Lizi Patch tells us how she’s helping to build a powerful bridge between young people and the performing arts industry.
Lizi Patch is a director, writer, dramaturg, and freelance co-founder and artistic director of Leeds Heritage Theatres (LHT) Young People’s Theatre for the past 13 years. With a career spanning many facets of performing arts, Lizi has become a vital force in the creative development of young performers in Leeds and beyond. “I originally trained as an actor at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. After a few years working as an actor, (and a waitress in equal measures!) I took an MA in Theatre Directing at the University of East Anglia and ran a youth theatre. As my directing and youth theatre work took off, I started writing the shows I directed as there was very little material out there for large, predominantly female young casts at the time. I definitely got the writing bug through necessity rather than any plan!”
Lizi’s passion project, Leeds Actors in Training (LAIT), is a studio-based training programme that focuses on core skills and works towards a performance or sharing event in the final term: “There are fewer routes into the acting profession for young people, and I wanted to create a programme of work that was affordable, regular, and in-person – we all had a bellyful of remote learning during the pandemic! We provide a welcoming and safe space for each cohort to develop skills with professional artists and like-minded peers. Ideally, they leave with a real sense of who they are as actors/theatre makers with self-belief and a strong network of friends and contacts. Helping the young people I work with in developing a sense of self is my goal.”
“We maintain contact with the alumni, offering opportunities that come along and remaining available for advice and mentorship and offering resources where possible,” says Lizi, who is deeply committed to supporting participants beyond the duration of the programme. “There are free places for those that need them, and we run the sessions in the evenings so participants can work or study during the day.”
LAIT not only prepares students for auditions, but also for the realities of a career in the arts: “We spend time talking with and visiting artists working in different areas of the arts to give useful insights. Above all I teach resilience – emotional, mental, physical. It’s hard work but you have to learn how to take the knockbacks, know that if you’re working on being the best you can be then rejection isn’t personal; feel annoyed for an evening then move on because you are the product. It’s not for everyone, but the rewards can be great.”
“Helping the young people I work with in developing a sense of self is my goal.”
“I’m fortunate in that my role as Director of Leeds Grand Youth Theatre especially, as I see young people grow up through youth theatre; I have members who have been there for 10 years,” Lizi says proudly as she talks about the biggest rewards of her roles. “It sounds corny, but we go through a lot together and I’m as much changed by them as they are by me.”
On 26th and 27th June, this year’s LAIT students will be performing their rendition of The Maladies at Seven Arts in Chapel Allerton: “The Maladies crosses time and space from a dancing ‘disease’ in France in the 1500s to a laughing ‘epidemic’ in Tanzania in 1962, to mass twitching in an American high school. When a group of women in London mysteriously fall silent, no one can work out why. The team at an all-female podcast decide to investigate. Their journey causes them to butt heads, long-held secrets of past epidemics are revealed. As they dig deeper the lines between past and present blur, revealing a shocking journey through 500 years of fictional history.”
“The play links the stories through the lens of a female podcast being slowly taken over by a corporate company (headed up by males) and asks questions about how these incidences are framed, the use of the term ‘hysteria’, and begs the question why it’s predominantly women and girls who succumb to these incidents.”
Lizi explains why the piece resonates so strongly with the company’s mission to give young adults a powerful platform for expression: “It’s perfect for LAIT as it’s an ensemble piece, tackling some really important issues. Finding these sorts of plays is gold dust – they are still few and far between for the 18–25 age range. Seven Arts is the perfect venue as it’s adaptable, intimate, and run by lovely accommodating staff who really care about the work we do.”
