Giving students a platform

People say money makes the world go round but the Platform Festival was all about creativity over commercialism. The wide variety of acts showed how all fresh and original ideas were welcomed with open arms.

Venues coordinator Clare Colbourne said: “After the success of the student comedy festival we thought it would be really nice to do one dedicated to performing arts.

“We thought it should be a weekend where anyone could put on what they wanted. We wanted lots of student written stuff that you wouldn’t normally see if it was a commercial thing.”

The money raised will go to charity, specifically Cavendish Cancer Care and the Halifax based Actor’s Workshop. The events themselves were funded by £650 raised at an auction at Vodka Revolution in March.

The idea was to get as many people from Sheffield involved, from people who had never written theatre pieces before to people who aren’t students at the University of Sheffield.

Many of the talented actors that took part are already involved with Sheffield University Theatre Company (SUTCO) and the Performing Arts Society but the festival also welcomed newcomers.

“The guy who played Jack in The Importance Of Being Earnest works in the Union box office. He had never done anything like this before and he’s the leader next year.”

So how did a group of students organise a festival at the busiest time of the academic year?

“We’ve had a committee where we’ve all had different roles in things like the publicity and the technical side. It was Selina Thompson’s brain child and she has driven it through from the very beginning.

“But essentially everyone has worked together and been involved in ushering and carrying crap from venue to venue.”

The festival had a DIY spirit to it and was very open and welcoming for people to put forward their ideas.

Colbourne said: “It was really difficult to choose what acts we would put on. Sean who is in charge of content had the job of sifting through everyone’s ideas and we really wanted to give new people the opportunity to go ahead and do it.

“Where possible we’ve just gone ‘Well, if you want to do it in the garden you can’ so we tried to be flexible.”

While having fun was one of the main priorities for the team, they also managed to deal with thought-provoking issues based on student’s experiences. Colbourne said: “

“A group of students asked people with mental health problems to write about them, and they took the documents and made a performance out of it.

“It was really interesting and cleverly done and it focused on bulimia and depression.”

The acts took place in venues surrounding the Union and the idea was to open up the venues to the Sheffield community.

“The most interesting venue has actually been the Arts Tower which at first I thought would be a nightmare because it’s under construction.

“But the guy that wanted to do it thought he would never get the opportunity again, so the festival’s about following what you want to do really.”

Many students without performing experience took part and having fun was still at t h e t o p of the agenda. But the professional standard and talent shone through, so it was quite surprising that they didn’t spend too long rehearsing.

Colbourne said: “The maximum time spent rehearsing for each show was 12 hours. It was more like 6!

“Everyone involved is quite talented and we didn’t want it to be a massive stress. We wanted everyone to come along and have fun.”

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the first Platform Festival. At one point the Union porters didn’t know who the team were when they tried to get into a venue, which nearly put the events on hold. But with that being the only issue, the festival was a great success.

“More people came than we expected! We were a bit worried because everyone we know who is into t h e a t r e was in o n e of the acts, so we wasn’t sure who would actually watch it.

“But we’ve had really strong audiences and a lot of people came that we didn’t know were coming.”

The festival may have only been a brand new idea but the production team involved wanted to set their ambition high from the start.

Colbourne said: “We had some big plans to do some outside theatre but insurance policy got in the way which was quite upsetting.”

But with the first festival going so well, it looks like we’ll be seeing Platform blossom in the future.

Colbourne said: “I think it will definitely happen again with a new group of people. It started off as a SutCo person’s idea but we tried to really branch it out to other societies and get as many others involved as we can.”