young people,” she said.
“So whatever young people are interested in, we hope we’ve got something that they’ll want to do.
“For instance, they might be interested in devised theatre, new work.
“We’ve got various things from new writing projects like Rebel Girls.
“That is a new piece I’m working on, which commemorates the time since women got the right to vote.
“We’ve got Dystopia, which is a devised piece.
“We got Les Miserables, a play with music.
“And we’re also very excited that we’ve got a company called Frantic Assembly coming up.
“They’re a fabulous physical theatre company.
“They’re coming up to do a one-day, six-hour session with young people and that’s going to inspire a physical theatre performance.
“We want to expose our young people to the best that we can.
“We want to get them to work with loads of different people, and we are looking at expanding the artists that we work with and the practitioners that we work with so that we can offer them the very best experiences.”
Anyone can tale part in ‘Fest!’ and not just PACE members.
“It’s for anybody and we are as inclusive as we can be and offer support to a range of young people,” Jenni said.
“I think we are reasonably competitive.
“If any young people have financial worries we offer concessionary places, 50 per cent discounts and full bursaries.
“And we are happy to answer any questions about that.
“We do not want young people to not come through the door because finance is a barrier.”
And Jenni added: “We believe that we’ve got a really interesting, varied, exciting programme that’s different really from any thing else that’s going on in the UK.
“We all believe in the power of creativity.
“We believe that the arts can and do transform young lives and that summer’s a brilliant way to get young people excited by the arts.” ● To get involved with ‘ Fest!’, call 0345 130 5218 or visit www. pacetheatre.com