G-Expressions are excited to announce our brand-new musical production ‘Urban School of Arts’ written by our Creative Arts Development Officer Nyla Webbe.
With our last production being in 2019, we anticipated when we would be able to do another show and are happy that with thanks to funding from Arts Council Wales we are finally in a position to make it happen.
G-Expressions first took to the stage with their unique plays in 2014 with ‘Romeo and Juliet: From the streets’ and then ‘Make or Break’ in 2015, and after some time away we came back bigger with ‘Sister’s Acting Up’ in 2018 and finally ‘Hard Knock Life’, all of our shows were written and directed by the wonderful Welsh actress Alexandria Riley who has played a big part in the development of our organisation.
Nyla was handed the baton of creating the storyline for the next show when Alex stepped away from GX to continue pursuing her career within the TV and Film industry. After shadowing under Alex for several years and having a passion and talent for writing and acting, Nyla created ‘Urban School of arts’.
The play is our most original yet, having taken real life topics that young people face, and creating an original soundtrack, with, and for the teenagers that attend our sessions and workshops. We have lots of dance, music and acting in this show with multiple roles for both teenagers and adults. However, we are cautious that this show does express topics that may be sensitive to some and have fully qualified staff to support anyone who has been affected by any of the issues addressed in the show. The importance of the issues mentioned in the show are to give people an insight into what some teenagers go through and to have a better understanding to the challenges as well as raising awareness.
Urban School of arts is about a group of teenagers who get the chance to attend a performing arts school to complete a year of training, to up skill themselves and develop as creative artists before facing the big world. The group of 6 each come from different backgrounds and face different challenges in life. Some find it difficult to get through, but with the structure and support of the school and the friendships they make, they grow along the way and are there for each other. Tasha, who seems to have it all soon finds out she is not the ‘celeb’ she wants to be and gets caught up in substance misuse. Riley has always felt like he must prove himself and also finds himself in a tricky situation but is it too late for him to get out?
These young people are facing real life situations that teenagers of today face whilst trying to find themselves and be everything they dream to be. Follow their journey as they learn, grow, and express who they are!
With the focus of the play on our 6 teenagers, we also have 5 adult roles, with an additional 4 other speaking parts and plenty of dancers, we are hoping to reach out to high schools, colleges and communities to get involved and have fun.
You can now watch the full play online here!
The show will take place February 2023
