Introduction:
It has been a bit of a full-circle moment for Keir Bust, who now runs the very youth group at South Hill Park that he first joined as a young person nearly 15 years ago. Wilde Young Producers is a free opportunity for 14-20 year olds who handle the planning, organisation and delivery of an arts festival for local school children in the heart of South Hill Park each summer. We sat down with Keir to hear all about the group and what it brings to local young people interested in a career in the arts.
How did you first get involved with South Hill Park?
I first got involved with South Hill Park through the youth theatre and through the summer schools, so I've sort of grown up through performing here. I now work here as a director and a freelance creative as well as running the Wilde Young Producers Group, which I was actually involved with when I was younger, although it was called Missed Out back then.
Back then it followed exactly the same training course and trajectory. We worked towards what was originally called Missed Out Mole, which was a week-long arts festival in the summer for local primary schools. And now we call it the Wilde Week and we run it with the same ethos, spirit, planning and creativity as it has always had.
So tell us about the group, who is it for and what does it entail?
Wilde Young Producers is for young people in the area aged between 15 and 20, where we train them on how to run arts events, such as an arts festival, a concert, a cabaret night etc. Whatever it is, we give them all the skills and tools they need to run it, from pre-production, production and post-production. So then hopefully, they could go and work as a creative, producer or director, or anything they want within the creative sector.
Did you enjoy the scheme when you were younger?
I thoroughly enjoyed it, because you got to meet so many amazing people. We got to meet people like the creative team from Theatre Re – a big leading theatre company out in the industry, which was amazing – as well as the in-house teams who taught you all their production skills.
You got used to working with different venues, how to talk to people, plus general presentation and communication skills, which I found really beneficial when I was growing up. You could use these skills in everyday life, as well as within the group and wider.
So what projects is the group working on this year?
The Wilde Young Producers are working towards Wilde Week, which follows a different theme each year, this year’s being the 40th anniversary of the Wilde Theatre. Participants from local schools will take part in a series of workshops linked to the Wilde Theatre in South Hill Park Arts Centre for a day, and this will all be delivered by the Wilde Young Producers, with the support of our creative freelance team.
What responsibilities do the young people have in delivering it and how do you support them?
The young people have an array of responsibilities within the group. So generally when we're setting up a project, we will split into different roles. This will cover everything from project management to marketing to finances to just generally being a runner for the team.
And then when we get to the Wilde Week, the team will all support the professional team of freelancers in the classes. This will be from welcoming the schools, making sure they know all the health and safety of the venue, as well as helping within the sessions themselves.
I think this is the most important skill that they will take away from it and that can all sort of jump into a different skill. Whether that's anything they're more comfortable with or something they're not so comfortable in, it just gives them a nice big array of responsibilities and skills that they can take forward after being a part of the group.
How do sessions work in the run up to an event like Wilde Week?
We split sessions into all the different stages of planning for the event. At the minute we’re working through the pre-planning of the project so that we understand everything that needs to be set up before we deliver the week.