ESC Project 11: Community Theatre Making

Crooked House is a theatre-making organisation established in 1993 in Newbridge in County Kildare, Ireland. We make theatre with, for and by young people from the ages of 11 to 24. Participation in all our activities is free and open to anyone. Our work is inspired by tolerance, equality, social justice, compassion, and empathy. We aim to create theatre that is ambitious, challenging, aesthetically engaging, and relevant to our audiences. Our activities include weekly drama workshops, rehearsals and performances of plays; devising and making new performances; actor-training; research into theatre and young people; and international youth theatre projects. We run a small space in Newbridge where we work with over 100 young people weekly. We also travel to schools and youth projects in County Kildare every week to run free theatre programmes with young people. We have collaborated with European theatres since 2002 to develop educational and performance projects with groups of multi-cultural young people. We train young drama facilitators and leaders to work with youth groups on themes of social justice, equality, and human rights, wellbeing, and democratic processes. These themes are expressed through theatre workshops, devised performances, and plays. This work aims to promote positive mental health; increase citizenship abilities; promote equality and develop critical thinking.