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Director’s Introduction – Natalie Wilson

One day in 2012, I was on a London Overground train to Stratford and as I looked out of the window at the passing world, I saw two teenage girls walking along the street. They were huddled together chatting, in their school uniforms, out of school during the day. I don’t know why but it prompted me to wonder what these girls were talking about, what they got out of school, what did they consider to be their future prospects? Did they have hope about what was next for them, or were they already resigned to live within some limited horizon defined by this age of ‘austerity’?

The question that started to form in my mind was “How will young people shape the future?” when all around them they were experiencing cuts and retraction of services that previous generations of young people had possibly taken for granted. How do you make a future when you can’t afford to be educated? I asked three writers to respond to this question and – working with Rose Bruford College students – we developed three new play ideas. One of these was Rise Up by Lisa Evans. Her response was to look into the past – how had young people changed the course of history before? Inspired by Pauline Pearce, the community worker in Hackney who challenged young rioters in 2011 to fight for more than a pair of trainers, Lisa looked at the Freedom Riders – a US civil rights movement in 1961 – as a demonstration of what can happen when you believe in justice and non-violence, and are looking for a better future.

I had never heard of the Freedom Riders and was as galvanised as Lisa to discover their story and present it as an inspiration to ourselves today. This true story of vision, courage, commitment and collective action by young people, black and white, frames important lessons about changing the world through peaceful nonviolent direct action. It’s a story about the fear of change in the Deep South and how even the most entrenched attitudes eventually had to move with the times as a movement took hold. It started with thirteen brave Riders and ended with over 400 souls committed to a cause that shamed the greatest superpower out of complacency and into action. We hope that this story encourages young people to identify injustices in their world and open a space for creativity and courage to change the world for the better and for future generations to come.