Due to the overwhelming requests from students wanting information regarding In Yer Face’s work, we have compiled a series of questions and answers to help. Please feel free to use the information provided for dissertations.

What is the aim of IYF’s work?

In Yer Face aim to present key beliefs of the Christian faith through theatre and drama in a culturally relevant way for young people.

We are committed to the use of and development of theatre as a powerful tool to explore life issues and how they can be met through faith.

Our starting point is to use theatre as a platform for discussion. Scenes are often cited as visual stimulus for putting conversation up on its feet.

Exploring key Christian teaching on God, Jesus, forgiveness, salvation, temptation through incisive immediately relevant drama has become a hallmark of In Yer Face’s work.

We see little use in trying to impose our beliefs on others, nor do we make pre expectations on what our audiences are left with, we simply view our work as helping others come to a clearer understanding of the Christian faith, and enabling them to make informed choices. In Yer Face pay careful consideration and sensitivity towards other people’s faiths, beliefs, thoughts and opinions.

Who are IYF’s audience?

In Yer Face Christian theatre company’s remit is to work largely, though not exclusively, with young people aged 11 – 25.

We always work with a presumption that our audiences know little of the Christian faith, and therefore take them through the basic key beliefs in a clear visual representation.

Past work has seen us perform in High Schools, Colleges, Exclusion referral units, Universities, Prisons, Young offender institutions, Theatres, Churches, festivals, youth groups, nightclubs, community settings, shopping centres, football stadiums, concert halls, arenas, outdoor environments, site specific locations, and various other settings.

Our audience size can range anything between 17000 in an arena to 5 or 6 in an exclusion referral unit.

Who are IYF’s influences in Theatre?

Although various aspects of IYF’s work could probably be traced back to ideas originally pioneered by specific theatre practitioners, we have never set out or intended to follow a specific genre or director.

For example, a theatre module of our education programme is Forum Theatre based, as pioneered originally by Agusto Boal, however, we use this style of theatre not to emulate the work of Boal, but rather for our own means, in order for it to achieve an exploration of forgiveness or some other key teaching of Christianity.

Another example, is our sketch shows, which are interrupted at various stages by teaching and conversation from the actors, out of character, relaying personal experiences and understanding of faith. Again IYF recognise that Bertolt Brecht pioneered ways of destroying traditional theatre’s conventions in a similar fashion, but again, we would say that we implement these methods, not to be brechtian, but in order to give as clear an understanding of faith as possible.

Our approach to producing material can include many accepted ways of producing theatre, from improvisation (as favoured by Mike Leigh or Keith Johnston), or sketch writing and two act plays, to forum based, and even drawing on multi media means (a fairly recent device favoured by contemporary dramatists and companies).

In short, IYF produce original material with no specific source of influence, yet, like all dramatists we draw on a great tradition of theatre’s history to achieve our end.

Is the work of IYF theatre in education?

No, IYF are not a TIE company (we define TIE as the genre of theatre which solely concentrates on working within the education system). In Yer Face is a professional small – medium scale theatre company committed to working with young people, and as such, operate with a large ongoing education programme in High Schools across the UK, however, we are not exclusively a resource for schools.

We also work with young people within prisons and Y.O.I’s, young people at risk of offending, young people in care, students in universities, youth groups, theatres, churches, festivals, nightclubs, and various other non – school environments.

Does IYF use theatre as worship to God?

It is IYF’s main purpose to use theatre as a means to engage young people in thinking about the Christian faith.

Working mostly with young people outside of a church setting, our style of theatre creates live visual representations of basic Christian teaching aiming to give our audience an understanding of what a Christian believes, rather than leading people to a place of worship.

As committed Christians within the company we pray at the start of a working day, and offer our own individual performances as personal acts of worship to God, yet we would consider the overall aim of our work to be different to the aim of a worship music leader.

What is Christian theatre?

“What is Christian theatre?” is a question we are commonly asked by students. We, at IYF believe the question is so broad, that we can only offer a response from our own experience as a Christian theatre company.

We are aware of the long relationship existing between the Christian church and theatre, particularly the place that the mysteries, passion plays and morality plays hold within theatre’s history.

Our own understanding is that all theatre seeks to make a creative expression about something. We, as a Christian theatre company, seek to tell the story of Jesus’ significance to the Christian faith and the world at large today, in a way in which young people can understand.

Other artists working within theatre or Christian theatre would have different aims for their work and as such hold an entirely different understanding of the question.

How do IYF evaluate their work?

At the end of each piece of work the company undertakes an internal review, ranging from informal discussions to documented staff appraisals, identifying strengths and weaknesses to build upon for the future.

All our work is overseen by a board of trustees, to whom the artistic director writes a bimonthly report documenting the ongoing work, and as a registered charity we are required to submit an annual report to the charities commission.

Outside of the charity, we have an independent spiritual overseer, from another Christian trust, who monitors what is being taught, spoken, and written through the company. Each member of IYF is employed under a term requiring that they regularly meet with an accountability person, independent of IYF.

We receive verbal and written feedback both from those who have booked us and from the young people themselves on a regular basis.

Finally, we produce a quarterly newsletter, available to anyone who wishes to receive it, giving a general overview of what is going on.

Is it possible to come and do work experience with IYF?

IYF receive numerous requests each year from people interested in our work. Unfortunately most requests are declined due to our diary commitments or the sensitive arenas in which we sometimes work.

There are occasions when people have arranged to observe our work, but in order to best accommodate those interested, we suggest coming to one of our shows or workshops, see diary, or phone the office for details of an event near you.

Are there any job opportunities with IYF?

IYF staff are employed long term, and the average commitment is around five years, with some of our current staff serving well beyond that. We rarely recruit, however, from time to time, vacancies do appear, so if you wish to send in your CV with a covering letter, we promise to keep it on file and let you know when opportunities do arise.

How is the work of IYF funded?

Our work is financed in two ways:

1)      Gifts, donations and payment from schools, churches etc. with whom we have worked

2)      Regular giving from supporters of our work

Specific previous projects have received funding through grant applications, yet on the whole this is not the case.

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