Haymarket Youth Hub

myplace Leicester
Miracles do still happen

There's a newspaper cutting stuck on the wall outside one of the dressing rooms in the Leicester Haymarket Theatre. Written by Sheridan Morley in August 2004, and published in the Daily Express, it talks about the Haymarket's performance starring Ronni Ancona. "Singin' In The Rain that reigns supreme," is how the glowing review begins. It was just one of many glowing reviews for the myriad musicals staged in this theatre.

The green room glittered with stars for over thirty years - Anthony Hopkins in the premiere of M Butterfly, Julie Walters as Lady Macbeth and Eddie Izzard when he stepped out as Edward II - before it closed down and lay empty, waiting in hope for people to bring energy and life to it again.

The wait is now over: the theatre is to be transformed into a myplace for the young people of Leicester and renamed the Haymarket Youth Hub.

"It was a landmark at the time," remembers John Bogumsky, the acting architect manager for myplace. "You were always looking forward to things there. The productions were excellent and the theatre was very well used. I remember seeing Me and My Girl with Emma Thompson and Robert Lindsay. But it hasn't been used now for a long time."

A long time is just under three years. It was the end of the yellow brick road for this red brick theatre when it gave its final performance on 20 January 2007. Dorothy - played by Helena Blackman, the runner-up in the television programme How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? - clicked the heels of her ruby slippers for the last time in the Wizard of Oz. It was directed by the resident wizard, Paul Kerryson, who built up such a reputation with his innovative productions, the Leicester Haymarket became one of the most famous names in regional theatre. Paul Kerryson went on to take up the post of artistic director at Leicester's new swoosh of a theatre building, Curve, designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly, which opened with Simply Cinderella in December 2008 and where Kerryson still continues to do great work.

On a visit to the theatre, myplace project manager Moana Pledger walks around the vast, empty stage, criss-crossed with gaffer tape that has curled up at the edges."It's about signposting," she says. "It's about helping young people to find something. And it's about getting young people to engage with some of the services that Leicester provides in a space and a place where they feel comfortable."

When deciding on what they wanted for their myplace, according to John the architect, the young people came up with "a lot of big asks".Moana Pledger says that they have had to be realistic. One reality is that the way the theatre is designed means that they can't create a world class gym."The space isn't made for it. Our world class package is about providing wrap around services and activities as jumping off points." Moana goes on to explain that if a young person enjoys the free climbing wall in the new Youth Hub, then they will be encouraged to make use of enhanced facilities available elsewhere in the city."Or you might try disabled basketball. And fantastic, this is something that is really pressing your buttons. If you want to go further, we will help you progress. We will signpost you to somewhere else."

The current signposts direct you towards the following: Costume Store, Backstage, Workshop, Green Room. When the Youth Hub opens, you will see signposts to different zones: Social, Information, Creative, Active, Learning and Participation.The social zone will include a cafe, juke box and games consoles. It will lead you into the Found Space, which will have more opportunities for chilling out.

Moana says that early on there was a moment when the young people involved were concerned that too much space was being given to the services whereas important things like having fun and creating places to relax were perhaps not being given the attention they deserved."So this is supposed to be a youth hub?" was a question that was asked a few times. The young people also came up with solutions that the architects hadn't thought of themselves: one of these was to find the perfect spot for a night club. "So now we have a mix," says Moana. "The Hub will be a place to hang out and have fun, and the services will be an addition, rather than taking up the whole building."

When it comes to services, there are so many people who can't wait to move in. There's the Young People's Council, Connexions, Open Door Counselling and a whole host of others. There will even be a boardroom for the Youth Parliament."This is going to be the epicentre of the delivery of integrated services for young people," says Bez Killeen, Active Involvement Youth Worker for Children and Young People's Services. She says that the fact that the Hub will be central - it's around the corner from the clock tower, a memorial to four local benefactors, including Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester, credited with forming the first Parliament in 1265 - is extremely positive: it's easy for buses but it's also neutral. While the multicultural identity of Leicester means that there is a high level of tolerance and integration, Bez goes on to mention the ongoing postcode wars in Leicester: "The LE3 crew won't go near LE4."

The building is part of the Haymarket shopping centre, still very much in use with Primark being the main attraction, and with a brand new Tesco Express that has just opened beneath the theatre.Young parents walk past with pushchairs. "That's our target audience," says Moana. On offer at the Youth Hub will be parenting classes and opportunities for young mums and dads to relax and have some time off. And the young parents are just one of many target audiences. In Leicester, according to a recent BBC report, the Somali population is one of the fastest growing communities, and 65% of them are under 20. And while young Muslim women won't be encouraged by their parents to come along and join in with mixed activities, Bez explains that they will provide mother and daughter workshops to get around this.

Meanwhile, John is getting to grips with the building. "When we were theatre goers, you never saw backstage. Now we're seeing it intimately: under the stage and under the crofts."When the theatre closed, some of the fittings were snaffled by the new performing arts centre, Curve. Left behind are boxes of light bulbs, the kind you see around mirrors in dressing rooms. Oh, and there's a ghost too, who got left behind: an Edwardian young boy, who wears a sailor's suit and sits in the auditorium during rehearsals, although nobody is certain whether he is still around or has decamped to Curve.

The Haymarket is a building that is not without challenges. The dressing rooms will be easy to transform into offices and interview rooms but it's the vast stage and backstage area which is up for grabs. When you stand on the stage, and look up and up, there is no doubt that this grandiose space is more than high enough for trapeze work - and circus skills are definitely on the agenda. The expanse of boards makes you want to cartwheel across it. Another open area has already been called The Street, and a huge wall space has been earmarked for graffiti art.

John explains that at first they tried to work with what was there in a positive way. "With the fire curtain on stage, we thought we could raise it to combine spaces and then bring it down to create separate areas. But it's not an acoustic curtain. We were asking too much of the building at first. Now we're saying 'let's treat it in a very straightforward manner'. Taking a break from his drawings for a second, he adds: "I really do think that for the young people of Leicester this is going to be a fantastic opportunity."

And everything about the history of the building points towards the fact that it will probably be alright on the night. It's a building which made a name for itself as a world class theatre, by doing things differently and breaking the rules. Oh, and by rewriting the script.The brand new Haymarket Theatre opened in Leicester in 1974 with Romeo and Juliet. Jonathan Kent as Romeo, Mary Rutherford as Juliet and Alan Rickman as Paris, were all dressed in Renaissance costumes. The director Michael Bogdanov was disappointed when the audience didn't respond to the performance as positively as he'd hoped. At the last moment, after the final preview, he cut the whole of the end scene and after the death of Juliet, the action segued to a press conference, with rock music and the entire cast suddenly in modern dress. The music then changed to Fly Me To the Moon. The transformation apparently had an extraordinary effect.People in the audience shouted, walked out, cheered, bravoed and booed.

The director realised that after hours of being bored, the audience had suddenly found something that challenged them. A moment of real theatre. In his book Shakespeare: The Director's Cut, Bogdanov goes on to talk about how he had managed to break down language barriers and how there is a need to adapt and develop narrative for young people and multicultural audiences. He also makes the point that in Elizabethan England, life was multicultural: the court yards teemed with dozens of different languages.

And the Haymarket Youth Hub is doubtlessly going to make a name for itself by doing things differently and rewriting the script. The Hub, if nurtured and managed by the young people of Leicester, can really be what it wants to be and it can continue to evolve as it grows."We've done lots of projects with young people," says Bez Killeen. "This has a chance to have a real impact. These young people are equal stakeholders. "myplace has given young people a voice", she says, but the key, and other youth workers would agree with her, is to "keep listening to young people; to keep them involved throughout".

And at the end of his review of Singin' In the Rain, Sheridan Morley signs off with: "Occasionally even in the theatre, miracles do still happen."

The Haymarket Youth Hub in a tag

Location: Haymarket Theatre, Leicester

Project value: £5 million, combined with £1.5 million from Leicester City Council

Doors open: December 2011

Activities:
Roller skating
Climbing
Bouldering wall
Football, basketball, table tennis and badminton
Dance
Music production
BMX
Circus skills

Facilities:
Disco
Café
Connexions and Children's Information Service
Games consoles
Web access
Recording and mastering studio
Auditorium
Practice studios with workshops in DJ-ing and MC-ing
Youth discos on Friday and Saturday nights
Graffiti and arts space
Open Door Counselling
Leicester NHS
Boardroom and 'home' for the Young People's Council and the Disabled Children & Young People's Forum
ICT suite

Links:
Youth Service (LCC)
Disabled Children's Forum
Young People's Council
Connexions
LCC Sports
NHS
Leicester Library Service (LCC)
Youth Service (LCC)
Children's Information Service (CIS)
Takeover Radio
TMC - The Mighty Creatives
2Funky Arts
Leicester Outdoor Pursuits
Open Door Counselling
Service Youth Offending Service(LCC)
Stride Leicester

Contact:
Moana Pledger
myplace Project Manager
Tel: 0116 221 1643
Mobile: 07970 703077
Email: Moana.Pledger@leicester.gov.uk

Haymarket Leicester Inspirational (146.11 kB 2010-07-22 15:16:51)