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Pintsize Theatre - Kids Having Kids

Project: Kids Having Kids

Region: Nottinghamshire

Amount approved: £12,900

Following a theatre in Education forum hosted by Drinkaware in Summer 2010, those attendees which had received funding for powerful awareness raising pieces on alcohol were invited to submit further bids, irrespective of when their most recent grants had been awarded. Pintsize were the first TiE provider to seize this opportunity and were soon awarded their second Awareness Projects grant for the Kids Having Kids initiative, a theatre tour concerning alcohol and sexual health delivered in the final third of 2010.

The play revolves around a girl who conceives a child at sixteen after unprotected sex under the influence and who is clearly struggling despite obvious devotion to her baby. The piece even features the scene where her partner convinces her to have sex with him, using all manner of appalling myths regarding contraception, with the result that she gives in due to the effect of alcohol on her judgment. A female friend of hers continues to drink irresponsibly despite what she has seen her suffer, while her parents are shown to be utterly inept where discussions of sex are concerned. Meanwhile, the child’s father, who has so far avoided all responsibility but is just starting to show interest, is aggressive towards her in a pub while drinking with his friends, threatening to hurt her if she pesters him for help again.

These are just some of the situations depicted, but the whole play demonstrates the role drinking plays in such scenarios while making it clear that alcohol consumption, sex and parenthood are adult matters and extremely difficult to manage if undertaken too early. The facilitated workshop that follows allows the audience to quiz each character in detail, exposing the different mistakes they all have made and how they might have acted more responsibly.

The grant allowed Pintsize to extend this Autumn tour by thirty performances, with accompanying resources for further classroom learning, thereby reaching schools, across the county rather than just Nottingham city. As with Pintsize’s other 2010 award, this project also puts on shows for parents so that they can find out the ways in which their children learn the facts and how they might improve their own approaches to communicating them.

Page last updated by: Unknown, 10 May 2012.

Page checked on: 03 Dec 2010