Dundee Rep and Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research create an exciting new collaboration for young people

16 April 2018

An exciting new long-term collaboration has been launched between Dundee Rep Theatre and the School’s Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research where together they will develop a series of innovative and diverse engagement and performance opportunities for local communities.

This new venture will explore the division and fusion between art, science and community working specifically in the School of Life Sciences, using the space to inspire new narratives and engage new communities and audiences.

The first project in this exciting collaboration will be an intensive week-long, summer holiday workshop. Based at the School of Life Sciences and using Dundee Rep’s highly successful ‘Play in a Week’ summer school model, the holiday scheme will engage up to 25 young people aged between 13-18 over 6 days, centred around science and performance-making.

Speaking about this new partnership, Dundee Rep’s Head of Creative Learning, Gemma Nicol, said:
“We’re really excited to be working in partnership with the University of Dundee’s School of Life Sciences and their team. The possibilities for creating new work inspired by the space, art and science are endless and we can’t wait to get started this summer through our initial week-long residency alongside a group of Dundee young people.”

Throughout the week-long project, young people will participate in a range of science workshops, talks and demonstrations delivered by University of Dundee scientists and researchers, before responding to this creatively with theatre specialists from Dundee Rep’s Creative Learning team. Participants will develop their theatre skills in a unique location and explore and learn more about science, coming together at the end of the week to put on a performance inspired by their experience for family, friends and colleagues. The performance will celebrate and document the journey that these young people have undertaken during their week.

The long-term aspiration is that this new partnership will continue to be developed and by 2020/21, both organisations will produce a large-scale site-specific performance which will be a culmination of their work over the next two years.

Professor Paul Wyatt, Director of the Wellcome Centre, said,

“We’re very excited to be hosting the Dundee Rep this summer. As typified by Mary Slessor, Dundee has a long tradition of reaching out across the world. At the Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research, we continue in this spirit. We work to discover new medicines for diseases which affect some of the world’s poorest people. This new collaboration will allow us to share our vital mission with the young people of Dundee. We can’t wait to see what happens when they make theatre inspired by our work.”