Who Cares Tour: Camilla Gordon – Youth Participation Facilitator

I am Camilla and I am the Youth Participation Facilitator going on tour with Who Cares.

When Who Cares was first performed, in November last year, it was clear the production had a huge impact on those who watched it, but with only one night at the Lowry to share these stories, a lot of the people who needed to see it most didn’t get that chance. That is why this round, we are not sticking to traditional theatre spaces, we are taking the production to those who need to see it most, into schools and youth centres. With 27 venues, 4000 young people and only 5 weeks to do it in, we are aiming high.

Alongside the production, and this is where I come in, we will be running workshops for those young people that watch the production. We want to ensure that they come away with not only an understanding of what a young carer is, but also the ability to empathise with young carers and others those around them who may be having a tough time. We recognise that this cannot be achieve in a few hours, which is why we have created a range of resources that work hand in hand with the tour, for teachers and youth workers to carry on the conversation started by the production.

What makes this production and tour stand out from so many others, is that it is the voices of young carers that sit front and central in every part of the process. Each week the young people who the play is written about come in to spend time with the actors. Every part has a piece of them inside it, from the soundtrack to the props, the costume to set.

I can’t wait to get out on tour and share these stories with other young people across the country; there is nothing more powerful than the voice of a young person creating change.

A bit about me..

I fell in love with drama and theatre from a young age and had an incredible opportunity to explore this further as I grew up. I was then given the opportunity to study drama at the University of Manchester. It was at Manchester I found a passion for the social change and saw the power a committed community or individual can have to creating change.

Since graduating I have worked both here in the UK and internationally with marginalised communities to empower them to get their voices heard, from young people in central London affected by HIV to small scale farmers in rural Kenya and Uganda. I am a facilitator that believes in the power of people and communities to create change for themselves.