We had a fanastic time last week with students from the four winning schools in the CHINA NOW 100 Words Schools Competition. Although the schools have active links (Lambeth Academy with Harbin No 1 High School), Deyes High School with Shanhu Middle School), none of the young people had met each other. We started things off gently with games and a lot of exercises designed to break down barriers. Exploring cultural similarity and difference was a theme we kept returning to over the three days and informed material created and showcased on Wednesday evening. This included a soundscape, 10 word plays, a montage of short pieces inspired by food and two 100 word plays, all of which blended cultures and languages. The results were shown to an invited audience which included representatives from CHINA NOW, HSBC and the British Council, which had supported the project.

Tomorrow sees students and teachers from Deyes High School (Sefton), Shanhu Middle School (Chongqing), Harbin No 1 High School and Lambeth Academy (London) gather together at Siobhan Davies Studios in Southwark for a three day 100 Words workshop. The four schools were winners in the CHINA NOW 100 Words Schools Workshop, run in partnership with the British Council and sponsored by HSBC. The workshop will provide an opportunity for students to work together on developing and creating new material which will be performed in both English and Mandarin to an invited audience on Wednesday evening. We’re co-delivering the workshop with Theatre 503 who hosted a 100 Words workshop/performance involving artists from Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre earlier in the year. It’s the first time that we’re using Siobhan Davies Studios – converted from a Victorian school annexe by architect Sarah Wigglesworth, it’s a stunning building with two superb studio spaces. We’re expecting the week to be a lot of fun and also a real chance to explore the potential of 100 Words as a creative language learning project.

There hasn’t been time in the past week to post regular blogs. From our arrival in Beijing on 6 September to our departure last Friday, it was non-stop. We were based at the China National Paralympic Training Centre, a brand new complex near the airport with stunning sports facilities including outdoor and indoor running tracks, a velodrome and vast sports halls which were used for the workshops run by five groups of trainers from the UK. Aside from 100 Words, the other UK trainers included Northern Ballet Theatre, Sheffield Hallam University, yeastCulture and the Youth Sports Trust. The workshops were just part of a range of activities designed to nurture the leadership and communication skills of around 220 Young Advocates drawn primarily from mainland China, Hong Kong and the UK. The Young Advocates included both disabled and non-disabled people, all of whom were committed to developing the Paralympic Spirit.

The Youth Forum started with a session exploring the Young Advocates’ vision and mission for the week. It was followed by an evening visit to the Bird’s Nest to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Everything about the occasion impressed from the stunning architecture and outstanding performances to the enthusiasm of the hundreds of Chinese volunteers. The next two days were spent delivering workshops. We spent much of Sunday using theatre and music games to get to know our group of Young Advocates. By the end of the day we had moved onto writing and our participants had generated several 10 word plays which were subsequently filmed on Monday by Young Advocates involved in yeastCulture’s workshops. On Tuesday we had a day out – a visit to the Great Wall, lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Beijing, a performance by the China Disabled Performing Arts Troupe at the Poly Theatre and another visit to the Bird’s Nest in the evening to watch some athletics in torrential rain. Our final workshop day followed during which, we pulled together content for the ‘Grand Showcase’ performance on Thursday afternoon. This was a true sharing of work created over the week in each workshop and a celebration of the creativity of all the young people involved; a documentary which had been filmed and edited during the Youth Forum was also shown. Our final evening was spent at a VIP reception at the British Ambassador’s Residence, where there was an opportunity to advoacte to Lord Coe and representatives of London 2012 about the success of the YAP Youth Forum and the importance of continuing such initiatves over the next four years of our Cultural Olympiad.

The Young Advocates Programme Youth Forum kicks off tomorrow in Beijing at the China National Paralympic Training Centre. Natasha and John are already in Beijing, having left yesterday. They plan to spend today checking out facilities and potential locations for making 10 word films, as well as meeting up with British Council colleagues, other British arts practitioners and some of the British and Chinese Young Advocates. Tristan and I will join the morning briefing session on Saturday fresh from our flight. In the evening, we’re all lucky enough to be attending the Opening Ceremony for the Paralympic Games in the stunning ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium. Workshops will then run from Sunday for three days, with a day trip to the Great Wall in the middle. The Youth Forum culminates in a Grand Showcase performance on Thursday afternoon. We have a detailed plan worked out for the first day of our workshop but the rest of the content will be very much shaped by the group of young people we’ll be working with. We’re looking forward to meeting them.

Back home and we’re already planning our next trip to Beijing. We’ve been invited by the British Council to run a 100 Words workshop during an international Youth Forum that will take place in Beijing during the Paralympic Games. The Youth Forum is part of the British Council led initiative, Young Advocates Programme – Developing the Paralympic Spirit, which aims to develop an international legacy for the Paralympic Games in Beijing this year, London in 2012 and beyond. Up to 250 Young Advocates from mainland China, Hong Kong and the UK will gather together in September to take part in skills workshops, engage in discussion and attend events in the Paralympics Games including the Opening Ceremony in the ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium on 6 September. The Youth Forum is part of the official Cultural Olympiad for the Paralympic Games and we’re both delighted and honoured to be taking part, particularly given the fact that 100 Words was originally inspired by language learning initiatives launched by the Beijing Municipal Government in response to its success in bidding to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Young Advocates Programme will continue beyond 2008, with participants taking on volunteer leadership roles in their communities in order to raise awareness of social inclusion, diversity and equality. We’re looking forward to continued involvement.

The final few days in Beijing were extremely busy, preparing for the 100 Words showcase at 9 Theatre and then supporting the National Youth Theatre’s performances at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Friday and Saturday morning were spent faciliciating the plays written by the Beijing Dramatists Association group. These were directed and performed by the workshop participants, with Natasha and Tristan providing guidance and showing how ideas might be extended. One or two plays had been rewritten over the course of the week and we had a good selection to showcase. On Saturday afternoon, they were shown to an invited audience at 9 Theatre. It was a very successful performance and an appropriate end to a highly successful week. We’re looking forward to continuing and extending our collaboration with Yang Qianwu and Beijing Dramatists Association in the future.

On Saturday evening we went to the National Centre for the Performing Arts to watch the premiere of the National Youth Theatre’s production of the Merchant of Venice. It had been a tense couple of days for the company, with very limited technical time, but all had come together in time for an open dress rehearsal on Saturday afternoon and the performance on Saturday evening was excellent. It was completely sold out so we ended up watching the show from the lighting box (it was quite a party up there). A huge amount of work had been put in by so many people to get to this moment and it felt a real achievement to see the young British and Chinese actors on the stage.

A very late night was followed by an early morning visit to Tiananmen Square to see the flag raising ceremony along with thousands of mainly Chinese tourists. Saturday had been a gloriously sunny day and it looked to be going the same way on Sunday. It was extraordinary to see so many people up so early and to share a moment with them. The rest of the day was relaxed and included a lovely conversation over tea with Zhu Changbing, who had looked after the National Youth Theatre company during the week, as well as a couple of hours at Houhai, soaking up the sunshine beside the lake. We then returned to the NCPA in the evening to see the second and final performance of the Merchant of Venice. There was another packed house and the audience really appreciated and understood the play. The company then went out for a Beijing duck dinner, hosted by the China International Youth Arts Festival. Madame Zhai from the Ministry of Culture, who had been assigned to oversee the Festival was extremely enthusiasitc about the performance and invitations have been extended to the National Youth Theatre by both the Ministry and the NCPA to return to China.

On Thursday evening we brought together the National Youth Theatre actors and the Beijing Dramatists Association workshop participants in an informal performance at 9 Theatre. The Chinese participants showed four 100 word plays that had been written earlier in the week; the British actors then performed several 100 word plays that had been rehearsed with Natasha previously. Both groups performed versions of ‘Chorus Line’, written by Aled Roberts in the National Youth Theatre/Soho Theatre week in 2006. It’s a fantastic play. In the English version, extracts from well known Hollywood and West End musicals are sung by an over enthusatic chorus line, hired by parents of a teenage boy, James, to ‘bring him out of himself’. The Chinese performaers did their own version, using well known Chinese songs and army tunes. Both performances were excellent. The evening was also used to showcase two Chinese plays from the online creative writing competition – ‘My World’ and ‘Struggle’. ‘My World’ was performed first by the National Youth Theatre and then reinterpreted with Chinese actors playing the two leads. ‘Struggle’ combined both casts, with an underscore developed earlier in the day with the BDA workshop participants added to the piece. It was a very special moment seeing the British and Chinese casts come together, watched by the Chinese actors who are involved in the Merchant of Venice.

On Wednesday evening, British Council Beijing kindly hosted a reception for 100 Words and the National Youth Theatre. It took place at Neverland Coffee Bar, a very chic and relaxed venue with a screen installation by artist Shu-Min Lin. We brought all the Beijing Dramatists Association participants along while the National Youth Theatre brought the 10 Chinese artists they have been working with. As well as speeches, there was an interactive moment when we all sent texts of a word or words close to our heart to a Chinese mobile number – moments later, the words snaked down the screen (mine included creativity, imagination, adventure, passion and baizi). The winning films from the two online competitions run in China and the UK in partnership with the National Youth Theatre, BBC Blast, SOHU.com and the British Council were also screened along with some showreels of the National Youth Theatre’s work. It was a great chance for the National Youth Theatre members to see another side of Beijing and to connect with others involved in the contemporary arts scenes in China, as well as marking an exciting week of exchange and creativity for both organisations.