The directors' debate: Are arts funding cuts a good idea?

27 August 2010 by Petia Tzanova

Our own Adrian Jackson was featured in The Guardian yesterday with an interesting article about arts funding cuts. David Parrish of Creation Theatre and Adrian debate the pros and cons of slashing public funding for the arts in the current climate.

Read the full article here

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From Forum Week to Volunteering on ACT NOW

24 August 2010 by Celeste Danielle

Hi,

I am Celeste Danielle and I am a student at the Central School of Speech Drama. I have been attending workshops at Cardboard Citizens since January 2010. These workshops are great! The Forum workshops with Terry O’Leary allow me to explore some of the basic techniques of improvisation and introduced me to the essential elements of Augusto Boal’s Forum theatre.

A workshop led by Adrian Jackson in which we examine Sir William Shakespeare’s   Measure for Measure was  an education.  We looked closely at the text and uncovered the rich use of a form of English language which is quite different to the kind of language we use in everyday modern English.

I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in Cardboard Citizens Forum training week which is the next step of Forum Theatre techniques.  My understanding of Forum theatre is now a little more comprehensive as the week culminated in a performance e of the pieces that we created.

I have also been volunteering on Cardboard Citizens Act Now project with young people not in employment or education. The group’s talent is amazing and the facilitation excellent. Terry O’Leary nurtures and hones the groups talent by using Forum Theatre techniques. These young people create their own piece of theatre about their experiences using Forum theatre.  The young people started the project with varying degrees of exposure to Drama, however they learn fast!

They work intensely and closely and develop a strong bond with their peers. They work incredibly hard, but have loads of fun because they are there because they want to be.  I have been privileged to be allowed to be a part of the project in some way, and have learned loads about Forum Theatre, facilitation and young people.

They perform the Forum piece on Sept 8th and 9th at Brady Arts Centre - contact Stuart@cardboardcitizens.org.uk to book tickets!

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A New Kind of Family - A Workshop with Combatants for Peace

4 August 2010 by Adrian Jackson

Last week I had the privilege to lead a workshop for visiting group Combatants for Peace, which is made up of Palestinians and Israelis who were fighters but have laid down their arms to pursue a different course. We called the day the Rainbow of Occupation  because the group wanted to spend some time looking at Augusto’s Rainbow techniques, and seeing how they might be applied to their situation. It was an experiment, but a rewarding one. Apart from the 16 or so CFP members, there were some 35 UK-based theatre practitioners (including a few Cardboard Citizens people) and human rights activists. And the venue, suitably enough, was the Amnesty International headquarters near Old St, a great space for a large workshop by the way.

A day zooms by, when the work is so rich. Most of the time we were doing exercises and games together, and sharing reactions and thoughts. Two Syrian friends did an excellent job of translating into Arabic. For one exercise only, the Image of Family, we split into groups according to origin, i.e. a Palestinian group, an Israeli group, and two larger groups of UK-based people, which we named Everyone and Else. The resulting images were striking, and gave pause for reflection. The Palestinian image showed the family grouped around a kneeling and bound family member; the Israeli image was grouped around a dead body; and in Everyone and Else, there was usually birth at the centre, and death on the fringes. The images are eloquent, and need little explanation.

In the evening, after showing a fragment of Forum, Noor and Chen, the two leaders of the group, both made compelling speeches explaining their journey, to a packed house. I had heard Chen’s before, but not Noor’s. Side by side on the platform, (both men are what my son would call ‘hench’, with the aspect and bodies of soldiers), they make another strong image, this time of a new future possible family. I think they have what Augusto called coragem de ser felix – the courage to be happy. Respect.

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First steps in Theatre of the Oppressed

28 July 2010 by Alyssa

A few weekends ago, Artistic Director and leading Augusto Boal expert Adrian Jackson led an introductory Theatre of the Oppressed workshop, partly as a fundraiser for Cardboard Citizens’ autumn “Down and Out” cycle from London to Paris (help us out and sponsor Adrian here) .

The workshop, attended by over 25 people, was – for me, and I’m sure the other workshop participants would agree – a particularly fascinating and eye-opening dip into the world of TO. Worth blogging about is my overwhelming sense of what it has the potential to achieve.

Focusing on the techniques of Boal’s Image Theatre, Adrian began the workshop by asking us all to simply make frozen pictures with our bodies of the concepts of school, work, home– and then led us through a kind of “close read” of the similarities and differences between our images. Could we extract a through-line of physicality, or even of emotion? Was it a desire for comfort? Independence? The workshop turned into very much a conversation, accessed through theatre – undoubtedly an “effective vehicle for a more effective change” when applied to politics and conflict, to paraphrase Adrian – and finding a theme we all cared about enough to feel the need to explore.

After some partner improvisations, we found that theme to be family. You may think that seems absurdly broad, but in the short time we had, we staged images of our own families, becoming vulnerable – and sharing that. In attempting to all agree on one image that struck a chord with us, Adrian helped us complicate and contemplate in a surprisingly moving way:  others’ histories, relationships, emotions, secrets, and reflections were right there, onstage, for all to see. And so I got to understand these people, and myself, a little better.

After the workshop, we all felt a different sense of community, almost palpable in the air. I, for one, am invigorated by the possibilities that this sensation presents – but what’s the next step? Maybe it’s taking these access points into less isolated, more pressing situations of tension and conflict, where community needs to be built and dialogue should be had.

Cardboard Citizens is one step ahead of me, and is partnering with Amnesty International to explore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the amazingly brave and brilliant organization of Combatants for Peace. Be a part of it and join us tomorrow (the 29th July) for a workshop with Adrian and CfP, sure to be just as inspiring as the intro workshop, if not more so.
We’d love to hear your voice as we engage, again through Image Theatre and more, with the conflicting viewpoints of this tremendously pertinent issue. Hopefully it’ll help us all cultivate some common ground – perhaps in humanity.

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Theatrical fireworks from Manchester

26 July 2010 by Michael Oladeji

Note: Videos from the festival can be seen here

Yes peeps I am back for a daily dose of the arts and the festival has finally kicked into a roaring gear with the good impressions booming out of the Americans first wave hip hop theatre ensemble bringing in the beats, rhythms and vibrations. Using sounds, movement and a book?

"For colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf"

Yeah, an amazing title which we used to construct our own in any way you wanted for example  "for I have considered alot I have considered alot but the suicidal pain got me in a rainbow box".

The evening performance brought out a river of laughter and conscious thinking. I only saw half of the first play but I felt all the joy and the comical mood hit me from the start. I actually went in laughing before I had even settled in, just by looking at the stage. It was practical with the lighting cleverly changing various scenarios. There was a nightmare scene with a two headed beast which you could see cast on stage by the actors’ shadows and without seeing the beast you could feel its presence flow out of the shadow. However, I must note that the clarity of some of the actors made the story hard to follow.

The second show was a straight up pantomimy kinda show and I'm not the only one who would say it was fantastic! A comical true love story that spreads out to say even if you are half-lizard half-homosapien your not alone in the world just let your toe guide you and you pick off anything that steps in your path...fantastic!!! Now keep around folks the campfire has been lite and the stage is heating up so sit a while in the comfort zone of theatre and practicality till next time...peace out!!

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