Demand soars for Tricycle Theatre’s refugee classes

An act of kindness in Kilburn, as theatre offers free drama workshops for refugees
Soaring demand: Refugee acting classes at The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn
Rehema Figueiredo10 November 2015

A theatre that runs drama workshops for teenage refugees says it has seen demand soar as the migrant crisis has worsened.

The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn is running sessions for young migrants and asylum seekers who have just arrived in London. Since July, the number of classes in the project, Minding the Gap, has risen from seven to 11 a week, with about 25 children in each group.

Project manager Kate Young said that in the past year she had seen an increase in the number of people from Syria, with migrants from Afghanistan and Eritrea also making up a big proportion of intakes. In Brent, the theatre’s host borough, children who have just arrived from abroad are educated in separate classes before they join other pupils at their schools.

The drama workshops support their English classes and give them a chance to recount their experiences. They make short movies, working with a pro-fessional playwright and film crew.

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Ms Young said: “What is so lovely is seeing the students perform on stage at the end of the programme. We offer something schools don’t often have the opportunity to offer.” Since it began 10 years ago, more than 1,000 young people have passed through the scheme. It is partly council-funded and Ms Young said it has had to seek more outside donations as it has grown.

Oana Arotaritei, a learning support assistant at Newman Catholic College in Willesden, said: “What they do here is a miracle. It improves communication and makes students feel secure.” A 16-year-old girl from India who attends the college said: “We’ve done drama and drawing and made puppet dragons.”

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