IOU

The first year drama students at Huddersfield University have the chance to work with a professional theatre company. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to work as an assistant for IOU Theatre Company and the first year students on their project together.

It was very interesting to see how IOU works, and gain inspiration from some of their unusual methods, and also to experience working with university students. I had experienced a performance of IOU's back when I was in college. It was a performance called Waylaid which was very different from anything I'd seen at the time. It therefore seemed strange to end up working alongside them and having a bit more insight into the company.

We got to have a snoop around at
 IOU Headquarters!

They have a lot of amazing creations there
 as they engineer a lot of their own stuff 

This giant dung beetle was in the performance
 I saw back when I was in college!

Working with first year university students was quite a challenge actually. I don't think I'd realised how much I'd grown up since that age (it doesn't seem that long ago to me!) and so without meaning to sound patronising they did seem much younger than I expected. The project manager Von was very helpful however and helped me quickly learn some ways to encourage the students to reach their full potential and not be too quick to get frustrated if their behaviour wasn't quite as adult as I'd expected. Primarily through not interfering too much and not underestimating them!

The students took part in a two week 'intensive' with the company where they created a performance from scratch. My role as an assistant was to help communication between the theatre company and the students, and oversee certain groups of students, helping them with any issues etc. The performance they created was called 8 x 5. You can read IOU's info on it here.

It was a big learning curve for the students as they worked out of their comfort zone and I felt really proud of the two groups I was assisting. They really pushed to their full potential and though they struggled with some things they generally over came them and produced performances they could be proud of. I think likewise it was a learning curve for me and other people who were delivering the project! As I've mentioned I think it made me more tolerant but also inspired me creatively, and gave me an insight into a different side of the creative world - which the last time I experienced, I experienced as a student!

The Drama course at Huddersfield University has a great reputation and I have a few friends who studied on that course so I felt quite honoured to be a part of what they do there. I also met some great, creative, lovely people which is always nice.

You can learn more about IOU Theatre here, and Huddersfield University here.