'The Hidden'

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Abstract

“You know, it’s relatively easy to engage primary school children with our activities here. But teenagers, that’s so much harder. And I’ve got teenagers of my own. I know!”.

She rolled her eyes.

“They certainly can be tough,” I replied.

“Look, I’ve seen other Visible Fictions shows in non-traditional spaces for young people and I’m wondering if this is something you’d be interested in helping us do here? To get teenagers excited about our library. Can you help?”

And so went part of a conversation I had with the Head Librarian of a major Glasgow library. Ah the thrill of a challenge I thought – to engage teenagers in public libraries through a theatre piece! After all, in the eyes of adolescents, libraries aren’t renowned for their abundance of cool, and no amount of lesson-giving about their importance is going to wash with a teenager’s innate and skilful ability for scepticism. The conversation with the Librarian had coincided fortunately with a previous meeting I’d had with an artist and interactive games maker - Cameron Hall. He and I were keen to explore making a theatre piece that had gaming at its heart - that had to be played rather than just watched. I knew that these ideas could be connected.

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