International Youth Arts Festival & Stanley Picker Gallery

Illustration by Lucie Arnoux. Courtesy the International Youth Arts Festival

Illustration by Lucie Arnoux. Courtesy the International Youth Arts Festival

Suitable for 15+ / Tickets £8 (two for one entry 23 July) Available from the Rose Theatre Kingston

Shark Tank is a new play written by current Kingston University students which will be performed at the Stanley Picker Gallery in July as part of the International Youth Art Festival 2014. Students Alexandra Chernaya, studying Drama & History of Art, Design & Film, and Nik Way studying Creative Writing with Drama, are both writers and performers and have together formed the collective Nuclear Jam Theatre Company.

Shark Tank deals with the problems of running a commercial contemporary art gallery, the protagonist believing that art can change the world but, despite best intentions, when her gallery begins to struggle she is forced to choose between “selling out and keeping to her artistic vision“. Auditions for the new play were held in March 2014, with the fledgling company rehearsing within the Stanley Picker Gallery itself prior to its public premiere in July.

The International Youth Arts Festival 2014 runs in Kingston upon Thames from 5-27July. Now in its sixth year, it has become one of the largest and most diverse youth events in the country, showcasing the work of hundreds of creative and talented young people in theatre, music, dance, comedy and the spoken word.

Wednesday 9 July Zine Making Workshop
Zines will be exhibited at the Gallery during performance evenings of Shark Tank.

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