“When other organisations might be slowing down because they’re not getting people wanting to attend them, we’re growing, because we change with the youth. And I think that’s really important. That’s really pivotal to why [Corrugated Iron has] reached 40,” says 15-year-old Alice Cotter, one of several young leaders who ensure young people’s ideas and influences play a direct role in shaping the annual artistic program of Corrugated Iron Youth Arts.
The Northern Territory’s leading youth arts company, Corrugated Iron – colloquially known as ‘Corro’ – celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, with a program that reflects the company’s past while also looking firmly to the future.
Cotter is one of several Corrugated Iron Champions who work with both the Board and Corrugated Iron’s executive team while also facilitating projects and programs, hosting events and contributing to the company’s long-term vision.
“I like to call us the SRC [Student Representative Council] of Corro. We provide Corro with ideas that come from the youth themselves, so that [the company] have this idea of what the youth want and how Corro can become really youth led,” Cotter explains.
Operating out of Nightcliff, one of Darwin’s northern suburbs, on Larrakia country, Corrugated Iron was established in 1984 and grew out of a community arts program at Brown’s Mart Theatre. The impact Corro has made over 40 years is reflected in the names of its alumni, who include actors Miranda Tapsell and Ursula Yovich and playwrights Stephen Carleton and Ciella Williams.
Reflecting on the company’s origins, Zoe Scrogings, Corrugated Iron’s Executive Producer and CEO, says: “A group of visionaries wanted to have a youth theatre company and it started out as a project all those years ago, and then just grew with huge momentum.
“Our Chairperson, Megan Lawton, was one of those young people back in the day when she was 14. She was reminiscing with me the other day, and she remembers going to rehearsals in a shed, and that’s where our name comes from – a corrugated iron shed. She remembers that there were bullet holes in the corrugated iron from World War Two.
“So I think that sense of grit and the Territory’s unique essence has really carried through down the years. Corro came from a really grounded place of parents wanting activities and creative arts and theatre for their young people. So it just carried forward with such huge momentum, because it filled a really important need, and there was a big community of people wanting it to happen for their children,” Scrogings explains.
Today, Corrugated Iron Youth Arts plays a crucial role in a region where there is no tertiary training for the performing arts or a major performing arts company. Nor are the company’s activities, which include theatre training, circus skills development, workshops, performances and special projects, presented in Darwin alone. Corrugated Iron delivers artistic experiences across the Northern Territory through partnerships with schools and community organisations in regional, remote and very remote locations.
Read: This primary school’s a circus … and its results are no joke
As well as being youth-led, Scrogings says another of Corrugated Iron’s strengths is that the company recognises young people as artists in their own right.
“We really see young people not as symbols of the future, because sometimes that can be quite shallow – we actually position and value young people as makers of art in their own right, now. And that can be very interesting, because you’re on the precipice of really incredible youth culture and subcultures. And giving young people a space to explore that and test out and experiment is incredibly powerful and has a really lasting effect,” she tells ArtsHub.
The lasting benefits of youth arts
The benefits of engaging with Corrugated Iron’s programs from a young age are very much evident to and articulated by the company’s Chair, Megan Lawton, a respected chief executive and legal professional.
“Celebrating our 40th birthday has been a really good time to reflect on how Corro came into being and who was responsible for what I’ve described as ‘lighting a spark’ in me,” Lawton says.
“One of our early performances was a collaboration with the Darwin Theatre Company and we also did a performance of Medea. So what I reflect on, how it’s really impacted me, is that it gave me a level of confidence that has never really gone away and a level of self-belief to be expressive and passionate, and I even bring that to the work I do today.”
Read: The power of youth arts
As an example, Lawton describes leaving the Territory in order to study at Melbourne’s La Trobe University in the 1980s, where her courses included drama and art history.
“I remember vividly my first day at university and walking into this large space and there was this circle of people sitting on the floor. And what I didn’t clock at the time, because I walked in there bold as brass and as confident as ever, was that they were all sitting on the floor in their black Levi’s and black shirts and I walked in wearing the colours of the tropics,” she laughs.
“I had some hand-printed shorts that my baby sister painted herself, and I had turned this cloth into a pair of shorts, and I happily, gleefully, and with that confidence of a Corro kid, sat down in that room and took my place because I felt very much entitled and welcome and confident that I was in the right place.
“I think that level of confidence and awareness has been a real key element in my development as a professional and also in my connection to the Territory,” Lawton emphasises.
Corrugated Iron Youth Arts: Futures Collide
Corrugated Iron’s 40th anniversary is celebrated throughout October with a special program of events called Futures Collide.
Upcoming events include Circus Tricks & Flips, presented with the community of Arlparra and homelands across the Utopia region, including Urapuntja and Amengernterneah; a performance of William Shakespeare and Andy Griffiths’ Just Romeo and Juliet! at the Corrugated Iron Performance Space, presented by Bell Shakespeare; All My Friends Are Dead Turning 40, featuring extracts from 40 years of previous Corro productions, and of course, a birthday party.
Scrogings says All My Friends Are Dead Turning 40, which is presented by Corrugated Iron’s theatre ensemble, Company C, and collaborators, is “a look at young people now in the company, and a bit of a retrospective on some of the works that we’ve done in the past and placing them in today’s context – just seeing how some of the themes are very similar and some of the themes are quite different.”
As with all of Corrugated Iron’s activities, the Futures Collide program has been very much youth-led, with the Corrugated Iron Champions playing a significant role in assembling and shaping the program.
“Some of the work has been in development since the beginning of the year, and it’s largely driven by the Champions… Everything that you see, from the design to the branding of it, is from their input and their ideas and where they want the program to go. Some of the projects are projects that we do regularly – this is a really good opportunity to highlight them – but predominantly the projects are very much driven by young people,” Scrogings says.
“They also wanted a program that could bring in the older generation, which was really surprising to me. They really, really want to pay homage and acknowledge the people that have gone before them. They’re so inspiring with what they’ve done in this program. I’m pretty proud,” she adds.
Corro Champion Alice Cotter is performing in All My Friends Are Dead Turning 40, which she describes as “going through all the plays of Corro’s past”.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever met Benhur [Helwend, Corrugated Iron’s Creative Producer (Programs)], but one of the excerpts that we do is from a show called Branded, which Benhur was in in the 90s, and there are pictures of that that we’re showing in projections. So that’s really exciting, because we get to see that whole history,” Cotter says.
While the Futures Collide program is celebrating Corro’s past, it also looks to the future: so what would Cotter say to young people who are thinking of joining Corrugated Iron Youth Arts in years to come?
“Oh, just join and try it out, because it’s such a welcoming space, and we’ll love you, and we all want you there, and we’ll do whatever it takes for you to feel comfortable and for you to feel in your own skin there,” she says.
“And if the reason why you don’t want to join Corro is because you’re too scared, then we can help you through that, because Corro’s really, really good and really professional at providing a welcoming, fantastic environment for that to happen,” Cotter concludes.
Learn more about Corrugated Iron Youth Arts and the company’s 40th anniversary Futures Collide program.
