Keep actor Patrick Young has been involved with Slung Low since he first did a work experience placement back in 2009. Now he’s taking one of two lead roles in the second of our Converging Paths shows Keep at Swaledale Festival on Sunday 3rd June.
He’ll be spending the end of his Jubilee weekend watching the sun go down over Richmond Castle with around 400 audience members, our choir partners The 24 and some of the toughest challenges he feels he’s faced as an actor.
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After finishing sixth form, I was at a loose end. I had wanted to be an actor for years but was utterly naive as to what that entailed. I met Lucy Hind (Slung Low’s Movement Director) while helping out at a summer school for my local theatre, and after getting a loose idea of what Slung Low did immediately asked for any work experience with them at any point in any show.
Amazingly, I was given work experience for ‘They Only Come at Night: Visions’ at the Barbican, London – a vampire show in a car park. I was smitten. I intended to help out for a week, but Alan gave me a small role and I stayed for the full run. And then he hired me to help renovate four railway arches in Leeds into a theatre space. After that, I was made a production assistant on ‘Mapping the City’, an epic piece that took place all over Hull in which I played two brilliant roles; a bus conductor AND a lobster.
Now Slung Low have gone and given me my first professional lead. I’ve seen how the company operates through very different roles in very different shows, but the challenges Ed and I face in ‘Keep’ are completely new, a huge one being the ability to hold an audience’s attention between the two of us for an hour. It’s terrifying yet reassuring to be part of a show that involves so many talented people working behind the scenes in ways I can’t even comprehend technically or creatively.
Slung Low have invested so much in me, and i can only hope that I can honour their commitment to me by being utterly smashing in this show. Or at least by saying the right words in the right order and not injuring anyone.
Converging Paths 