Performance-based co-creation with young people as political activism: contextualising and disseminating the work of Fevered Sleep

This project explores the ways in which intergenerational co-production of performance-based works and their preservation can help overcome the marginalisation of children and young people, formulate their worldviews, and shape their political activism. It takes as its focal point three key productions by the widely acclaimed company Fevered Sleep whose pioneering work is part of a long, if poorly documented and under-theorised history of co-creation with young people as a form of political activism in the UK. The project charts the evolution of the organisation's work with young people and situates it within those little-known or unacknowledged histories. Drawing on performance and cultural studies, sociology and childhood studies, and innovatively building bridges between those fields, it will excavate, explore and disseminate practices which enable children to be more effectively seen and heard. Children and young people will be engaged throughout the project lifecycle, as interviewees and audiences directly shaping research outputs and as contributors on an equal footing to adults in events and workshops. The project facilitates exchange between creative practitioners and researchers concerning co-creation with young people and enables Fevered Sleep to archive and present their working methods to the wider public, articulate their distinctive contribution and disseminate best-practice.