Out today: A Spell in the Army and The House that Jack Built: 2 play scripts and 8 invocations for young people.

We’re delighted to publish our first book of play scripts today: A Spell in the Army by Nick Owen and The House that Jack Built by Mike Kenny.

‘Spell’ was produced by the Bramley Bratpack youth theatre and written by Nick Owen. 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.

‘Jack’ was produced by Theatre Co. Blah Blah Blah and written by Mike Kenny. It was the first collaboration between Mike and Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah in 1987; the first of twelve new commissions over thirty years. The play came out of a devising process where we delved into our own family histories to find that we did not have to go that far back before questions arose to which we did not have the answers.

There were two stories competing for our attention, one was about a cousin who had disappeared and was still out there somewhere and the other story was the revelation at the funeral that the deceased husband/father had had two families. We went for the second story and we called the man with two families, Jack and we set it at his funeral.

Our audience were teenagers in youth centres and schools, so keeping them in mind while we worked on the play, we focused on the question “when do you know if you’re a grown up?” providing the frame through which to view this family saga. It is a question that will always be relevant and changes depending on historical and societal contexts. Western cultures have always struggled with creating clear sign posts for young people to feel like they have arrived in adulthood, dismissing “rites of passage” rituals in older indigenous cultures as primitive. So what do they come up with instead in 2024? National Service?

The two plays were part of a triple bill of theatre by, for and with young people performed at at Bramley Stop Theatre in Leeds.

Pointing to the offer of ‘other invocations for young people’, the book also includes 8 short essays about the challenges young people have faced over the last eight years written by Nick Owen. 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.

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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.

You can order your copy here!