Symposium Overview
Many Voices is the generic title of a five year project on multicultural and intercultural issues in the theatre and theatre-related arts, initiated by the Research Office and Community Outreach Unit of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in association with NXT, Pan Intercultural Arts and Bexley Council.
The Symposium continued the exploration begun the previous year in Other Voices and asks: How does theatre progress from here? Are there arguments for keeping Black, Asian or Chinese theatre companies in a society where people otherwise mix freely? Should the larger theatre institutions be exploring new forms of theatre to resonate with the wider community? How can theatre react to the fact that over 300 languages are spoken in the UK? Is multi-lingual theatre a possibility? What is the culture of a mixed race performer? Must they subscribe to a cultural identity or forge their own? How is the theatre community responding to issues of asylum? Is a culture defined by ethnicity or can we talk of a disability culture or a gay culture and explore meetings between these? To what extent are training and education embracing these issues?
There may be multiple answers to these questions, opposing views and challenges to the way we make theatre. But if performance is to move forward as a force within a multi-faceted and changing society it will surely have to grapple with these issues intellectually, creatively and practically. The Symposium begins this process.
How are we as members of the theatre and wider community responding to the multicultural profile of contemporary Britain?
What kind of industry do you want to work in?
Performances/Installations/Concerts
DYNATA
Devised and performed by MA Theatre Practices’ postgraduates as ‘work in progress’ towards multilingual theatre.
JAMIE’S WORLD
An experiment in lighting and video led by students from the Lighting Design Programme.
TAMA
Tama is a four piece band made up of musicians from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Colombia. Their intoxicating music is a mixture of traditional and contemporary styles which bring together Zimbabwean rhythms and a Latin American percussion base. Highly energetic sounds, this performance is guaranteed to leave your feet defeated! Line up: Kuda Matimba, Anna Mudeka, Chanda Nyerezani and Mauricio “Moss” Velez
THE BACKBEAT PERCUSSION QUARTET
The Backbeat Percussion Quartet has won international acclaim for its innovative programming, dazzling musicality and exuberant theatrical performances. This special performance for the College will include the performance of Hybrid, by Rick Butterworth, third year Music Technology student.
ARUN GHOSH
Arun Ghosh mixes traditional Asian music, Jazz and Hip Hop. Each gig is unique.
A PLACE IN THE MIST
Rehearsed reading of a play by Katayoun Thurlow.
A short play based on her experiences as an interpreter at the Home Office. Musical accompaniment by Amir Heshmati on santoor and tombak.
THE TEACHER
By Moira Buffini
Nasser Memarzia performs Moira Buffini’s play, originally commissioned by the Refugee Council for the National Theatre’s Headlines on Asylum.
MIX ROUTES
Mojisola Adebayo, Adwoa-Shanti Dickson and Kuldip Singh-Barmi. Solo Performances.
EL BEB
Rehearsed reading of a play by Youssef Saigh translated by Alison Mackinnon.
Saigh was an important poet, translator of Shakespeare into Arabic, and political activist in Iraq, enduring frequent imprisonment during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
BABEL
Lewisham College
A physical theatre piece produced and performed by staff and students of
Lewisham College. The project was funded by a Culture 2000 grant from the EC
and the production was selected for the National Student Drama
Festival 2005.
KATHAKALI DANCE DRAMA
Kottakkal Sasidharan Nair
A performance of Kathakali Dance Drama and Indian Classical Dance.
A detailed handout about the artist’s work is available at the Information Desk
and will be distributed before the performance.
CANDLELIGHT
Barry Seaman and Music Technology Graduates and Students
A cross-cultural music and dance programme drawing on musical
forms from China, India and the Middle East.
A detailed programme of each item will be available at the performance.
Presentations/Workshops
MANDINGA ARTS
Mandinga Arts introduce their two Interactive Workshops that focus on Carnival Costumes, Figures and Props for those students who wish to be involved throughout the week. The results of the workshops will be shared with other participants in the Symposium at the end of Friday afternoon.
Mandinga Arts was set up in 2002 by Charles Beauchamp and Julieta Rubio in response to a clear need for performance opportunities for artists - to practice, improve, educate, share and promote Carnival Arts. The company exists to bring together live music, carnival costume design and dance, drawing on diverse influences from Europe, Latin America and Africa, with community based contributions to the carnival movement in the UK. Mandinga Arts operates an open door policy, inviting any person with an interest in carnival art to share in the process and to participate in annual festivals and carnivals such as Notting Hill Carnival, The Mayor’s Thames Festival, El Carnaval del Pueblo and other local and national events. These workshops are part of such a process and will lead to involvement in the annual Thames Festival in 2005 and 2006. www.mandigaarts.co.uk
MNOUCHKINE’S INTERCUTURAL ORIENT AT THE THEATRE DU SOLEIL
Brian Singleton
Le dernier caravansérail (of 2003) is the latest production of Paris’s Théâtre du Soleil under the direction of Ariane Mnouchkine. It is a broad sweeping depiction of the dislocation and suffering associated with human trafficking particular to France which has brought refugees and asylum-seekers from war-torm Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Kosovo to the northern French port of Calais. The production ties two separate strands and forms of the company’s work since the 1960s, namely collective creation and interculturalism. It also marks a return to the political activism that was a hallmark of their work in the 1960s. Mnouchkine and her actors have given refuge in their theatre in the past decade to asylum-seekers from Africa under threat of deportation. By doing so they have found a form of political agency for their theatre beyond their artistic practice. Le dernier caravansérail is composed of a series of personal stories collected verbatim from the refugees and asylum-seekers detained in the Sangatte camp in northern France which is situated close to the Euro tunnel, the tunnel which links France by rail with England, the ultimate final destination on this trafficking route. These detainees officially are the stateless and voiceless whose passports and identities have been sacrificed on the paths of their necessary though illegal journeying from East to West. For some the caravanserai or halting site is the last (le dernier), as they die trying to press further on, or simply disappear. Before they do, Mnouchkine and her company bear witness through text, its articulation, embodiment and projection.
Brian Singleton is Head of the School of Drama at Trinity College, Dublin. For the past three years he was editor of Theatre Research International (CUP) and is currently the vice-president for publications on International Federation for Theatre Research as well as series editor of Studies in International Performance published by Palgrave. He has published two books on the life and work of Antonin Artaud, edited two journal collections on Irish theatre, and his most recent monograph is entitled Oscar Asche, Orientalism and British Musical Comedy (Greenwood, 2004)
IN PLACE OF WAR
James Thompson
In Place of War is an AHRB funded project exploring the relationship between performance and war. From the Greeks to Shakespeare, war has been a major theme in theatre and performance. However, some of the most astounding and demanding performance projects in recent years have not been about war but have come from the war zones themselves. In Place of War is concerned with these initiatives – theatre in refugee camps, in war-affected villages, in towns under curfew, in cities under siege. Why in times of disruption have individuals and communities turned to performance? This project aims to research, link, debate and develop the practice of performances in sites of conflict – bringing together theatre makers and scholars who practice performance: in place of war.
James Thompson, Director of the Project which is based at the University of Manchester, introduces playwrights from Rwanda, Kosovo, Colombia and Bangladesh who talk about their work in sites of conflict. Further information about the playwrights will be available at the session.
MASKS AND NLP
Roddy Maude-Roxby
The workshop focuses on character masks and improvisation.
Roddy Maude-Roxby has worked extensively with masks and improvisation since he was a member of Keith Johnstone’s celebrated Theatre Machine in the 1960s. Here he explores the possibilities of NLP.
MIX ROUTES
John Martin
Mix Routes is a series of six solo performances by artists of dual heritage produced by John Martin, Director, Pan Centre for Intercultural Arts.
Here he introduces the ‘work in progress’ project. He is joined by Anthony Ekundayo Lennon, currently appearing in Deborah Warner’s production of Julius Caesar at the Barbican Theatre, and several of the artists involved. The first three performances follow in the evening.
THEATRE COMPANIES
Yellow Earth Theatre in 2005 celebrates ten years of creating theatre that integrates the dramatic traditions of the East and the West. Our work explores the links between contemporary experience and a multicultural heritage, and covers new writing and reinterpretation of classic plays, as well as a wide variety of outreach activities. Yellow Earth is the UK’s only publicly funded East Asian Theatre Company, and is funded by Arts Council England. In 2004 Yellow Earth won the inaugural Pearl Award for Creative Endeavour, and the Windrush Arts Achiever Award. Pete Staves is General Manager of Yellow Earth Theatre
London Bubble specialises in Open Performance Theatre. Once every three years, London Bubble creates a unique piece of theatre. It is performed in the open air; it takes the audience on a journey; it is enacted by up to a 100 people. They are highly diverse and range from children to older people. A handful are professional, the vast majority love performing but have chosen not to earn their living as theatre-makers. The project they perform strives to achieve the highest standards of theatre. The triennial Open Performance Theatre (OPT) project is toured across London and emerges from a cycle of work generated by London Bubble in the two preceding years. The first OPT project, Gilgamesh, was performed in 2000; the latest Punchkin, Enchanter was performed in 2003; the new piece will be performed in 2006.
Jonathan Petherbridge is the Director of London Bubble.
Context Theatre is currently preparing Sunay’Ha, a performance festival exploring cultural exchange and alternative narratives from Pakistan, bringing together many art forms including theatre, dance, video art and film, aiming to inspire cross-culture performance and debate. The Festival will be held at ‘oh! art’, Oxford House, Bethnal Green, in April 2005. Full details of the Festival will be available at the presentation.
Claire Pamment is Artistic Director of Context Theatre.
CREATING A THEATRE OF CULTURAL DIALOGUE
Michael Walling & Brian Woolland
Writer (Woolland) and director (Walling) lead an exploration of play-making techniques which allow multiple voices into the playwriting process.
Michael Walling is Artistic Director of Border Crossings. He has directed numerous productions across four continents, winning awards for Two Gentlemen of Verona in the US and Paul & Virginie in Mauritius. Productions for Border Crossings include: Bullie’s House by Thomas Keneally, Orientations, Double Tongue, Mappa Mundi, Toufann, Twelfth Night (Mauritius, Seychelles & Zimbabwe), Bravely Fought the Queen, Departures / Arrivals, Fool for Love. Other productions include: Die Zauberflöte (Spain), Hard Times, The Art of Success, Macbeth (Mauritius), The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Tempest (India), Così fan Tutte, Romeo and Juliet (USA), The Great God Brown, Sir Thomas More. He recently directed the English National Opera’s acclaimed workshop productions of The Ring at the Coliseum and the Barbican, and (with Phyllida Lloyd) The Handmaid’s Tale for Canadian Opera Company.
Brian Woolland’s first play for Border Crossings was Double Tongue, which premiered at the Old Red Lion in 2001. The play went on to tour nationally throughout the UK and in Hungary. Other plays include: Getting Over You (Etcetera Theatre and Szeged, Hungary 1995), Primrose Leap (Unity Theatre Liverpool 1994), Treason’s Peace (Reading 1994 and Cockpit Theatre, London, 1995). He has written four very successful Theatre in Education plays, including Away Games, which enjoyed over 150 performances across Europe. He has conducted numerous workshops with young people and with teachers and has led workshops on educational drama and play writing with young people and with teachers at numerous conferences in England - and also in Athens, New York, Dublin and Graz in Austria. Brian has also written a number of books on theatre subjects, most recently Dark Attractions: The Theatre of Peter Barnes (Methuen 2004).
Workshops
GREENWICH & DOCKLANDS FESTIVAL
Matthew Russell
An exploration of content, structure and implementation of the Festival.
Matthew Russell is the Festival’s Executive Director
MUSICALITY
Jeremy Harrison
Musicality in its broadest sense has often found itself at the heart of much European actor training. The music of the actor finds its expression in both movement and voice, and can also be recognised in the shape and forms of dramatic narrative and character interaction. In this workshop we will be exploring various ways in which musical notions can be employed to release and develop the actor’s approach to a given text.
Jeremy Harrison is Director of Rose Bruford College’s Actor Musicianship Programme. He is one of the country’s leading actor musicians and has helped to develop the College’s unique Actor Musicianship Programme, placing musicality at the heart of the first year acting work.
Interactive Workshop
DEVISING INTERCULTURAL PERFORMANCE
Chris Baldwin
Chris Baldwin lives in La Rioja, Spain and works across Europe in various theatres, universities and drama schools. He trained as a theatre director and actor at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, London where he is now Visiting Professor. He has written and directed for many theatres across Europe including The Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, the Harrogate Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse, and the Bloomsbury Theatre, London. Work abroad includes for Theatr Ochoty, Poland and Brandenburg Theatre, Germany and Teatros Sambhu, Nerea and Pendulo in Spain. He was Artistic Director of Proteus Touring and has also directed for Half Moon Theatre, London. He is now artistic director of Spiral, a multi lingual, site specific theatre project in Spain. He has taught widely across Europe and published six books on varying aspects of theatre. His play Cosima, has won European theatre awards.
VIEWPOINTS
Lukas Angelini
The Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that grew out of the post-modern dance world. It was first articulated by American choreographer Mary Overlie who broke down the two dominant issues performers deal with - time and space - into six categories. She called her approach, the Six Viewpoints. Since that time, American director Anne Bogart and her company have expanded her notions and adapted them for actors. The Viewpoints allows a group of actors to function together spontaneously and intuitively and to generate bold, theatrical work quickly. It develops flexibility, articulation, and strength in movement and makes ensemble playing really possible.
Lukas Angelini trained as an actor in Zurich. He worked with various theatre companies in Switzerland, Germany and the UK. He trained in the Suzuki Method with the SITI Company in New York and also trained for several years under Carlos Repetto (Buenos Aires, Freiburg) in ‘Theater der Gestik’.
CREATING CARNIVAL COSTUMES, FIGURES 7 PROPS
Mandinga Arts: Charles Beauchamp and Julieta Rubio
British and Colombian artists Charles Beauchamp and Julieta Rubio trained as painter-printmakers and have had regular solo exhibitions in London.
For the last 15 years they have designed and created award-winning giant puppets, costumes, masks and floats for carnivals, festivals, community projects and theatre. They have collaborated and performed with circus, carnival, dance and community groups in countries including England, Ireland, France, Italy, Colombia and South Africa. Their ongoing exploration into creative design, and their cross-cultural collaboration with other artists, musicians and choreographers, has given them many opportunities to develop their artistic vision and to extend boundaries of carnival art. Their studios, based in South London, are also used at regular intervals for community art workshops.
INTERCUTURAL PERFORMANCE AND TRAINING
John Martin
The workshop will focus on how performers’ skills can be enriched and enhanced by an understanding of how physical and musical elements are used in theatres across the world. The workshop will explore concepts from the use of rhythm in movement and vocal expression, to the choral response methods of many story-telling traditions and the instrumental accompaniment to enhance or contradict speech and character.
John Martin trained as a performer at Bristol University and the Ecole Jacques Lecoq, before performing with New York LaMama and in British Fringe and repertory. His directing career includes over 50 productions in the UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Kenya, South Africa and India. He is a founder member of Pan Centre for Intercultural Arts and has taught workshops in intercultural performance and performers’ creativity around the world.
BORDER CROSSINGS
Michael Walling
Border Crossings is an international company working in theatre and combined arts that creates dynamic performances by fusing many forms of world theatre, dance and music. It works across the borders - between cultures and art forms, and between nations and peoples. Productions have attracted enthusiastic responses from audiences all over the UK, and as far afield as Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Mauritius, Mexico, Zimbabwe and The Seychelles. They include Bullie’s House (2004), British Première of Thomas Keneally’s play about Aboriginal Australians. Funded by Arts Council England, Australian DFAT and Arts WA; Orientations (2003-4), a devised piece created by Indian and British performers, dealing with issues of gender and sexuality in Eastern and Western societies. Funded by Arts Council England, the British Council and Visiting Arts; and Mappa Mundi (2000-1), a multidisciplinary devised theatre piece with music, created and performed by artists from six different cultural traditions. Further details available at the presentation. www.bordercrossings.org.uk
THEATRE TECHNIQUES FROM BRAZIL
Zecora Ura
Zecora Ura Theatre started as a research based student company that has consistently produced exciting experimental work. The company has toured productions to the Edinburgh Festival, Iceland, Finland, Germany, Poland, Japan and performed in many non-theatre venues throughout the UK. Zecora Ura Theatre has recently returned from Brazil where they have been involved in a number of projects with celebrated practitioners. Here they share some of the techniques explored during their stay. Further details will be circulated at the demonstration. The session is led by Jorge Ramos, Artistic Director.
KATHAKALI
Koltakkal Sasidharan Nair
The workshop will introduce participants to the techniques of Kathakali.
Koltakkal Sasidharan Nair is an internationally renowned classical Indian dancer. Born in the state of Kerala, India, he lives and works in the city of Ahmedabad, India. Trained in Kathakali, BharataNatyam and Kuchipudi styles, he has had a distinguished career as a performer, teacher and choreographer for three decades.
CHINESE COSTUME
A demonstration by Grace Liu of traditional Chinese costumes from the Cantonese Opera and how the performer works with them.
Grace Liu has been singing and performing Cantonese Opera on stage for 15 years. She formed her own company in 1993 called ‘Liverpool Cantonese Opera Society’ which has travelled to London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. Grace Liu has also performed in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and France. She recently took part in the Cantonese Opera Festival in China, November 2004, which lasts six days and is held every four years. Artists from all over the world perform in Canon with the top artists of China. Besides performing, Grace has exhibited her costumes in the Hat Works Museum in Stockport in 2003 and has been assisting Professor Lee Tong Soon at Emory University, Atlanta to complete his book based on Cantonese opera in Europe.
HOLD YOUR (MOTHER) TONGUE
Chrissie Poulter & Domhnall O’Donoghue
Language as passport? The search for a common, functional language that helps us travel. Language as conveyor of cultural meaning, the endangered species that is the full form of our mother tongue, which carries cultural subtleties, which distinguish my life from yours. Language as music, the distinctive sounds of each language which are part of the aesthetic experience of speaking and listening. The workshop will engage with languages of the participants to explore how we can find a working language, how we can experience our cultural diversity and how we can discover a performance language particular to each ensemble.
Chrissie Poulter is Artistic Director of Artslab (Ireland). Its latest project is Fec’s Pool - a pool of painters, film-makers and actors working across artforms, across cultures and across borders.
Domhnall O’Donoghue is a graduate of the Acting Programme at Trinity College Dublin. His most recent theatre was Finders Keepers at the Irish National Theatre (The Abbey). He is co-director of Fec’s Pool and vice-chair of Reactors, an actors agency based in Dublin.
INTERCULTURAL PERFORMANCE AND TRAINING
John Martin
The workshop will focus on how performers’ skills can be enriched and enhanced by an understanding of how physical and musical elements are used in theatres across the world. The workshop will explore concepts from the use of rhythm in movement and vocal expression, to the choral response methods of many story-telling traditions and the instrumental accompaniment to enhance or contradict speech and character.
John Martin trained as a performer at Bristol University and the Ecole Jacques Lecoq, before performing with New York LaMama and in British Fringe and repertory. His directing career includes over 50 productions in the UK, Sweden, Germany, France, Kenya, South Africa and India. He is a founder member of Pan Centre for Intercultural Arts and has taught workshops in intercultural performance and performers’ creativity around the world.
CUTTING-IT-UP: A TEXT AND GESTURE IMPROVISATION
Julia Lee Barclay
Using techniques inspired by William Burroughs and Brian Gysin and pasting everyday words, phrases and gestures, New York-based experimental theatre director and playwright, Julia Lee Barclay will lead a workshop of improvisational explorations of text and movement focusing on issues of gender, religion, class and nationality with a special emphasis on levels of address and presence.
Julia Lee Barclay, an award-winning, published writer and director, has had work produced extensively in NYC and London. Starting in 1997, she spent two years working in a lab with actors in NYC exploring new ways of approaching the creation of a theatre event, including different levels of presence that actors bring to these events - the results of this work she now teaches in workshops and is the basis of her practice. Most recently her work has been produced at Camden People’s Theatre and at The Present Company in NYC.
NEW NARRATIVES: GRAEAE
Jenny Sealey and Judith Kilvington
A rehearsal of Blasted by Sarah Kane exploring the theatrical impact of casting two disabled actors in the main roles. The workshop will be led by Jenny Sealey, Artistic Director, with actors Tim Gebbels and Kaz Langley who are both Associate Artists of Graeae.
One character becomes blind in the play. What is the rehearsal dialogue if the actor playing that role is blind? What choices are made around that characters visual status - if the character is played as blind from the start what meaning does this give and what is the significance of him later being “physically” blinded? The other character, female, has a stutter that comes from insecurity and vulnerability - this character will be played by a woman who has a differing speech pattern - how will her usual means of communication portray this vulnerability?
The rehearsal will demonstrate Graeae’s unique slant on how to answer the above question and how we begin to create a new narrative within an extant text.
AFTER GROTOWSKI
Gabriel Gawin
The workshop explores techniques developed from Grotowski’s legacy by Gabriel Gawin, and those employed by Teatr Piesn Kozla. Poland.
FORUM THEATRE
Mojisola Adebayo
Forum Theatre was developed by Augusto Boal during his work in Buenos Aries and subsequent research in France where, through a series of workshops and publications, he systematised the theories and practice of the Theatre of the Oppressed. - the means by which ‘spect-actors’ learn to transform both theatrical and social reality. Forum Theatre can happen in a theatre or in the street. It presents a problem to which the protagonist does not have a solution. The spectator becomes a ‘spect-actor’ and is encouraged to intervene directly in the action. The solution has to be discovered by the actors and audience together, pedagogically teaching one another. A true question is posed so that everyone can freely and democratically participate and intervene. The workshop will focus on the skills employed in this practice.
Mojisola Adebayo has a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts (Goldsmiths College, University of London) and a Masters in Physical Theatre (Royal Holloway, University of London). She worked with Boal in Brazil and has applied the skills she learned there to a number of international educational and theatre contexts. She has spent several years in Dublin working as an actor, director and teacher including projects with the Samuel Beckett Centre at Trinity College. Recent projects include: training trainers and performers in Sri Lanka and Syria, both for the British Council; and performing in Visible for Cardboard Citizens in the RSC season of new work at the Soho Theatre. Forthcoming work involves performing in Modern Amazons at Birmingham Rep.
DEVISING INTERCULTURAL THEATRE
Michael Walling
A practical workshop using the inter-cultural and multi-lingual techniques through which Border Crossings creates its unscripted work.
Border Crossings is an international company working in theatre and combined arts that creates dynamic performances by fusing many forms of world theatre, dance and music. It works across the borders - between cultures and art forms, and between nations and peoples. Productions have attracted enthusiastic responses from audiences all over the UK, and as far afield as Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Mauritius, Mexico, Zimbabwe and The Seychelles. They include Bullie’s House (2004), British Première of Thomas Keneally’s play about Aboriginal Australians. Funded by Arts Council England, Australian DFAT and Arts WA; Orientations (2003-4), a devised piece created by Indian and British performers, dealing with issues of gender and sexuality in Eastern and Western societies. Funded by Arts Council England, the British Council and Visiting Arts; and Mappa Mundi (2000-1), a multidisciplinary devised theatre piece with music, created and performed by artists from six different cultural traditions.
Michael Walling is Artistic Director of Border Crossings. Productions for the Company include: Bullie’s House by Thomas Keneally, Orientations, Double Tongue, Mappa Mundi, Toufann, Twelfth Night (Mauritius, Seychelles & Zimbabwe), Bravely Fought the Queen, Departures / Arrivals, Fool for Love.
Other productions include: Die Zauberflöte (Spain), Hard Times, The Art of Success, Macbeth (Mauritius), The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Tempest (India), Così fan Tutte, Romeo and Juliet (USA), The Great God Brown, Sir Thomas More. He recently directed the English National Opera’s acclaimed workshop productions of The Ring at the Coliseum and the Barbican, and (with Phyllida Lloyd) The Handmaid’s Tale for Canadian Opera Company.
CAPOEIRA
Jorge Ramos
Capoeira Angola is a danced fight and playful sparring that involves wit, flexibility, strategy and technique. It weaves intricate movement, spirituality, mental and physical discipline, fight and philosophy into a unique ‘game’; those who practice Capoeira Angola, Angoleiros, play rather than fight Capoeira. It is rhythmic and ritualistic, and like many other African based traditions, is orally transmitted from master to student. Capoeira Angola was born in Africa and raised in Brazil. Its origins lie in a dance called N’golo that comes from Angola. Africans who were enslaved from this region were taken to Brazil where the art form was transformed into a deadly fight. They wove elements of the cultures from which they came into a shared response to their oppression during slavery and in its aftermath.
Capoeira Angola is played in a roda, or a circle. The struggles within the roda are a microcosm and symbolic of the struggle for freedom, dignity and peace that take place in the outer circle of life. Music is a key component. The bateria, orchestra, consists of eight instruments; the songs are sung in Portuguese and are also used to send messages to the players about the game.
Panels/Round Table Discussions/ In Conversation
ASYLUM IN EUROPE
Tim Finch, Director of Communications at the Refugee Council. Tim Finch is joined by Chris Baldwin of Spiral, Miranda Barber of Six of One,
and John Martin, Director of the Pan Centre for Intercultural Arts. They will discuss issues of asylum in the UK and European mainland.
PLAYWRIGHTS
TANIKA GUPTA and MOIRA BUFFINI talk about their work with Polly Irvin.
Tanika Gupta has written for theatre, radio, film and television. Her stage plays include Voices on the Wind, Skeleton, A River Sutra, On the Couch with Enoch, Sanctuary and The Waiting Room, which won the John Whiting Award. She has recently returned from Cuba where she ran writers’ workshops for the Royal Court Theatre International Department.
Moira Buffini studied Drama and English at Goldsmiths College and trained as an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. She acted professionally for five years, winning the Time Out Award for her performance in Jordan. Her writing for theatre includes, Loveplay, The Games Room, Silence, Gabriel and Dinner, which premiered at the National Theatre and transferred to Wyndhams Theatre.
DAVID TSE
David Tse Ka-Ching talks about his work with Dr. Paul Fryer.
David Tse Ka-Ching read law and then trained at Rose Bruford College (actor) and Leicester Haymarket (director). He studied Beijing Opera movement with Lee Siu Wah and during M. Butterfly with Jamie Guan. Inspired by East Asian physical theatre, he became Artistic Director of Yellow Earth Theatre. He was the winner of the Windrush Arts Achievement Award in 2004 and Yellow Earth won the inaugural Pearl Award for Creative Endeavour 2004. He has presented a groundbreaking series on Radio 4, exploring the lives of British Born Chinese: Beyond the Takeaway (www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/beyondthetakeaway.shtml).
ADDING MORE VOICES – MAPPING NEW REALITIES
Educational Theatre and Training
Chris Elwell (Half Moon Theatre), Melanie Sharpe (Jackson’s Lane
Theatre), Jonathan Petherbridge (London Bubble), Stuart Mullins
(Pursued by a Bear), Jenny Sealey and Judith Kilvington (Graeae), Gary
Horsman (Theatre Venture), Liz Leek and Tim French (Lewisham College),
Caroline Edwards (GLYPT), Caroline Brader (Bolton Octagon Theatre),
Beth Flatley (Queens Theatre Hornchurch), Carl Shirley (Shooters Hill
Post 16 Campus) and Pat O’Toole (RBC). Chaired by Julian Bryant.
THE BIG LIFE
Philip Hedley CBE talks about his work with Paul Fryer
Philip Hedley is Director Emeritus of the historic Theatre Royal Stratford East.
He retired recently after 25 years of ground breaking work in a culturally
diverse community. His final production was the first Ska Musical, The Big Life,
which played to capacity houses in its first run in 2004 and again in its recent
revival earlier this year. He returns to the College to discuss the production
which transfers to the Apollo Theatre opening on 11 May. Channel 4’s
documentary on the production, Rappin’ at the Royal, will be shown on the 8 May.
Philip Hedley is also Chair of EQ, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of
equality and diversity in the Arts.
Further details of the musical and its genesis and Philip Hedley’s work at the
Theatre Royal Stratford East will be available at the session.
NEW WRITING
Ashmeed Sohoyo, New Writing Manager, Theatre Royal Stratford East;
Steven Luckie, Producer, Eclipse Theatre; Christopher Preston,
Creative Producer, Maya Productions; and Amber Lone, playwright.
Chaired by Steven Dykes.
Further information about the speakers and their organisations will be available
at the session.
THE NEW CENSORSHIP
Janet Steel. Artistic Director, Kali Theatre Company; Jatinder Verma, Artistic Director, Tara Arts; and Helen Freshwater, Contributing Editor, New Theatre Quarterly.
The debate will centre on the recent production of Behzti (Dishonour) by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti which was directed by Janet Steel at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Following demonstrations that escalated into violence the theatre management withdrew the production. Further information about the situation and its impact will be available at the session.