Face the Dragon
2023-24 programme theme
In view of the monumental changes that children and teenagers have faced in recent years, Lyra’s 2023/24 programming theme explores the many facets of change, both big and small, as seen through a young person’s eyes:
We wonder at how a tree becomes a table, a book, a guitar. Fuel for a fire. We watch the transformation of glass to sand, the metamorphosis of moths and caterpillar cocoons. Shapeshifters! Tam Lin, Mogwai, Orlando. Scrooge. We hypnotise ourselves with kaleidoscopes and the cosmos, the constancy of changing skies. We remember our childhoods. Hormones, bodies, emotions, minds. Growing up. Growing friendships, growing families. Growing old. Our first day of school. We’re curious about how change makes us feel. Butterflies. Wide-eyed. Terrified. Holding our ground. Enjoying the ride.
Lyra’s 2023/24 theme, Face the Dragon, invites all artists young and old(er!) to respond to our theme of change with fire in their hearts.
Young Artists Commissions
Lyra's Young Artists choose the grown-up artists they want to work with to make a new show for the 2024 Bright & Wild Festival
Wednesday Performing Arts (P4 & P5)
How do you catch a Dragon?🐉 The Wednesday Young Artists are going to try! 😎
Introducing …. Geraldine, Katy and Kerry
For their Bright and Wild commission the Wednesday Performing Arts group have chosen to work with Geraldine Heaney, Katy Wilson and Kerry Cleland to make exciting costumes for a music video with live performance! 🎥 🥁🎹🔥
These artists are part of the band 'Sprog Rock' and want to collaborate with Lyra's young artists to create a music video for their song 'Dragon'. The young artists will work with the team throughout the year to make costumes, to use in a music video that will premiere at the Bright & Wild Festival – alongside a showcase of all the cool costumes.
Thursday Performing Arts (P6 & P7)
Beware of robots – they byte! 🤖
Introducing ….. Adam
For their Bright and Wild commission the Thursday Performing Arts group have chosen to work with Adam Rosa to make a show about AI (Artificial Intelligence) 👩💻🤖📡🎮
Adam is a writer and theatre maker interested in what children think about the ethics of computer generated art and life in the digital age. The group will investigate what this technology means to artists and creatives like them and will present a show at the Bright and Wild festival about (and maybe even with...) AI technology.
Youth Dance (P5+)
If it really rained cats and dogs there would be poodles all over the streets! ☔️🐩
Introducing …. Niamh
For their Bright and Wild commission the Youth Dance group have chosen to work with Niamh O'Loughlin to make a show all about changing weather ☃️☀️🌪🌈
Niamh is a dancer and choreographer interested in how we can put the weather on stage with child-led reports, carefully crafted dance moves and plenty of rainbows. The group will investigate how we take the good weather with the bad and learn to dance in the rain, giving our Bright & Wild audience a weather report they will never forget.
Youth Music (P5+)
For their Bright and Wild commission, the Youth Music group have chosen to work with Tenzin Stephen to create music inspired by the changes that occur as the seasons cycle over and over.
Tenzin is a musician and composer interested in how changes both big and small affect how we feel, and how we can find ways to use music to express these feelings. The infinite cycle of the seasons brings constant change throughout our lives, and is the framework within which we all live. The group are exploring how the changes that come with each season affect them, and are using their ideas to compose brand new pieces of music.
Will they remain in this cycle, like a dragon chasing its own tail, or will they break free?
Young Artists Commissions are supported by
The Bank of Scotland Foundation, Walter Scott Giving Group, The Gannochy Trust
Mary Janet King Fund, Radio Forth Cash for Kids, Scops Arts Trust Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust,
Education Institute of Scotland, Stevenston Charitable Trust, William Syson Trust, John Watson's Trust