Lewis Hetherington

Tim Crouch

Bryony Kimmings

Sara Shaarawi

Robert Softley Gale

Leyla Josephine

Six exciting new plays by some of the best artists working in the UK today written with and for young people. Created as part of Wonder Fools' international participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times which has reached over 8000 young people from 16 different countries including UK, South Africa, India, USA, Canada, Italy and Sweden. Co-commissioned by Wonder Fools and the Traverse Theatre these six plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages 10 to 25. These original and innovative plays are: The Day the Stampers United by Sara Shaarawi Ages 12+ Ms Campbell's Class Fifth Period by Leyla Josephine Ages 14+ And The Name for That Is?... by Robert Softley Gale Ages 16+ Are You A Robot? by Tim Crouch Ages 10+ Revolting by Bryony Kimmings Ages 13+ Thanks for Nothing by The PappyShow with Lewis Hetherington Ages 11+ Positive Stories For Negative Times was initially created in response to the lack of physical spaces for young people to participate in creative activities due to the pandemic, and instead allowing them to come together and be inspired through making new work. The project has now grown into a programme of work that includes hundreds of participating groups across the world, a youth board who dramaturg all the commissioned plays from inception to final draft, a continuing professional development programme for group leaders and four regional Scottish youth theatre festivals taking place in summer 2023. Supported by Creative Scotland, the Gannochy Trust, Hugh Fraser Foundation, William Syson Foundation, Trades House of Glasgow Commonweal Fund and Gordon Fraser Foundation. www.positivestories.scot

Six Plays For Young People to Perform in Real Life or Remotely

Positive Stories For Negative Times, Volume Three

In an audacious, provocative protest against flagrant global attempts to sexualise and commodify childhood for profit, award-winning artist Bryony Kimmings and her niece Taylor, nine, decided to play the global tween machine at its own game by inventing dinosaur-loving, bike riding,tuna pasta-eating, alternative pop star Catherine Bennett. In a typically screwball and humorous fashion acclaimed writer Bryony Kimmings, tackles the issues at the very core of their plight head on and begsthe question, what does it really take to be a Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model for a child of the 21st century? Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model took Edinburgh Festival 2013 by storm, winning critical acclaim as well as a number of awards including a Fringe First, the Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award 2013 and the Arches Brick Award 2013.

Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model

Tim Grayburn

Six months into their relationship, Bryony found out that Tim suffered from severe clinical depression. This was a secret Tim had kept for a very long time. Fake it ‘til you Make it is Edinburgh Fringe First-winner Bryony Kimmings’ new work about clinical depression and men, made in collaboration with her partner Tim, who works in advertising. A wickedly warming, brutally honest and powerfully heartbreaking show about the wonders of the human brain, being in love and what it takes to be a "real man". The book contains articles by Andy Field (Forest Fringe), The Vacuum Cleaner (activist and performer) and Georgie Harman (CEO of Beyond Blue), covering performance, art and mental health.

Fake It 'Til You Make It

Brian Lobel

Tom Parkinson

An all-singing, all-dancing celebration of ordinary life and death. Single mum Emma confronts the highs and lows of life with a cancer diagnosis; that of her son and of the real people she encounters in the daily hospital grind. Groundbreaking performance artist Bryony Kimmings creates fearless theatre to provoke social change, looking behind the poster campaigns and pink ribbons at the experience of serious illness.

A Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer

Bryony Kimmings creates multi-platform art works which aim to provoke change. Through script and photographs this book documents the show I'm a Phoenix, Bitch, Kimmings' personal response to the trauma of having post-natal breakdown. In 2016, Bryony nearly drowned. Postnatal breakdowns, an imploding relationship and an extremely sick child left her sitting beneath the waves hoping she could slowly turn to shell. Two years later she was able to deal with life again, but wears the scars of that year like a dark and heavy cloak. Who do we become after trauma? How do we turn pain into power? How do we fly instead of drown? Bryony Kimmings returned to performance in 2018 with her first solo show in nearly a decade. A mythical legend performed straight from a heart still pulsing with pain. Combining personal stories with epic film, soundscapes and ethereal music, Bryony creates a powerful, dark and joyful work about motherhood, heartbreak and finding inner strength. "Bryony Kimmings' solo performance is acutely painful in places but it's actually an easy sell: this is an extraordinary piece of theatre. I'm a Phoenix, Bitch shows Kimmings is an artist of exceptional integrity, compassion, imagination and guts." (The Guardian) We will need new myths to survive the end of existence as we know it; for Bryony it is that of the invincible and fearless woman; a tale Bryony wishes she had known from birth.

Bryony Kimmings

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