LISTEN 52 is a youth leadership and arts engagement project in Sheffield, leading to an ambitious city centre performance in Summer 2022. Local Young Producer Interns will work with professional Artists and the Chol team to discover young people’s hopes and fears about what their world will be like, thirty years from now.
The Listen 52 team will hit the road in Chol’s new mobile base, the Cholavan, creatively engaging hundreds of children and young people in their locality.
The team delivering this project come from a variety of backgrounds and localities across Sheffield and Yorkshire. They are currently planning a number of creative workshops and activities for schools and community partners that will be delivered between February through to May 2022. These activities will take place in the heart of four communities across Sheffield, including Burngreave, Sharrow, Walkley, and Manor.
Shaping and creating this programme from the very beginning are our cohort of Young Producer Interns.
Meet the Young Producer Interns
Alfie Askham: Alfie Askham is an eighteen year old with a passion for performing arts. Over time, his love for acting has grown, and he has developed his interest through gaining as much experience as possible and meeting new people within the arts sector. As well as films, he is also passionate about computer games, the theatre and film making. He is excited about the possibilities this internship will bring, including meeting people who have the same creative interests as he does.
Evie Kaisi: Evie is a seventeen year old student at High Storrs Sixth form, where she is currently in rehearsals for the school’s production of Les Misérables. Performing is something she has always been passionate about, she grew up in love with musicals and going to the theatre. In her current production she is excited to be bringing the role ‘Eponine’ to life. She hopes to take her love for the arts further and make a career out of it. She is looking forward to seeing what kind of new experiences working on this project with Chol will bring, and working creatively with other young people.
Lois Adamson: Lois Adamson is a second year college student, studying level three performing arts. She has a huge passion for theatre and a love to perform on stage, bringing to life all different styles of theatre, whether it be a conversation starting piece about young people facing their own challenges in life, or a pantomime full of singing and dancing! She has a strong dedication to using theatre to bring awareness to different issues within society, and believes that the power of theatre is enough to have a positive impact on our world. Past experiences in theatre include taking part in the Shakespeare festival two years running and the project Inherited Cities with the Third Angel Theatre company. She is excited to bring this project to life and meet new people along the way!
Maia Gaskell: Maia Gaskell is a Sheffield-based freelance director and writer in theatre and film. She has a commitment to developing people’s skill set as well as helping people achieve their dreams whilst gaining experience. Alongside the Listen 52 internship, she is beginning to establish a journey of devising her own theatre company, allowing individuals to expand their experience as well as presenting new and exciting opportunities.
Mani Latifi: Mani Latifi is a nineteen year old actor and screenplay writer. He is interested to develop his knowledge and experiences in producing, to compliment his skills in acting and writing. He looks forward to starting the Listen 52 project with Chol, which he hopes will allow him to help to gain experience and guide him through the right pathway to become a creative producer and actor.
Will Gabbitas
Will Gabbitas is currently studying Performing Arts Level 3 Diploma at Sheffield College. His passion for entertaining and performing started when he was in secondary school and got involved with the musical theatre extracurricular activities. Since then he has found a passion for performing, and has got involved in as many things as he can. He worked with Chol as an actor on a previous project and really enjoyed it so when he saw another opportunity he felt he had to get involved.
Alex Barrett
Hi my name is Alex! I’m 19 and studying Drama and Contemporary Performance at Manchester Metropolitan University. I really hope to help bring exposure to the arts, specifically theatre to those who would otherwise not get a chance to explore just how interesting and exciting it can be!
Our talented interns will be co-creating alongside a number of the Chol team and Professional Artists in a range of disciplines.
Meet the Artists
Trevor Grossett: Trevor is Managing Director of Redroad FM and Outreach and Engagement worker with Rotherham MBC. He has many years experience in Youth and Community work including international work, residential, street based and project work, promoting youth engagement and education through the use of music and media technology. Before devoting his work to youth work and radio, Trevor worked as an artist and music producer working with a range of artists including Jarvis Cocker, Danielle Minogue and Take That. Picture coming soon.
Ruth Dyer: Ruth is a Multidisciplinary Artist whose work spans illustration and installation. She specialises in collaboration with people of all ages who don’t consider themselves to be artists, helping to turn their experiences and ideas into great pieces of art.
Site Gallery: Site Gallery is Sheffield’s contemporary art space specialising in new media, moving image and performance. Pioneering emerging art practices and ideas, Site works in partnership with local, regional and international collaborators to nurture artistic talent and supports the development of contemporary art.
Site is supported by Arts Council England NPO programme and Sheffield City Council. It completed an expansion programme in 2018 which created a brand new large-scale gallery space and two dedicated Studios for events, screenings and smaller scale programmes.
Meet the Chol Team
Lauren Townsend: Lauren Townsend is a Yorkshire-based emerging creative producer working in theatre, live events, film and community arts. A commitment to engaging all communities in the arts and increasing diversity in the creative workforce is at the core of her practice and she is keenly interested in establishing cross-collaboration between mediums and artforms.
Lauren Ash: Lauren Ash is an actor and artist facilitator with over twenty years experience working in the creative sector. She joined Chol after furthering her academic career through completing a Masters in Performing Arts at the University of Manchester in 2015. She is passionate about delivering workshops that help to enrich the lives of the participants in many ways, including confidence building, engaging, producing creativity and educating.
If you are interested to get involved or find out more about the program please get in touch with Lauren Ash on Lauren@wearechol.co.uk. Keep an eye on our website and socials for the development of this exciting new project.
This programme has been made possible through public funding through Arts Council England.
