Could you introduce yourself:
I am Darren Raymond. I head up Intermission Youth, a fresh and exciting theatre company working with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, translating Shakespeare in our own unique way.
We also have Intermission Theatre, led by our Graduates, and we do amazing community work in schools, prisons and PRUs.
Describe Excluded in 3 words.
Never seen before.
What is the premise of the play and what inspired this work, and why did you choose to combine some of Shakespeare’s most famous characters into this show?
The idea sprung from the young people's involvement in Shakespeare’s Walks and Shakespeare within the Abbey this year, a Shakespeare Globe production curated by Mark Rylance.
Actors performed scenes/monologues/sonnets from Shakespeare’s canon in the streets of London. So they were introduced to a number of different Shakespeare’s stories from very early on in the year.
During the rehearsals for Shakespeare’s Walks, I thought, “wouldn't it be great if some of these characters were in dialogue with each other? If Hamlet could speak to Macbeth, what would he say?”
You said: “I wanted to transplant some of Shakespeare’s characters into a school and see how they might have performed.” Explain more about the contrast between the 1500s and our contemporary education system.
I cannot tell you the contrast between the 1500’s education system and the education system now because, sadly, I do not know enough about the education system back then.
What I can say is that I doubt it has changed very much, from set up to execution. We still sit behind desks where information seems to be dictated rather than shared, the syllabus is rigid and the well-being of the students is often ignored in favour of driving results.
Many of the performers in Excluded have themselves been involved in school exclusions. How do you think this impacts the production?
Having direct experience as an actor of the issues you are exploring can be pretty powerful. It brings a huge amount of honesty into the rehearsal room and hopefully the play.
The conversations in the room are fascinating and therapeutic as many of them have never been given the space to speak about education and explore the impact that it has had/is having on their lives.
What do you hope this show will achieve?
I try not to have hopes for a production as we never know what will happen, but I’ll answer the question! I’m hoping the production holds a mirror up to parts of our education system and encourages us to continue fighting to protect the future of our young people, with them at the centre, leading our conversations and decisions.
Have any other artists inspired or influenced your artistic work?
This is going to be a really corny answer but it’s true... I believe we are all artists in our own right because we all create.
So, people inspire me. I love people. Every day I work on allowing myself to be open and affected by everyone and everything I’m lucky enough to encounter.
But my biggest inspiration, I would say, comes from God, the ultimate creator.
Did you face any particular challenges during the project?
We have a huge cast for this production, so I have split it into 2 separate casts and it’s still big!
The toughest challenge has been finding a way to accommodate so many actors in an intimate space and keep everyone’s spirits high, keep them engaged, keep the story alive, and to be sensitive to their emotions and feelings as the subject matter is close to home. But I have a wonderful team to help me with that.
We all care enormously for the young people on this programme and our first thought is to build them up to become the best versions of themselves. Everything else (including the production) comes after that!
Do you have any advice for young people interested in doing your kind of job?
I was very lucky. This industry found me rather than the other way around.
When I was younger, I never even heard of an Artistic Director. Now there are a few more Artistic Directors that represent people of colour and different genders.
My advice would be this: if you think you’re interested in doing this kind of work, come and see me. I’d be more than happy to share everything I know with you. If you don’t fancy that, email people and ask for 5 minutes of their time. They can only say no...which is harder to do these days because we are moving in the right direction of openness, sharing information and championing different routes into the artistic profession.
How can people find out more?
Our website tells you all about our work at Intermission Youth. Details of Excluded is in our ‘What’s On’ section: www.intermissionyouththeatre.co.uk
Twitter: @InterTheatre
Instagram: @weareintermission and #Excluded
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