AS a young child, Maureen Beattie went with the Brownies to a pantomime and felt perplexed because her father, the late legendary Johnnie Beattie, was playing Buttons and was clearly in love with Cinderella.
“My mother told me later that I came home saying Cinderella could have been my mother but instead I had her!”
Beattie is laughing as she tells the story but remains very concerned about the ban on school panto trips suddenly imposed by some Scottish councils this year because of the coronavirus crisis.
“It is a real conundrum because we understand that life is the most important thing of all and we have to look after these kids and their health but it is still tragic,” she said. “Apart from the importance to our industry, which has been decimated by Covid, it is often the first time kids get the chance to see a show unlike anything they have seen on telly or on their digital games.”
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The importance of theatre for young people is one reason Beattie has joined the board of Wonder Fools, which has been running an innovative project begun during the pandemic. It has so far garnered 5408 participants from 448 groups and 12 countries, with its reach broadening every week.
The scheme was launched in August 2020 as part of the digital Traverse Festival Programme to respond to the impact on young people’s mental health as a result of the pandemic. It is aimed at providing a new outlet to nurture creativity and a safe space online.
The first set of free plays and resources was so popular that a second series has now been created and has already seen more than 2700 young people from four continents sign up in just eight weeks.
Aimed at engaging an even broader network of participants aged between six and 25, Wonder Fools has again co-commissioned a group of the UK’s most prominent artists to create topical work to act as a stimulus for creative projects for young people around the world.
All seven free plays featuring in season two of their international participatory project, Positive Stories for Negative Times, are now available to order as a book along with a handbook from Wonder Fools containing guidance for staging the plays and a host of other creative responses, either online or live.
Beattie said the importance of theatre and drama in young people’s lives could not be underestimated.
“It is vital, particularly now with really shocking cuts to arts education in schools,” she said.
“Theatre brings in a vast amount of money to the economy and it does so much for kids. It opens up all sorts of areas and teaches the ability to work as a team. It is great for children who are perhaps shy or socially inept and don’t know how to bond – all of those things are in the DNA of drama work and it is done in a very gentle way. There is no feeling of pointing the finger.
“It also hones the skills that kids need in other places; they are writing, discussing and performing plays and it is a completely level playing field.”
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Beattie became involved with Wonder Fools when she was directed by the company’s co-founder Jack Nurse in an online show, Meet Jan Black, performed at Ayr’s Gaiety Theatre in April.
“There was something about the whole openhearted approach they had to everything and the genuine desire to reach out and be very hands on that really impressed me,” she said. “They are always willing and looking for new opportunities to engage people and fundamentally their driving force is kindness. There is an enormous amount of kindness.
“And their figures are amazing. Season one engaged 2607 young people and 282 groups from the Outer Hebrides to Madrid and Quebec. They are expanding it all the time and the plays they have commissioned are specially constructed for young people and have now been published so that means they will have legs. It is just great.”
New groups can still register to take part in Positive Stories for Negative Times at positivestories.scot. The book is available to order at www.wonderfools.org/store
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