Gender Lab

The Gender Lab brought together fourteen artists from Belgium, Scotland, Ireland, Norway and Denmark to explore the representation of gender and sexual identity in theatre and dance for children. Led by Ivor MacAskill, the group worked together over 8 days from Monday 30 of January to Monday 6 of February 2017.

PUSH made me remember the boy I was. It made me think about how much of a force failure (and its consequent need to seem normal) has been in shaping my life. It has made me want to make some work that would appeal to that boy. But more than that it has made this work seem vital.

—Rob Evans

The group were based at Lyra in Craigmillar, Edinburgh with a packed programme that included:

  • spending time talking and sharing ideas together
  • a workshop with Yvon Bonenfant on how to use children's voicings to explore gender and queerness
  • creating and delivering workshops to two groups of young people (Lyra Young Company and Niddrie Mill Primary School P7s)
  • creating and performing at a the PUSH Scratch event
  • watching a work in progress of At a Stretch with local schools

Many of the artists who took part in the Gender Lab sent us their reflections and artistic responses in the months after they took part.  You can find them here.

Here is the film of our Lab experience and some photographs, all by Geraldine Heaney. 

PUSH EU - Gender and Sexual Identity Lab from PUSH EU on Vimeo.