FEDORA - Future Directions: Butetown 2025/26

FEDORA
Education Prize 2025
Nominee

Back to Nominees

Future Directions: Butetown 2025/26

United Kingdom
Music Theatre Wales

Crowdfunding Results

€2,465
collected

€487
Matched

€5,000
target

donations closed

Future Directions 2022-23 - 1 © i

Future Directions 2022-23 - 1 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 2

Future Directions 2022-23 - 3 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 4 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 5 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 6 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 7 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 8 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 9 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 10 ©

Future Directions 2022-23 - 11 ©

FUTURE DIRECTIONS addresses the need for greater social inclusion and diversity in making new opera. Supported by professionals, a group of learning disabled and neurodiverse young people devise and make a digital opera, learning from and inspiring each other and informing MTW’s future direction.

About the Project

Future Directions (FD) invites learning disabled and neurodiverse young people aged 16 – 25 to come together and form a Young Company to make a digital opera. This is not a programme that helps young people understand what opera is – it is their opportunity to help us discover what it could be.

FD lies at the heart of MTW’s artistic vision, which asks: What is opera? Who is it for? Who is making it? It takes as its inspiration the key challenges facing opera today: a lack of diversity and representation both in the stories being told and the storytellers.

In 2025/26 FD will be based in Butetown, the historic area around Cardiff docks and one of Wales' most ethnically diverse communities.

Overview:

Young Company Recruitment Workshops, Autumn 2025 (target 100 young people)

Participants will be invited to find out about the project and take part in creative activities exploring the integration of story, movement and music. The sessions will nurture confidence and enable young people to get to know lead facilitator and dramaturg Jain Boon. They will address barriers to access, ensuring potential participants are reassured they will receive the support they need throughout the project.

Traineeships

This new strand to the project sees the recruitment of 3 trainees (drama, music creation, film-making), offering a structured progression route for neurodiverse young people to develop their skills.

Young Company (10 – 15 members): January – June 2026

The young people create their new digital opera supported by Jain and a music creator, vocal facilitator and filmmaker. Two three-day residencies are interspersed with monthly sessions. The final piece will be premiered in Butetown, shared online as a MTW production, and disseminated widely via our partners, festivals and national/international networks.

Artistic Team

The artistic director for Future Directions is Michael McCarthy, Director of Music Theatre Wales. As noted above, the young people are the primary creators, whose ideas and creativity will be facilitated and partnered by a professional team led by Jain Boon as lead creative/drama facilitator. She will be joined by a music creator, filmmaker and opera singer/vocal animateur. We aim to recruit three emerging artists to fill these roles, targeting recruitment locally to maximise the positive impact of the project in the Butetown community, providing local employment opportunities, offering diverse and relatable role-models for our participants, and strengthening community engagement.

Why should you support us?

Future Directions is not just a project; it's a vision to redefine opera by embracing diversity and inclusivity at its core. By supporting us, you are championing a transformative initiative that places learning disabled and neurodiverse young people at the forefront of creative expression. These young creators are given the tools and platform to explore and express their unique perspectives through storytelling in music, creating a digital opera and thereby enriching the operatic medium and its audience.

Located in Butetown, a historically diverse community in the capital of Wales, our project directly addresses and reflects the ethnic and cultural richness of the area. By engaging local youth and providing professional training and development opportunities, we foster local talent and strengthen community ties.

Our comprehensive approach includes recruitment workshops, traineeships, and a fully supported creation process, ensuring that all participants receive the guidance and support needed to succeed. Through the digital opera created by these young innovators, we not only showcase their talents but also present a fresh narrative in the arts that resonates widely, promoting greater understanding and appreciation of diversity in opera.

Your support helps us:

Provide a platform for underrepresented voices in the arts.
Develop local talent and provide professional opportunities in Butetown.
Challenge and expand the boundaries of traditional opera.
Build a sustainable model of inclusivity and creativity that can inspire similar initiatives worldwide.

We are not teaching young people what opera is. We are learning with them and discovering what it could be.

Who are we?

Music Theatre Wales (MTW) exists to breathe new life into opera, presenting it as storytelling in music and seeking to revitalise opera as an expressive form for anyone. We nurture artists who will create the opera of the future and present opera in imaginative ways that will help change the preconceptions of what opera is and can be. We are asking: What is Opera? Who is making it? and Who is it for?

Jain Boon

Dramaturg

Michael McCarthy

Artistic Director

Partners

Hijinx

United Kingdom

Arts Active Trust

United Kingdom

Supporters

Anonymous donated 16 days ago

Aneta Klímová donated 28 days ago

Benjamin Phillips donated 28 days ago

Eva van Woerkom donated 28 days ago

Stanislas de Bazelaire donated 29 days ago

Emmanuelle Saucier donated 29 days ago

Anonymous donated 30 days ago

SION Roberts donated 2 months ago

Catrin Slater donated 2 months ago

Anonymous donated 2 months ago

Kerry Skidmore donated 3 months ago

JEAN MARSH donated 3 months ago

Andrea Klimova donated 3 months ago

William Wells donated 3 months ago

Special notice about recommending a donation:

You are about to make a donation to FEDORA, a French non-profit organisation, to support the crowdfunding campaign of the FEDORA Prizes Biennale 2025 on the FEDORA Platform. Donors can recommend a distribution of their donations to a specific nominated project, but FEDORA is in charge at its discretion to forward the funds to the Nominees. Upon completing your donation, FEDORA or the Transnational Giving Europe Partner will provide you with more information regarding your donation receipt, allowing you to claim tax relief on your donation. Please note that by donating online, you accept our Legal Notice (https://www.fedora-platform.com/more-infos/legal-notice). Thank you for your generosity!
If you are a company or tax resident in Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland or United Kingdom and do not wish to receive the associated crowdfunding benefits, you can receive a tax receipt instead. To do so, please click on “Pledge without a reward” and type in the amount you wish to donate.
Please note that according to the Charities Aid Foundation, UK residents can only obtain a tax receipt for donations between GBP 100 and GBP 9,999.

Please note that according to the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, Swiss residents can only obtain a tax receipt for donations of minimum 100 CHF. Donations as of €5 are still possible via FEDORA's payment page for anyone wishing to make a donation of under £100 or 100 CHF without receiving a tax receipt.

Learn more about possible benefits or tax deductions related to your donation here.

Learn more about the crowdfunding campaign here.