A SPELL IN THE ARMY was the third production by the Bramley Bratpack, the youth theatre company based at Bramley Stop in Leeds way back in 1988. Informed by the debates at the time about national service and conscription, it seems apt – some 36 years later – to revisit the production at a time of a national election in the UK when there has been much talk about young people and how they should be living their lives.
Pointing to the offer of ‘other invocations for young people’, the book also includes short essays about the challenges young people have faced over the last eight years written by the author. As well as being Independence Day in the USA, 4th July is also the 8th anniversary of his role as CEO of the national charity, The Mighty Creatives: so this seemed a good a time as any to take stock of what stories are being spun about, by and for young people.
.
Whilst ‘SPELL’ was written and produced in 1988, our illustrator, Paul Warren was in the army between 1961 and 1964. He remembers the last call-up chaps being demobbed when he joined the battalion after basic training and his images are impressions of memories of those early days as a young, innocent rookie in ill-fitting khaki denims.
Published on 4 July, there’ll be an additional surprise announcement of a special collaboration with some leading youth theatre practitioners and writers to boot!
