Breakin' Convention
Whitley Bay Playhouse
Saturday 24th May 2014
7pm
By Hannah Morpeth
Breakin' Convention is a touring, international festival of hip-hop theatre. The evening gave an amazing display of the merits of hip-hop theatre with each performance bringing with it its' own story.
There is no school of hip-hop. Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson didn't graduate from any higher education institute. If we're all individuals then why is a class all tested using the same criteria? Exams results will not decide our fate say Hustle of Darlington in their performance of The System. Choreographed by dancer Anna Read, The System is a perfect illustration of what theatrical hip-hop can achieve.
Having seen them perform before, I was most excited to see ILL-Abilities a second time and they did not disappoint.
"No excuses, no limits"
I am still in absolute awe of what these guys can achieve off the back of adversity, they are one of the best groups Read more [...]
Liam from The Cedars Academy tells us about his experiences with The Lawnmowers Theatre Company trying new art forms through an exciting activity programme supported by Juice and Strong Voices...
I have been doing lots of work with Lawnmowers and I’ve found it very different to what I’d usually do in school and just to be a part of it was AMAZING. I’ve loved every minute of it because it’s an opportunity to see what their day to day life is and I loved how they involved people.
I’ve learnt so much with Lawnmowers they’ve told me that there are a tonne of things to do with drama and acting like with masks and drama and other things like that.
The only thing i would change would be more time to do more stuff with the people and more opportunities for younger people to get involved and to do more with things like this because it’s fun and interesting to be a part of it.
I would recommend this to people around 12-16 because they would understand it more and they Read more [...]
It’s unlikely that anybody knows you better than you know yourself – save for a few small details like how much you snore or how good you really are at parking a car. You’re probably reminded of this fact every so often: perhaps when your mam attempts to buy you clothes that she is adamant are “so you”; when your friend buys you a ticket to see their favourite band whose songs you've never heard; or when your grandma makes your “favourite meal” of mince and dumplings, even though you became a vegetarian three years ago.
And, while you certainly appreciate the sentiment and effort behind the gesture, things might have gone more smoothly if they had asked for your input. So when Juice Festival were considering what young people might want to get out of the work that they do, they decided to avoid making assumptions and ask us directly.
And that’s where Team Juice comes in.
We’re a group of young adults – event planners, journalists, arts enthusiasts and the like Read more [...]
Adam Swainston
Adam Swainston is a journalism student at the University of Sunderland. He is the editor of Spark, the university’s student magazine.
His favourite things about Juice are that it’s a great opportunity to meet lots of interesting people and a chance to make an impact in the area.
He has an insane affection for cheesy 80s music, especially Annie Lennox, Kate Bush and Fleetwood Mac.
An aspiring film critic, he one day hopes to be the editor of a film magazine and actually get paid for it.
Rachel Hamer
Rachel, 21, is from Whitley Bay and she is currently studying on the Folk Degree at Newcastle University.
Apart from being a singer Rachel also runs a business selling her handmade jewellery and works for Newcastle University as a student ambassador.
During the festival Rachel worked as a Juice assistant doing a variety of different jobs. It meant that she learnt a lot about the inner workings of the festival. This is something that she excited to Read more [...]
My name is Hannah; I’ve spent the last six months being part of Juice Festival 2013 on placement from Changemakers. Changemakers is an organisation that is based in the UK which supports young people around the country to help them harness their leadership potential. Changemakers gives young people leadership opportunities to learn and grow which is what i have done through working here at Juice.
My main role throughout Juice festival was to have a Peer to Peer role and look into ways to get more young people involved in Juice Festival, with the idea that it gets young people sharing their ideas and skills, making friends and celebrating great art together. This method really gives young people an opportunity to get involved during Juice Festival.
I’ve had a very behind the scenes role here at Juice, having a part in planning, taking photographs and generally running from Gateshead to Newcastle and back again trying to be a part of everything! Juice Festival 2013 was Read more [...]
Having debuted at Newcastle's Discovery Museum on Wednesday 30th October, I saw 'The Fantastical Circus Scrapbooks and Collection of Arthur Fenwick' at the Great North Museum: Hancock for its afternoon show on Sunday 3rd November. Family La Bonche, Circus Central's youth circus group, comprises talented youngsters aged 9-22 who, as founder Madame La Bonche puts it, "have adopted the circus as their way of life". Alongside an exhibition detailing the little known yet fascinating history of the circus in the North East, the troupe are set to perform a spectacle of their greatest tricks.
The main feature of the exhibition - a timeline detailing eight centuries of the North East's circus history - runs the length of the back wall. The earliest entry is marked 1237 and details the amusingly named Hob of Pelaw who, by all accounts, was employed by the prior of Durham to entertain the monks. He fell to his death whilst walking the tight wire between two of the notorious cathedral's towers. Read more [...]
Girls Sketch Group, comprising some of the most talented members of Live's Youth Theatre, returns in honour of Juice festival performing their hilarious production 'Your Aunt Fanny'. Formed only in April of this year, these talented young women work superbly well together, bouncing witticisms off one another faster than the two swimmers of Team VG swim their winning lengths (go see the sketch to understand!)
Simple stage setting and lighting throughout throws the quality of the acting strongly into focus - there are no real props or distractions to speak of, nothing to hide behind. Various upbeat tracks mark the seamless transition between sketches, the first of which sees a handful of the girls posing as stereotypical male chavs - never have the words 'aye', 'reet' and, indeed, 'aye reet' been uttered so many times in five minutes. It is a testament to the acting abilities of these girls that, had I closed my eyes, I could have easily been transported to any given senior school at any Read more [...]
As someone who spends more time than most watching TV, reading Comic books and insisting that the consumption of such products is a genuinely valuable experience, I’m someone who will admit that, at times these can be lonely experiences, especially now that the days of one TV per family are long gone. And so, for these reasons I’ve always been interested in conventions as places to go and talk to others about the things I enjoy, but aside from quickly and quietly sweeping through Newcastle City Library’s Canny Comic Con last year while being way too skint to dare talk to anyone, I’ve never really been to one.
So Anime Attacks was really my first convention experience, and what I think is really important is to note how good a job it did at uniting so many people, based on a common interest. From things like ‘A Question of Anime’ the conventions very own panel show, to the 3DS and Card Game tournaments, and the wall of anime characters that everyone could take part in painting, Read more [...]
Dance battles are the focus of countless films and many a music video. Onscreen they're the perfect combination of music, movement and competition. So perfect in fact that, from the outside, it seems impossible that such events could exist in the real world. But, on October 27, Newcastle's Dance City played host to an event that proved that they most certainly do.
Just Jam International's 1-on-1 BBoy Battles, organised by the region's very own Bad Taste Cru as part of this year's Juice Festival, marked the end of a two-day-long collection of workshops for all abilities, as well as a range of world class performances.
A total of 108 dancers turned up to compete in the preliminary rounds in the hope of securing one of the final 32 places in the competition. They had travelled from around the world and there were representatives from the likes of Spain, Romania and even as far afield as the USA.
The preliminary rounds lasted about 3 hours and then it was up to the judges, Freeze from Read more [...]
This spooky event for the young readers in Newcastle and Gateshead was just in time for Halloween. Scattered about were young-adult performers dressed as characters from Tommy Donbavand’s book series ‘Fangs: Vampire Spy’. These characters introduced the book with a short performance and then conducted an animated book reading.
The reading got the children in the mood for the main activity of the event: puppet making. Many cute puppets were made and there were many happy children. Amongst the excited buzz I heard someone shout out ‘my sister is going to be a witch!’ I assume they were talking about Halloween costumes.
After making their puppets, the children had an opportunity to show them off in a puppet show. One of the young actors instructed them to make the puppets bark, howl, and hiss and run backwards and forwards.
At the end there was a competition to find the best two puppets. The two children who won were visibly grinning when they received their prizes. All Read more [...]
