Young LGBTQ+ People perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

A group of young people aged 16-25 years who attend youth groups in Edinburgh participated in a project run in collaboration with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival Society. The project, Behind the Scenes, offered a series of seven workshops facilitated by a professional performer at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and supported by staff and volunteers from LGBT Youth Scotland. The aim was to give young people opportunities to learn about the industry and develop a range of skills, such as acting, script-writing, costume design and creative expression. Young people were involved in selecting an artist from a range of applicants based on the group’s interests, which included puppetry, drag and physical theatre. The artist offered coaching and guidance to collectively design, write and perform a unique theatre play. The group wrote a play called Puppets Like Us, centred around the experience of growing up queer and feeling alone and rejected. The play speaks about these struggles, but also about emerging in a world of their own making where they are free to be themselves and to find their family in their own community. They performed Puppets Like Us on the Fringe Community Stage on the Royal Mile in front of an audience. All participants enjoyed working on the Behind the Scenes project, which was delivered for the first time ever this year. The young people said ‘My confidence has grown due to being able to express myself throughout the project without being frowned upon’; ‘Being able to perform at the Fringe was an incredible experience’ and ‘The support and guidance given was incredible’. When the project finished, all young people were offered ongoing support from the artist to further explore career development opportunities in the creative and performing arts.