A group of National Youth Theatre performers today jetted off to present Living the Dream in the UK Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo as global ambassadors for British culture. Starting on 19th July, the show will be performed on the pavilion site, and will link live action in Shanghai with scenes recorded in London, to create an audacious site specific production inspired by William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Living The Dream will be performed by talented young actors and musicians in the shade of
Thomas Heatherwick's iconic, award-winning UK Pavilion. It will link up with scenes played out thousands of miles away, apparently simultaneously, around iconic sites on London's South Bank.
A series of everyday items found in gardens and green spaces in the UK will become the tools of play for this highly visual, bilingual and musical interpretation of one of Shakespeare's best known comedies.
Palm-top projectors, laptops and mobile phones will be incorporated into the production, linking the two sides of the play being acted out in Shanghai and in London.
Living The Dream will be performed by a cast of NYT members from across the UK including members of IdeasTap, the
National Youth Theatre's online interactive partner, and will be supported by an experienced creative and production team. It is part of the UK's programme of public events at Shanghai World Expo, designed and developed by the British Council.
While NYT are in Shanghai, they will also be working with Chinese actors and artists from Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre as part of an ongoing collaborative project which is due to take place in London in 2012 as part of the Cultural Olympiad's World Shakespeare Festival.
Living The Dream's director Joel Scott was a founding member of Punchdrunk and Goat and Monkey Theatre Companies. He specializes in site-sympathetic work, and his previous credits include The Ghost Sonata (Trinity Buoy Wharf), Reverence (Southwark Playhouse), The Juniper Tree (touring) and A Little Neck (Hampton Court Palace). He is currently developing a new project with the 'Ahead of the Game' Cultural Olympiad Programme.
Living The Dream is the opening show of NYT's summer season, which also includes S'Warm, a piece of site-specific ensemble theatre performed at various sites around London, Relish, a new play by
James Graham about Victorian celebrity chef Alexis Soyer, and Stars over Kabul, a new play by Rebecca Lenkiewicz about young women in modern Afghanistan.
Londoners
Will Able to see the London cast of Living The Dream in action on the South Bank, outside Tate Modern at 12.30pm each day from 23rd to 31st July.
