At the end of this month, we’ll be opening the doors on a new concept for Boundless, the Ideas Space. From June 24th – 26th, open every day from 9.30am this new way of supporting teenagers to get to know us and more about theatre is a big experiment.
We’ve long been passionate about testing new ideas quickly but this is our most crazy idea yet. In a little under 2 months we have been able to conceptualise and plan, programme and launch the Ideas Space and although there’s still some finishing touches to come we’re excited to share where we’re at with you.
Today we’re announcing the Boundless Ideas Space, but it is the culmination of five years of innovating, testing and speaking with young adults across the UK to find different ways to make theatre more accessible.
Theatre is nothing without people, the freelancers, the early-career artists, the creative community and our audiences who make what we do matter. The Boundless Ideas Space is a welcoming, safe space for discovery. A way for us to bring our community together and share what we’re working on. Over these three days, in this unique space, we want to show what a theatre company looks like, the diversity of thought, of artistic expression and connect with as many young adults as possible who are looking to discover, experiment and be creative.
Since I took over as Artistic Director in 2016 I’ve been wanting to find new ways to connect with our community. We don’t have a building of our own (and since the pandemic have left our office to work from home), so meeting young adults has always been in other spaces, or after our shows or during projects. It felt like now was a good time, as the UK starts to open up after Covid-19 lockdowns to try something different.
The three day cultural pop up space in Holborn, London is an experiment. We want to introduce our shows and other parts of our work to 15-25 year olds earlier, connect our artists and their ideas to an audience and go on longer journeys than we’ve been able to in the past. All of this is underpinned by research, lots of care and listening to young people, including our Advisory Group which we have just expanded to 21 members.
Over three days you’ll be able to take part in workshops, listen to talks, interact with the team, be the first to hear music from an upcoming production, ask industry experts anything and play a massive game of towering blocks with gatekeepers. We’ve put a lot out there to test and now we’re ready to see what works and adapt our plans for future spaces around the UK.
Later this year we’re going to be launching our biggest project yet and even that will be represented in the Ideas Space, meaning that if you come down to say hi you’ll be the very first to hear about our plans and help shape how they’re delivered. All of this is our way of showing what a theatre company is, what it does and who it is for. I hope that there is enough here for everyone and if not, we’d love to know what else we can do. Whether you’re early career or a young artist in the making we want to meet you and I hope start the first of many conversations about the future of Boundless.
Rob Drummer, Artistic Director
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The Boundless Ideas Space is open from 9.30am each day from the 24th – 26th June. You can drop in anytime as well as attend a series of special events, experiences, workshops and talks.
-> More information on the Boundless Ideas Space
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The Boundless Ideas Space is made possible thanks to Arts Council England’s Culture Recovery Fund and kicks off Boundless’ ambitions to engage young people in new ways around culture across the country in a series of spaces.