Boundless Theatre Announces Recipients For The Boundless Accelerator Bursary

Boundless Theatre today announces the four recipients of the inaugural Boundless Accelerator Bursary funded by the Garfield Weston Foundation. Aimed specifically at supporting the co-creation of new work with teenagers, this year the bursary focuses on mental health and wellbeing with the project culminating in a showing on 4 December 2019 in London. The four chosen recipients, who will be provided with £2500 for the year, are actor and theatre-maker Ryan Gilmartin with Barbarians, actor and theatre-maker Natalya Martin with Carnival, digital theatre company Produced Moon with Run Code and arts production company Nouveau Riché with For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Was Too Heavy.

Rob Drummer, Artistic Director of Boundless, said today, "The Accelerator Bursary is our way of getting extraordinary artists and teenagers together to co-create with a theme set by our Advisory Group, meaning the whole process is led by young adults. We had almost 50 applications from across the UK and could have awarded many more bursaries, the quality was that high. We can't wait to share the first stage of development later this year and hope that many more young adults will be inspired by what is created."

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Produced Moon's RUN CODE

Inspired by Games for Change, the movement that uses digital games as a tool for social change, Produced Moon will collaborate with young people in Bermondsey to create games exploring aspects of mental health. Experimenting with the emerging genre of game theatre, alongside video and board games, game mechanics will be used to explore strategies for building resilience and self-care. Through collective game-play, Produced Moon aims to find honest and open ways of talking about what we can do together to change conversations around mental health.

Produced Moon are an interactive, digital theatre company working at the intersection of theatre and gaming, based between London and Glasgow. Recent work includes Switchboard, The Inventors Squad and Electric.

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Natalya Martin's CARNIVAL

Carnival is created for young people with disabilities, collaboratively developed by actor and theatre-maker Natalya Martin. The piece will creatively explore how issues around mental health and emotional wellbeing affect the lives of teenagers and young adults with disabilities today.

Set on a fictional island surrounded by a body of water, Carnival explores live music, dance and a multitude of multi-sensory experiences.

Natalya Martin is an actor, multi-sensory practitioner and theatre-maker. Her goal is to make work that is fully accessible, relatable and of quality, for and with people with disabilities. She is the co-founder of theatre company FEEL Theatre, which specialises in creating sensory stories, shows and experiences.

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Nouveau Riché's FOR BLACK BOYS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE HUE WAS TOO HEAVY

For Black Boys... articulates the heartache, confusion, rage, and desires of young black men. The play explores how the pressures placed on black men contribute to emotional and mental trauma, and the threat of additional black suicides.

The affirmative resolution of For Black Boys... is to signify the collective community of Brotherhood, that calls for men to first love themselves, then learn to love one another.

Winners of the 2018 Edinburgh Stage Award and The Untapped Award, Nouveau Riché is a multi - disciplinary arts production company. Previous theatre credits include Queens of Sheba, Chateau Marmont and Book of Actions. Their objective is to discover, nurture and produce unique stories that are culturally inclusive, with a keen scope on work that is both educational and entertaining.

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Ryan Gilmartin's BARBARIANS

Developed by Ryan Gilmartin and James Monaghan, Barbarians queries the experiential differences between rural and urban living.

Barbarians: a member of a people not belonging to one of the greats (Ancient Rome, Modern London).

The common myths and stories that we tell each other are breaking up locally and digitally.

In a world getting smaller yet further apart, Ryan will return to his hometown in Spalding, Lincolnshire with James to investigate the differences between living 'in the sticks' and cities.

Is there a link between physical isolation and the mental health of young people?

We don't know what we'll find or what we'll do; but whatever it is, we'll bring it to London.

Ryan Gilmartin is a multi-disciplinary actor, theatre maker and video DJ. He has made work for the National Theatre, Royal Exchange Theatre and Sheffield Theatres.

Boundless Theatre produces exhilarating new theatre in the UK in conversation with Europe. For fifteen years, they have produced and toured new plays nationally and internationally, and created projects and experiences that young adult audiences share in. They nurture and empower the next generation of visionary artists, bring plays, diverse perspectives and ideas from Europe, and engage with a range of artistic forms beyond theatre-making.