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read the whole story Mar. 15th 2017

The First Weekend - Mentoring Programme 2017 1/4

On the 11th and 12th March 2017 Seemia, ivo, Broken Chair and Ditto joined Nathan, Alex and Kat for the first weekend of Mentoring workshops.  The first feat was getting everybody together in one room, one of the first things that can be tricky when working in an ensemble.  Just bringing everyone together for two days in a row was beneficial. 

On Sunday we also had Sam Baines from Penguin in the Room (www.penguinintheroom.com) take the teams through a three hour marketing workshop.  Sam was, as always, full of excellent knowledge and advice to help the emerging companies on their way. 

There's homework to be done and lots to think about but we're looking forward to gathering together again in a few months to talk more, learn more and play a game or two (of course!).

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read the whole story Feb. 22nd 2017

Our Mentoring Companies for 2017 are...

After recieving an overwhelming 40 applications for our Mentoring Programme 2017, we knew we'd have a hard task of whittleing it down to just four companies to join us on the year long programme. It was indeed a hard task and we used this criteria to help us decide:

- Have the company performed a show in a professional context? (useful when referencing or learning the practical challenges for that group)

- Have they had any similar mentoring or associate opportunities in the past? (we want to make sure that this opportunity is the most useful it can be)

- Has the company got a commitment to an ensemble working method or ensemble decision making?

- Is the company looking/needing for what we can offer? (we have't got all the skills so was important for us to know whether we have what you need). 

After much discussion we were delighted to let the following companies know they had been selected:

Ditto Theatre Company Ltd

Seemia Theatre

Broken Chair Theatre Company

and ivo

We are very much looking forward to starting our first workshop with you all on 11th March.

 

This however is not the end.  The amount of applications we recieved made it even clearer to us the need there is for guidence and learning when you are starting a company and the hunger there is for it.  We would have treasured this kind of workshop when TF started out as it is such an unknown world.  Applications, funding, contracts?  Although we are still learning there is information we have learn't on the way that we want to pass on and we are hoping that we will be able to do this for the companies that contacted us for this programme.  Watch this space! 

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read the whole story May. 12th 2016

Emerge/ncy: theatre workshops with refugees and asylum seekers

Part of the Emerge/ncy project has been delivering some theatre workshops with different groups of migrants and refugees. By delivering workshops (which focus on communication, group working skills, basic physical theatre and mask skills, and having fun together) the creative team have had the opportunity to meet a really diverse group of people affected by migration, which has helped us get an understanding, on a personal level, into some of the issues we are wrestling with in the show.

Overall, we worked with about 100 people. We delivered workshops in two settings: a group called R and B (‘Refugees and Befriending’) organised by the Red Cross, which runs 4 groups across London for young unaccompanied refugees and asylum-seekers (mainly aged 14-21). The other setting, via an organisation called Migrant Help, was a hostel in South London where people of all ages and nationalities are sent to live temporarily while their asylum claims are processed. 
 
The workshops were quite daunting to plan - we didn’t know any of the participants or really their background, and many of them didn’t have more than basic English. But once we got going, we had huge amounts of fun. After the Red Cross workshops, we all sat down together to eat dinner, which was a lovely opportunity to just hang out and chat. We celebrated one boy’s birthday with a cake and I wondered where his mum was, and if she knew how he was doing. I found it hard to believe at times that some of the young people we were sitting round a table eating dinner with had made such difficult, arduous journeys alone. 
 
One softly-spoken young man told me about his trip from Eritrea, via Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya, Italy and France. You know the Jungle? he asked me. Have you been there? No, I said, what’s it like? Cold, he answered. And wet. I asked him what he thought of London, whether he liked it. He was hugely positive about our city. “There’s no trouble here” he told me. It really shifts your perspective being told that our bustling, competitive home city is an oasis of peace, but to some people, it really is. 
 
The workshops at the hostel were some of the most joyous workshop experiences I’ve ever had, despite the somewhat institutional setting and difficult conditions the participants are living in. The hostel is quite basic, and people of many different nationalities (many with young children) and living in close proximity and with huge amounts of uncertainty as they wait indefinitely for asylum claims to move forward. Many of them have no idea how long they will stay - and often people are moved at a day’s notice, so it must be very hard to build any relationships or get a meaningful sense of the local area.
We decided to lead with a big music jam, and hauled along an arsenal of instruments and percussion. Mario and Tunji built a brilliant guitar/drum/voice improvisation up, and soon 35 or so people had gathered to join in - to play, make music and enjoy themselves. The youngest was 4, the oldest probably 74. One couple from Kabul brought a three-week old baby. Despite the cultural differences, people joined in with an enthusiasm, energy and playfulness that I've rarely experienced and we all left on a big high. 
 
We've got a huge amount out of delivering the workshops, and hopefully have left a useful experience and positive memories with the people we worked with. The workshops to me were a reminder of what gets completely left out of new coverage of refugee/migrant stories: the incredible and positive human qualities people bring with them. The people we have met and had the privilege to work with have been resourceful, resilient, brave, playful, inventive, joyous, warm, determined, tolerant, collaborative, generous and wise. These are all qualities we desperately need as we collectively face the huge challenges this century is serving us.

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read the whole story Feb. 9th 2016

SIBS Video - A look at our work with children who have siblings with autism

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