On 22nd September, nine young performers performed "Our Stories, Our Voices: Growing Up Multilingual With Chinese Heritage" in the Spiegeltent at Barker's Pool in Sheffield, as part of the University of Sheffield's Festival of the Mind.
We had rehearsed since June, with support from Theatre Deli. Together, we looked at the data and decided what we wanted to share, and how we wanted to share it. The rehearsals and performance were a further part of the co-produced element of the study, ensuring that children and young people growing up multilingual with Chinese heritage had agency in how their stories would be shared. Some of the young performers chose a longer piece of data as a monologue, some used a recurring theme or topic to create their own monologue, and others brought their own stories and experiences into the mix. We also used shorter excerpts of data and grouped them together, to share a variety of positive and negative experiences, and, elsewhere in the production, experiences of racism and marginalisation. The performance ended with a Q&A session. The film of the whole performance will be available soon, at which point, it will be added below, so make sure to check back.