Youth Express

With special guest:

• James Winter
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Making a living in the Australian theatre has never been an easy task. Our guest today is James Winter an actor and director who has raised the level of difficulty significantly.

James draws on his over 20 years’ experience in the arts industry to create performance with non-performers, particularly the marginalised and at risk youthful members of our community. In doing this work through the Belvoir St Theatre’s Outreach Program, Youth Express, James engages with young people who may be homeless and find themselves excluded from mainstream education.

Youth with these challenges come from a number of support organisations including Key College, an accredited High School in Redfern Sydney run by Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets. Belvoir’s Youth Express provides them with access to a professional theatre company and its artists.

The participating youth are given the opportunity to tell their stories in an uncensored way. They write the plays, they act the parts and they fully participate in the process while being guided by James who works to get the best out of them. Sometimes that guidance may extend to James having to take direct action just to get them out on stage.

In a public forum, these young people are acting a part that may be very close to their own experience. But after the 16-week course is completed and the play is presented the performer has faced his demons.

When the usual nerves are overcome the participants come away with a sense of achievement and they know that they are part of something bigger than themselves. The benefits to the youth and the community in general cannot be overstated with a program such as this. What could be more important than doing something to turn around the lives of our young people?

James Winter is a talented actor and director which makes talking to him a pleasure. But more than this, he is an inspiration to us all with the work he is doing. Listen in to hear more.

James Winter

James Winter is a Theatre Director living and working in Sydney having graduated as an Actor from the Centre for the Performing Arts (Adelaide) in 1993.

His Community Cultural Development (CCD) experience includes theatre projects that engage communities with physical and intellectual disabilities, street dependent, same-sex attracted, drug dependent, sex-workers, remote indigenous communities, juvenile justice clients, incarcerated youth, refugee, recent arrival and dual diagnosis.

James has also worked in Cairo (Egypt) with African artists in exile to establish self-determining community cultural development projects that include micro-business, cultural events and performance, networking and profile initiatives and a schools arts and cultural policy.

Currently James is a contracted Theatre Director for Belvoir’s Youth Express Education Program along with being Co-founder and Director of Brand X (formerly Queen Street Studio), a non-profit organisation run by Artists for Artists providing creative development, rehearsal and workspace for artists to practice their craft.

Song selection by our guest: Rocket Man by Elton John

Note: This program is an encore presentation of the one aired on 8 September 2016.

Listen Now (mp3)