WINTER | REVIEW
Young ambition
With champions including Meghan Markle and Bob Geldof, One
Young World has become a global phenomenon, meaning the
pressure is on for event agencies Private Drama and MCI
A
s 2,500 aspirational young
people descended on the
capital on 23 October,
the pressure was building in the
Albert Hall, where Access caught up
with Private Drama’s CEO Adam
Blackwood as Brit School students
put the final preparations into their
impending performance.
With Greta Thunberg capturing the
world’s attention, it couldn’t be a more
appropriate time to draw attention
to the issues close to young people’s
hearts, Blackwood tells Access. “As
the event enters its tenth anniversary,
young people are coming to London
to talk about the issues that matter to
them from microplastics and carbon
footprints, to FGM. Private Drama is
proud to curate a show for this young,
inclusive, multi ethic audience from
around the world.”
True to the spirit of the event,
Blackwood’s curation celebrates
diversity of talent and inclusivity.
“Everything we perform has a
resonance of one of the event’s key
issues, like gender fluidity – which
is handled in [a performance from
musical] Everybody’s Talking About
Jamie, or the celebration of the
common man, in the musical number
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” he
says.
“Everything you see and hear
here we have curated. I work
with a producer, but we have very
good contacts with the disabled
community via Graeae Theatre
Company and Candoco, we work
with the National Centre for Circus
Arts, the Guildford School of Acting,
ArtsEd, Brit School, and we drew
them together to make sure its
inclusive and representative.”
Time was very much of the essence
for Blackwood and his team, with the
tendering process, which took place
in February, still fresh in the memory.
As we spoke on the day of the big
event, he talked us through the tight
turnaround times. “It’s incredibly
challenging. We got into the Albert
Hall at 4am this morning, and we’re
putting together a two-hour show,
akin to West End musical, in about
eight hours. We have 250 performers
and 700 people backstage, including
the flag bearers. It’s a huge operation.”
Despite Blackwood’s experience
at ‘almost every venue in London’
this was his first time at the iconic
Kensington concert hall. “It’s been
a learning curve as it’s a huge space
and you need a lot of people to make it
work,” he says.
Of course, given the venue and the
city’s prominence, Private Drama
were keen to inject some of the
local atmosphere. “We open with
the poem All The World’s a Stage, by
Shakespeare, which is fitting as we’re
in the city that houses The Globe and
so much literary history. We then go
into London’s Calling by The Clash. It’s
a way of saying, ‘we’re here and we
want to change the world’. I look at
other year’s events and wanted to
One Young World facts
10,000 At the end of the Summit,
Delegates become One
Young World Ambassadors,
accessing the global
network of 10,000+ young
leaders to accelerate
existing initiatives or
establish new ventures
20.9million 20.9 million people have
been positively impacted by
Initiatives led by One Young
World Ambassadors since
2010
180+ One Young World
partners with 180+ global
businesses, NGOs and
educational institutions
One Young
World boasts the
largest corporate
footprint of any
organisation in
the third sector Companies sending
Delegates include
Accenture, Audi, BMW, BNP
Paribas, Chanel, Citigroup,
Coca-Cola, Deloitte,
Facebook, GE, Google,
Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal,
McKinsey, Unilever and
Verizon
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