Yes Yes Yes

Consent, pleasure, boundaries, objectification - it's all complex stuff, and for most of us, it wasn't something we were able to examine as teenagers in a safe, guided space. Following on from the success of Jane Doe, we're developing a new theatre work which is made with, and for, senior secondary school students about just those things - consent, sex, identifying unhealthy behaviours in our relationships, and fostering healthy ones. And we need your help!

Crafted by Eleanor Bishop and Karin McCracken in cahoots with students from Papakura High School and Epsom Girls' Grammar School, Yes Yes Yes will draw from conversations and workshops with a diverse group of young people, and feature filmed interviews and live responses from the audience.

Yes Yes Yes is based on a previous work about rape culture and consent created by Eleanor, called Jane Doe. Jane Doe has toured US colleges (and continues to do so), and was re-staged in New Zealand with Karin McCracken, subsequently travelling to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Guardian's chief theatre critic Lyn Gardner suggested the show "offers such a useful space for debate that it would be good to see this New Zealand production rolled out in classrooms across the globe."

Thanks Lyn! We thought it might be too - but after seeking advice from the experts, realise it doesn't quite fit for a younger age group. With Rape Prevention Education alongside us to provide guidance and support, we're developing Yes Yes Yes according to the best practice teachings for 16 - 18 year olds. This means the show will focus on the skills required to have healthy relationships (sexual and otherwise) - respect, pleasure, checking in with your partner, thinking about what we want to happen. We also want find a way to safely address some of the difficulties people face - feeling objectified, rushed, or shamed, to name a few.

What are our plans?

This June, after a series of workshops with PHS & EGGS, and four weeks' rehearsal, we will present the work at the Auckland Town Hall's Concert Chamber for students, parents, principals, theatre teachers and health teachers from as many Auckland secondary schools as we can squeeze in.

This will be an opportunity to test the work with the students it should speak to and for, and to check the work sits really well within school frameworks. After this showing, we'll be looking to an Auckland Live season in 2019, followed by touring to schools and venues across the country.

The team at Auckland Live have given us an incredible opportunity to develop this new work, and are supporting us with some funding and a venue in which to present a development showing. We've also received a one-off Quick Response grant from Creative New Zealand. Ng? mihi ki a k?rua! But we're in need of a final piece of the funding pie...

What will we use our Boosted donations for?

We still need to cover some key nuts and bolts of the production process - filming the interviews and the post-production work on this footage, our rehearsal space, paying Rape Prevention Education for their guidance and involvement in the process and smaller items like Polleverywhere & APRA - wee costs that add up! Any and all donations are massively appreciated.

Who are we?

CO-CREATOR & PERFORMER
Karin McCracken is an actor and theatre-maker, whose most recent performance work includes Mrs Warren's Profession, Body Double, Jane Doe and It's a Trial. Karin is also a specialist educator in sexual violence prevention training. She has previously delivered this work in schools and workplaces for the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network in Wellington.

CO-CREATOR & DIRECTOR
Eleanor Bishop is a writer and director creating feminist theatre. Her most recent work includes George Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession (ATC 2018), Body Double (created with Julia Croft & Karin McCracken, STAB Commission 2017, Silo/Auckland Arts Festival 2018) and Jane Doe.

PRODUCER
Made up of Lydia Zanetti, Ruby Reihana-Wilson & Helen Sheehan, Zanetti Productions presents innovative and ground-breaking creativity, with a focus on work that invigorates social change, celebrates otherness and sends audiences out into the world with a spark in their heart.

If you have further queries or would like to find out more about Yes Yes Yes, please feel free to send us an email - helen@zanetti-productions.com

Illustration by Frances Haszard
Photo credit: Karin McCracken in Jane Doe by Robin Kerr