Out of the hood and into your headphones: Bromley South’s new drill theatre programme

25.02.2020

Out of the hood and into your headphones: Bromley South’s new drill theatre programme

Where are the women in the drill scene? What happens when you smash the boundaries between film, music and theatre? These are the questions on the agenda at Bromley South’s latest creative programme.

Running every Monday, 6-8pm at the Linc Centre, Drilling Diamonds is a theatre and music project for the Top Boy generation. The door is wide open to any 15-19 year old who wants to flex their creative muscles and bring their drill bars to life.

 

The Project:

 

Meet Honey. Honey is 19 years old; Stratford born and bred. She lives her mum, Lolliday, and her son, Elijah. Honey loves her son, but not going to lie though, child care is not really top of Honey’s priorities – sorry Lolliday. Honey wants to get out of the hood and into your headphones. She wants to make it big.

In the words of Theatre Coordinator Ellie, “Right now, the Drill music scene is fire. We were fed up that it was only being talked about negatively on most of the big media platforms. Let’s face it, what do politicians know about what’s really going on, whether on the block or on the socials? Drilling Diamonds was created to change up the discussion. We should be celebrating the creativity that goes into writing bars, making a track and shooting a music video.”

So, what is really going on? Tavoi, a young actor and artist involved in the project, explains: “What the Government don’t understand is that listening to Drill keeps me safe. When I do leave the block I know what to do and what to say.”

Importantly, the programme asks the question – where the ladies at? Women are making drill music, so where is their voice? A recent investigation found that in the entire music industry, women only make up under 22% of artists – and that’s as a whole, not even the grime or drill scenes. So what better way to look at this than by exploring the potential world of a female drill musician and the people and stories within it?

 

Two of the Drilling Diamonds actors in performance. Boy sitting on the left wearing a red tracksuit being questioned by a girl sitting down on the right holding a notepad

Two of the Drilling Diamond actors take to the stage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get Involved:

 

We’re putting a call out to all actors, musicians, filmmakers, writers, directors or anyone who is just feeling a bit artistic.

There will be opportunities to perform on stage in a piece of touring theatre, star in a series of short films, get behind the camera, make music in our state of the art music studio, work with world class directors and much, much more – you can shape the direction the project goes in.

There will paid opportunities during our intensive week of filming in the Easter and later in the summer holidays, as well as trips to see ground-breaking performances like grime-influenced gig theatre, Canary and the Crow and a coming of age play based around Dizzee Rascal’s debut album Poet in Da Corner.

And if even that’s not enough, here’s some feedback from young people already involved in the project:

E: “I’ve learnt so much more about Grime & Drill – it’s actually an informative thing, a space for learning and there are females on the [music] scene.”

C: “This project is cool, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

T: “The space feels inclusive – I’m excited to see how the characters develop”

This project is delivered collaboration with theatre company Playing ON and receives funding from the Young Londoner’s Fund and the Wakefield and Tetley Foundation.

To get involved come along to Bromley South Spotlight, Mondays at 6pm or drop Ellie a message at elinor@wearespotlight.com or on her mobile 07960 989423.