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Different shades of youth

Mandira Nayar

"GENNEXT": Nicola Benedetti at the final of the BBC YOUNG MUSICIAN 2004 competition held at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Photo: BBC

NEW DELHI: It is not just crystal gazing. For the next nine days, BBC World will give viewers a real glimpse into the future. Focusing on the young, restless and tireless at the moment, the BBC will from this Saturday air "GenNext" -- a series that will capture different essences of their life.

From Shakespeare for Latino kids to teenage tycoons, this series brings home the power of youth again. The World Business Report will feature a series of specially commissioned films looking at teenage tycoons across the globe. And in contrast to their prosperity, the report will also focus on the other side of young people living on the margins in New York and New Delhi.

Using their medium of hi-technology to tell their story in "My Generation Next'', the programme will give those who always wanted to know what went on in the mind of their teenagers a little peek. With footage from web cameras and mobile phones, it has specially commissioned programmes on their lives and their times.

While children in Indian public schools might be able to reel off Mark Antony's speech in "Julius Caesar'', in other corners of the world the Bard's English is not so well understood. "The Hobart Shakespeareans'' captures the fifth-graders at Hobart Elementary School who are Latino and Asian children growing up in an underprivileged area of Los Angeles.

Since English is not their first language, the kids are taught by Rafe Esquith, whose motto in life is "be nice and work hard". His drama lessons also produce astonishing results. There are also inspirational stories like that of Nicola Benedetti. Having won the BBC's prestigious Young Musician competition at the age of 16 in 2004, Nicola's career took off.This story looks at six months of her life and features her New York recital debut, several concert engagements and the build-up to the recording of her second album at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.

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