Preparing for high energy youth show

Hannah Gwillim, 18, is one of the many cast and crew members preparing for Northland Youth Theatre's Summer Show - CrashMob, a physical production that portrays power, leadership and the choice to make a choice. Photo / Michael Cunningham

It's a changing costume, cardboard box, Dr Seuss inspired, thematic kind of production - it's Northland Youth Theatre's (NYT) Summer Show, CrashMob.

Director Jo Randerson from Wellington company Barbarian Productions travelled to Whangarei to direct the production as part of NYT's 30th anniversary celebrations.

Ms Randerson said it's not a typical production where there are designated roles and a script book.

"People can expect quite an energetic show, a very physical performance. It's not a linear narrative where you have six clear characters and you follow their plot story. It's a bit like watching animals sometimes, you see group movements and patterns across the stage."

Ms Randerson said the show explored power relations, leadership, making choices and much more.

"We started working with ideas of having a stance that would allow you to disagree with others, talking about when everyone thinks the same and when someone thinks different - what is unity, what is negotiation, what is individual standpoint? And how do those intersect when you're working in a group? What happens when there's conflict and how do you deal with that?"

One of the ways these ideas are portrayed in the production is through costumes.

"There's some crazy wigs, we talked about Dr Seuss so characters pop out. Someone puts the raincoat on and becomes a character and then they take it off and someone else takes it and becomes that character. The roles change because sometimes people are in uniform and they put on the big jacket and they're the king and they take it off and they're not."

Jasmine Fisher Johnson is a cast member of CrashMob who has been involved with NYT for five years, starting out when she was just 9 years old. She said doing the production had been a challenging learning experience.

"It's very different, we do a lot of improvising whereas usually we make up a scene and show it," she said.

"It's been exciting learning different skills and aspects of drama. It's challenging but really fun."

Ms Randerson said it's starting to come together.

- CrashMob will be showing 7.30pm from January 29 to February 6 (there will be no Monday show) with a preview show on January 28. Tickets are $10 Bookings and Inquiries: ph (09) 4384453 or office@nyt.org.nz.