This December the Traverse is proud to present Same Team – A Street Soccer Story by Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse, having been created with the women of the Dundee Change Centre. In the lead up to this vital new story kicking-off on stage, we wanted to shine a light on the women that have been involved in the process of creating this show, and the impact it’s had on them.
Street Soccer is a social change initiative that uses football inspired training and personal development as a medium to empower people who are affected by social exclusion.
With the Dundee Change Centre as their base, Street Soccer is open to all and acts as a hub for the community so that anyone can attend and seek support as needed. Having access to a range of workshop sessions provides participants with structure and support aiding them to develop transferable skills and gain life experience that wouldn’t be accessible to them otherwise.
We spoke to some of the women that have contributed to the creation of Same Team – A Street Soccer Story, about their experience and how being involved in the process of telling their story has impacted them. Having begun working with writers Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse in 2022, the women of Street Soccer collaborated through football sessions and writing workshops in which they shared their stories and began to create the characters that we will see on the Traverse stage.
The women of Street Soccer and some of the cast and creative team of Same Team - A Street Soccer Story at the Dundee Change Centre for a reading of the play in September 2023.
By engaging with the women in an informal manner, a safe space was created for them to share about their lives in a way that Robbie and Jack could then shape to form a fictional narrative inspired by their stories. Having built a trust with the women over a series of sessions, Robbie and Jack then used the collaborative material that they’d gathered to form a script.
Upon hearing a reading of the play in full for the first time, one of the women reflected, “they really did, from the smallest detail, remember everything and I was so surprised … it was absolutely incredible”.
Despite an initial apprehension that the characters would be too recognisable as individual members of the Women’s Street Soccer Team, the players were pleased to know that “within the five characters, each character has a got a bit of all of us … it’s nice how it’s just amalgamated”.
We can’t wait to welcome the Street Soccer women’s team to the Traverse this December for the opportunity to see authentic representations of themselves and their stories on stage.
The development of Same Team - A Street Soccer Story was sponsored by Burness Paull LLP.