RILEY MCLEAN grew up in theatre making his performance bones at Hamilton’s Young People’s Theatre.
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Now the 21-year-old is the driving force behind an experimental, youth-focused theatre company.
“After high school some friends and I started Eclectic Productions,” McLean said. “It was the first breakaway from regular theatre we did.
“Eclectic was just about young people like me having a go and putting on other people’s stuff.”
From Eclectic has come Bearfoot Theatre.
“It’s a branch of Eclectic, but just for original plays,” he said. “It’s so interesting and worthwhile to put on original stuff. It makes you feel ‘wow’.”
“It’s about getting new work out there, because there is a lot of repeating of the sames shows over and over.
“Whereas, if we are always doing new stuff, it’s such a fresh take and it gives young actors, directors and writers a chance to get their work staged and explored.
“It’s important to hear the voices from the young generation.”
About 30 local actors, writers and directors have been involved in the company.
“It’s been really, really good and I can’t wait to see how it goes,” McLean said. “We are going to push it. It’s definitely very early stages, we only started it two years ago.”
So far, Bearfoot has staged McLean’s original work Do Your Parents Know You’re Straight at the Civic Playhouse.
A second production, a dark adaptation of Peter Pan, Take Me to Neverland, was staged in January 2018.
A third work by Newcastle’s Nicholas Thoroughgood, I hope it’s Not Raining in London, is currently in production. It will be staged July 18-21 at Tantrum Studio, Merewether. McLean will direct the show.
“It’s an absurdist play,” McLean said. “It’s about two people trapped in a room together who have to piece together memories from their lives.
“It’s really interesting and we have four cast members who alternate the roles, so you never see the same show twice.
“Some people might even come more than once.”
The work explores the idea of memory and false memories, among other themes.
“There’s a little bit of everything, sexuality, religion, mental health,” McLean said.
The cast – which includes Nicholas Thoroughgood, Cassie Hamilton, Taylor Reece and Jack Twelvetree – is aged between 18-22, while the play is suitable for an audience 14 years and over.
Tickets to I Hope It’s Not Raining in London are available via trybooking.com or via the Bearfoot Theatre Facebook page: facebook.com/bearfoottheatreaus
