Earlier in 2023, Youth Shedz Cymru was approached by the Historic Environment Team of Welsh Government’s Lifelong Learning Department. They wanted to see if we had young people interested in working with Janys Chambers ( a freelance writer and director) to produce some work for CADW.
We got to work, asking which of our young people might be interested, and ended up with 10 youngsters in Llandudno Junction, and 5 in Blaenau Ffestiniog who showed a real interest in storytelling. Abergele Youth Shed also took part.
The theme was “Myths & Legends of Wales - YouthShedz Style!” A number of weeks were spent telling stories, with a bit of acting, creating monologues and having some fun with words and language! After hearing a specific myth ( Beddgelert for Junction and Cantre’s Gwaelod for the Blaenau bunch), the young people discussed the story and the characters, and then rewrote the story in their own words.
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Janys brought her expertise in and spent time pulling together a script, and then, over a number of sessions,she directed the groups to record them telling the stories with a sound technician creating their own studio to work in!
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After a lot of pizza, drinks, some games of Uno, a litter pick, and drawing characters to pass the time between recordings, we completed the first phase of this project at the beginning of May.
By the end of Summer, our recordings were ready and we were treated to a CADW day out in Plas Mawr in Conwy to listen to the stories, plus had the pleasure of the Mayor and our fave PCSO, Bev Owen, attending the "premier" listening at Junction - an amazing experience for all involved! In 2024, we are having a trip to Beddgelert to look at the grave and sneak a hot chocolate in too, and hope we can do more projects like this!
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Here are a couple of comments:
“This has been so good to step out of my life and get into the head of a character - I am buzzing doing this, I love it!” M, aged 22, Blaenau Ffestiniog
“I love YouthShedz, its not just about sports, but gives me a chance to try different things like drama and craft” E, aged 12, Llandudno Junction
And from Janys
“This project has shown us that ‘process is more important than product’. We have seen some youngsters with real challenges grow in confidence and seeing them stand still and get involved in recording has been amazing. I hope the end product reflects their commitment and hard work”.
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We always strive for YouthShedz to be an inclusive and safe place, where young people can try new things and find something that they get excited about. This experience has been a great opportunity to see some of our younger members build confidence in reading, writing and speaking, and really having fun.Not only that, but one of our young people is now passionate about looking at Creative Studies in college
Look out for an update!
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