Celebrating 20 years of Freefalling

Written by Dominic Hedges, Freefalling Manager

Last Friday we celebrated 20 years of Freefalling. An extra special Freefalling Young Company Summer Project culminated in twelve young people presenting their most ambitious and accomplished performance yet. The audience were pulled into the unconscious of Lotte, an accomplished West End performer, whose opening night nerves send her dreaming through moments of her youth that shaped her, aided by a bipedal cat called Chester. The Young Company used acting, song, puppetry, silent film and voicing to weave the most wonderful tale of a young person finding their expression through creativity.

Almost all of the young people in the show had been with Freefalling for two years or more. Some of them I met when they were in Year 6, in my first year on the project. On Friday I watched them perform as young adults heading into college or sixth form. Watching their journeys from unsure and reticent ten year olds to commanding stage presences with the audience in the palm of their hand, was inspiring and humbling.

Despite setting the Young Company with their biggest show yet, both in scale and meaning, we made sure to never lose sight of what the project stands for. These young people are not only talented and theatrically switched on, but their generosity of spirit creates a close-knit team where inclusivity and social responsibility are prioritised over the drive for perfection. The quality of the performance on Friday is evidence that such an approach is not only possible, but essential to creating theatre full stop.

Polka Patron and long time supporter of the Freefalling Project, Jamael Westman, sent in a touching and astute speech about the impact that projects such as Freefalling had for him, especially being educated in a setting that didn’t particularly champion the creative arts or creativity in general. Hearing him recount his journey from a young performer benefitting from projects such as Freefalling to West End star of Hamilton eerily mirrored the exact plot of our show, and goes to show how important these projects are.

After the performance, three of Young Company, Beth, Lily and Elijah spoke about what Freefalling meant to them. Each of them talked, in their own way, about finding a version of themselves during the project that they may never have found anywhere else. They touched upon the friendships, confidence, and opportunities that have come from it.

Of course, Friday’s celebration started long before curtain up. Every department of Polka Theatre has been working for almost a year to bring together families, funders, teachers, counsellors, former participants and former staff who were around long before I arrived. The celebrations continued with food and drink and a chance to properly thank those who continuously support the project, from the adults who entrust their children to us, to the generous funders who make the project possible. It was particularly special to share notes with John McCraw (now head of Pegasus Theatre, Oxford), who led Freefalling for ten years and firmly established the project in Merton. There was a real sense of Freefalling’s influence over the years being in the room together.

Twenty years also feels like the right time to put something lasting in people’s hands. Over the past year I have been writing a book that will bring together the history of Freefalling, but more importantly, present twenty Freefalling sessions, ten from Foundation and ten from Young Company, that aim to present the practice and thinking behind the project and offer a practical resource for anybody who wants to run drama sessions with young people. This will be published through Routledge soon.

There are not enough words in the blog post to express how proud I am to be a part of Freefalling and Polka Theatre. I want to thank all of the practitioners who have assisted me in the room throughout the project, but particularly Aqiong Zhang, Catriona Malbaski and Melissa Berry, whose theatre knowledge took Friday’s performance from very good to world class.

Over the last twenty years, Freefalling have had 24 performances, over 380 young people join us, over 700 hours of workshops, and over 1100 cab trips for the young people who need them. To echo the words of many people last Friday, here’s to the next twenty.