The Power of Breaking Rules & Deviating From Expectation | Felix Barrett | TEDxAlleyns School Youth
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yNMDTBQio0 Video ID: 8yNMDTBQio0 ============================================================ hello everyone uh I'm Felix Barrett uh and I'm a theater director by trade but I'm here uh tonight um this evening very proud to be because I truly owe my career to this school to Alain and the inspiration that I got of this place I would clap but I can't with this um 30 years ago uh as a student here um I was a lot like some of the people here and out there where hungry to learn excited but I personally didn't quite know where my sort of um where my path lay what my trajectory was um I hadn't really solved it um and so in my final year I was doing theater studies a level and um there's part of that a level you there was an assessment which was a practical piece and because in that time most of my fellow uh theater studies students were aspiring actors it was the norm for it to be a monologue on a stage like this declamatory um but ironically considering I'm up here now and you're down here uh this is not my sweet spot and I actually kind of hate being up here really my my place is behind the scenes out of the Limelight so I thought I come much I can do that uh and what was amazing was that two very important people heard my plea and they thought about it they checked the assessment criteria of the exam board um and then uh Matthew gron and Jeff Tonkin to my teachers um gave me my first uh opportunity at directing here at allain's um it was an amazing thing um and not only did they say Hey you know have a go at directing they said just do it but why don't you try and break the mold of it try and discover what directing can be pretty bold consider it was my first chance um what um what I thought it was going to be was I would be there like giving notes to my fellow uh classmates as they do their Shakespeare monologue giving them advice on how to move their arms um but that wasn't enough for Mr Grant and Mr tonin it's very hard to shift the Mis even 30 years later um they said no no push go go further go harder so I ended up taking over the old gym over there um and um striking out every single object that was in there then uh Mr Grant and Mr tonin managed to sort of um uh Commander one of the Ali's Vans and we spent a weekend together driving around sduk going to refu tips and like just getting scrap metal all sorts of white goods sort of fridges and uh and the like and bringing all of that here building a mountain of detritus in the old gym and then going to get uh two tons of sand and laying it across the floor I mean it sounds ridiculous and what was crazy is that at the time I was thinking why am I allowed to do this let alone be encouraged to do it um but what was amazing was that was their whole philosophy they wanted us to take risks and in their words they said we're better to fail than at school where you can be caught and let down gently so that was uh 30 years ago and now um I'm privileged enough to have really never stopped from that point and um we've now got shows uh we got running in New York and Shanghai uh and I've got to say that both of them include copious amounts of sand so some things we'll learn here really haven't changed um but what was amazing about those teachers is that I really do owe it I owe my all of it to them um because at that point I couldn't quite see where I was going couldn't see the path and I really believe that if you can't see the location in front of you then how do you know how to get there so what they did their inspiration their enthusiasm blazed a trail and it's one that I've been following ever since um and really obviously it was amazing that they gave me the uh impetus you know the build to show over there but actually it was more than that it was their whole attitude and they gave me sort of central tenants to um to how I should approach my theatrical life and my life so I wanted to share three of those with you so Mr Grant and Mr tonen first first one they gave me was to discover the joy in learning sounds obvious but really what was amazing was that they were as excited about learning as we were at that time they were teaching um they were trying to um find the most obscure things to bring to the party in the same way they encouraged me to to deviate from the syllabus they thought we could teach the classics sure it's important but why don't we go to the Outer Limits so they were also secretly on the side teaching us about obscure polish theater companies where um they the performers been woken at 5: in the morning uh they'd have to bench press a car engine till 9:00 they would had one sausage for breakfast it's weird that I still remember this now and what was important about it was almost not it was the excitement that they it was infectious they were learning with us and truly they just wanted to feel it at the same time um and I think the main lesson there for me was we were pupils they were teachers but we were equal in our curiosity about what you could do with the form number two they expanded my horizons all of our Horizons they were fascinated by The Depths and breadths the extremities of theater like what's out there that you can't initially see uh so again the usual thing to do the norm would have been on a sixth form school trip to go to the RSC and see uh Midsummer nightstream uh great theater cross Arch um valuable but that wasn't enough for Mr trunin and Mr Grant no they wanted to subvert it and undercut it so we ended up instead in an abandoned prison underneath uh London Bridge uh somewhere uh where there was a giant installation that had been created Labyrinth thing um and it took place in almost pure Darkness had no performers as well so was it even theater um but what was amazing was that none of us had seen anything like it and um Mr Grom um is now a friend and he reminisces about taking us all to see to see this this piece and coming out had had his class size came out and suddenly the group had dis diminished and he had to go back in and pull each one of us out because we were there almost a struck by touched by the artistic Gods couldn't believe this was allowed to exist um and something genuinely changed that day and truly for me that I can really place it on that day that was the point when theater and school became dangerous and electric and then that is really valuable um the third thing they taught us to push boundaries push push push does it matter if directing isn't the norm for an a level no uh does it matter if two tons of sand uh take quite a long time to install and quite a very long time to strike out of there no does it matter that all of the audience that came to see it complained about having sand in their shoes for the next two weeks kind of but no for them it was all about giving us free reign as young people to like trust to take those risks because they thought that is empowerment um and my gosh they were right so here I am 30 years later and I was thinking well they gave me so much what if inspiration is empowerment what can I give this room um so I thought about all of the things that um that they're impressed upon you uh that uh people give you words of advice and and uh you know Pearls of Wisdom um and thought about it and actually I think that's very valuable and really all of you my advice is to take that listen to it when people hands over absorb it but I think you should do the opposite of what they say so in the spirit of Mr Grant and Mr tonan I would like to give you three things that it's common Palance things that we you know we've grown up thinking we should do but I think you should absorb them think about them and then not do them at all so the first one is um they often say Don't run before you can walk that I think is incorrect really we should all be running now because my gosh life will evaporate before your very eyes if you sort of trudge through it slowly you should run at life screaming um and I mean sure sure you're going to fall over you're going to you're going to graze your knee but think of the amount of land you will have traveled you're going to have the wind blowing in your hair you're going to have your heart beating in your chest and my gosh you're going to feel alive two people often say try not to make too many mistakes actually I think we should all be making as many mistakes as possible really that's the way we learn make the mistake learn from it move on with confidence of my biggest breakthroughs have been when I've got it completely disastrously wrong and actually in the depths of Despair when you're like oh why have I done it that way um and you're your lowest point there's a real Euphoria that's very precious when you suddenly realize the light is there you were just looking in the wrong direction and then third um you've um You probably been told make sure you don't um you know you uh you stick to the rules everyone yep that has its place but equally rules are there for breaking uh you should be breaking the rules of how you make theater break the rules of how uh you plan a lesson and you teach your pupils um truly as a company the people we like to meet the ones who deviated from the beaten path because the stories the images the people they've met along the way the experience they've gathered is so so valuable and that's where the real originality lies um so to round off um this this amazing day um just what to say so first need to to students I suppose to myself 30 years ago when I was here um you know you're one thing my gosh you have such an adventure ahead of you it's phenomenal and um all I can offer is that think about that path even if you can't see it now that's fine but think about what you might want to do might what you might want to see what you might want to be doesn't matter but then think about what if you were to do the opposite because then suddenly your perspective is doubled and your world grows but then for the teachers in the room um my goodness it feels like you have the greatest gift you literally have the power to transform and change lives you know like my life was changed by Mr tonken and Mr you can adapt you can build you can inspire you can transform that is so precious and cherish it um sadly two years ago Mr Tonkin Jeff passed away and um he was such a huge inspiration that um I dedicated our most recent London show and actually the launch of our new building here in London uh to him so in the program um it I made sure that he would be the first name you would read because it's a profound impact and I really hope that demonstrates the power of inspiration that he and alain's gave me um so truly I hope for the teachers here um I hope some point in the next Well in 30 years time one of your current pupils I hope they're on this stage thanking you for the inspiration that you gave them from me thank you Jeff and thank you Alain