On 29th January the WEA hosted an Intergenerational Drama Workshop with members of the Learning Age Project drama groups; Top Women from the Waterside and the Happy Go Luckies from Creggan who came together with three youth theatres; First Act from Derry and from England; Burnley Youth Theatre and Bolton Youth Theatre.The workshop was held as a follow up to an initial Intergenerational Drama Evening which was held at the Verbal Arts Centre as part of the all Ireland Culture Night last September.

Culture Night was such a success with both the young people and the Learning Age drama groups really enjoying the experience. Both generations felt challenged by the outcomes and were surprised at how much they learned from each other. When Mary Duddy WEA Facilitator approached the Learning Age Project to link once again with her youth theatre First Act and also to add another cultural element to the workshop with two youth theatres from England, the Learning Age groups welcomed the opportunity to expand upon their initial intergenerational work together.

The youth groups met originally in Plymouth in 2008 as part of the Arrow (Arts Resources Reconciliation of the World) as part of the World Congress on Conflict and the Arts. First Act has represented Northern Ireland twice at the World Congress meeting and working with people from Sierra Leone, India, Palestine, South Africa, China and Brazil to name but a few. The Arrow group now known as INDRA will visit the city later in the year and it is hoped to bring the World Congress to Derry as part of City of Culture in 2013.

The workshop began with a general warm up and introductory games and then expanded to look at conflict from their own communities and then looked specifically at sectarianism and racism. The younger generation from Derry expressed that they felt that sectarianism was more a problem steming from the older community and was less a factor amongst younger people today.

The Learning Age Drama groups performed pieces from their last work and even taught the young people some line dancing as this formed a part of their recent performance with Sping Chickens last October. This proved great fun.

Then in 6 groups they improvised a positive adverstisement looking at ways to stamp out sectarianism, racism, homophobia, and bullying as well as one to promote peace. These were very detailed and performed really well considering the groups had only met that evening. Again both generations expressed how much they enjoyed working together again, how challenged they were by each other and how much they had learned from working together.

WEA was really delighted to be involved in this unique cultural exchange between the generations. Our older people have lived through the troubles and understand conflict from their own personal perspective. It is only fitting to have involved our older members of the community and for them to work alongside our young people who are after all our voices for the future.