Excellence without exclusion

Chickenshed’s story began with a friendship. In 1974, two remarkable women met in a church hall in north London. Teacher Mary Ward and musician Jo Collins, each disillusioned with the limitations of their careers, shared a belief in the power of the performing arts to transform the lives of young people – particularly the ‘hard to reach’.

They started an afterschool theatre group with one foundational principle: it had to be open to everyone. At its genesis, this meant no auditions and a promise of a place of value for all.

And so, from their original call to local young people, ‘inclusion’ and ‘theatre’ coexisted in both concept and design within the wooden frame of the disused chicken shed in the grounds of Wrotham Park, our first home.

The evolution of Chickenshed since has remained centred on the vision of a society in which everyone can flourish, where the value and voice of the individual continues to push us to be better, and to be more inclusive.

Woven into the ethos

In our history, removing barriers and building connections – both literally and metaphorically – has required as much focus, energy and resource as creating theatre.

It is the young people who have woven Chickenshed’s ethos into their expectations of each other and themselves. They have elevated the concept of inclusion from merely tolerating one another, to celebrating one another, and further, to a position that demands the presence of ALL to meet the needs of ALL and release the collective potential of community.

In their perspective, the power and quality of a production is more likely to increase in line with the cast numbers. This belief is reflected in our annual Christmas show, which features 800 performers, split into four casts, each bringing its unique vibe and energy. While the scale can be exhausting, it is an essential element of the world they create – a space of value for everyone.

They have taught me that if people are valued, they will show up. If they can be purposeful, they will stick around. If they witness the difference they make in the lives of others, it stays with them for a lifetime. This experience is retained as skills, knowledge and confidence, elevating their lived experience to the point where it becomes a valued asset. And that is a life transformed.

An inclusive arts ecosystem

As The Stage’s Lyn Gardner noted in her introduction to The Judges’ Award last year, it is difficult to fit Chickenshed into any one category. This is as much to do with our people as our programmes.

Each week, Chickenshed is home to 650 children and young people who form our young company, 150 full-time further and higher education students, 150 adult participants and 300 volunteers.

This community leads the design and delivery of additional projects that engage 15,000 more children and young people and 50,000 audience members each year. In doing so, we collaborate with over 50 partners from across the education, arts, social and health care sectors.

Building a strategy by listening to a community enriched with diverse lived experiences has created an inclusive arts ecosystem. While each of our groups and projects can stand alone, their true power emerges when they collaborate, and return to what is a natural state of humanity. 

Continues…

Dreams of Freedom

Overcoming barriers

70% of the students who join our further education programme at 16 would face barriers to entry in other similar-level courses. Through access to five years of inclusive arts education, they develop their performance skills, form peer relationships, and 95% graduate with a BA Hons degree.

Beyond that experience is their role in the Chickenshed ecosystem, where they support younger children, act as peer mentors, design and deliver youth outreach projects (which also serve as recruitment tools for future cohorts), and facilitate intergenerational activities that engage over two hundred older people experiencing isolation and loneliness. Without the input of these students, these projects wouldn’t happen. And without the projects, the students’ life learning would be capped.

Theatre holds its own identity in this ecosystem. It drives community growth while also benefitting from the community’s time, love and passion. Performance serves as the shared challenge, the vehicle for social change, and the beautiful excuse to convene.

Shared experience

One student described it as “a way you can breathe without breathing”. JoJo Morrall, Chickenshed’s head of education, programme and projects, says: “When people come together as an audience, no matter where they have arrived from, they’ve now got something in common. We all have a shared experience. And that is the beginning of solving every problem.”

This shared experience is now felt across 15 national and four international Sheds – independent organisations that train with us to reinterpret the ‘Excellence without Exclusion’ concept to address the needs and assets of their communities. We believe this customised approach, or ‘fingerprint’ method, builds a sustainable community of practice.

This fiftieth year has provided an opportunity to step back, observe and reflect on this ecosystem – its shape and behaviour. One of our youngest members described it as “wonder out of chaos”, a phrase that revives our confidence to stay reactive and instinctive, avoiding the grooves formed by institutional concepts of growth and success.

Next chapter

As with any significant birthday, this year has been as much about looking forward as looking back. Through our conversations, it’s evident our current community has modelled the scale of their ambition on the visionary capacity of our founders 50 years ago – those who could sit amid the feathers and splinters and imagine… Chickenshed.

Our vision will continue to be built on the unimaginable dreams of a group of young people in a Chickenshed in north London who want to change the world. Achieving international recognition as a Centre of Excellence in Inclusive Theatre and Education is only phase one. The ultimate goal is for Chickenshed to achieve extinction, having played its creative role in social evolution. 

As Chickenshed’s creative producer, Michael Bossisse puts it: “I want our legacy to be that Chickenshed is almost scoffed at for ever needing to exist. That we have played such a role in removing inequality, it becomes unimaginable that there was ever a world where we had to fight for people to be treated fairly.”