Reflection..

After feeling contented with the research I have undertaken this week (and the fact we have had some nice weather) I have begun to reflect on why I am so interested in Theatre, especially the Applied Theatre sector. And narrowed down a few creative communities I feel I have been apart of during my life. 


I would definitely say that my love of theatre is passed on from my mum, she is herself an avid supporter of the arts, and participated in many community productions in her youth. She made sure I had access to theatre in my childhood and that she educated me about what was happening in the world and regularly took me to performances. I first became more aware of the power of community theatre when I joined Leighton Buzzard Children's Theatre, which I have previously blogged about, as throughout that I learnt more and more about what it meant to be a part of something that helps people learn through creative projects, and that gives something back to communities. 

So what is Applied Theatre?

To me Applied Theatre is the term for drama practice in a specific social context, it doesn't have to be in a 'normal' theatre space, and is often themed or aimed at a specific audiences, usually members of the community. It can be performance devised from scratch, and used for therapeutic purposes. 


I have already mentioned that L.B.C.T was my first experience of community projects, so I would consider this as a creative community I have belonged to throughout my life, and it shows that being a part of something can really make someone feel like they belong. 

The next 'community' I consider I have been apart of is Global Rock Challenge (http://www.rockchallenge.co.uk/). Global Rock Challenge is run by the Be Your Best Foundation. The Be your Best Foundation aim to improve to quality of life for societies, by encouraging young people to 'be their best' without the use of drugs, cigarettes and alcohol, and to be actively involved in building safe and healthy communities. 
Rock Challenge is a performing arts event in which schools and colleges from around the country compete in an eight minute dance-drama piece. Each group (which can be made up of anything from 20-100 performers, plus stage and support crew) decides on a theme, which can be anything they want it to be, something that is important and means something to them. They devise the choreography for the piece, chose the music, design the staging and set, everything is up to the group to decide. 


 'On the designated show day, the competing schools and colleges in that region assemble for a wonderfully friendly day of interaction, rehearsals and fun. In the evening they perform to a usually sellout audience of their peers, families and community members, and their performances are judged by a panel of specialists from the performing-arts industry. The challenge is for the students and their teachers to create and be involved in their own production from conceptualisation through to the live performance. The challenge is also to be the best that they can without the use of nicotine, alcohol or other drugs, and there are severe penalties for anyone who fails that challenge on any event day and for their team too.' 

(http://www.rockchallenge.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&topic_id=1&page_id=2 Accessed 24/02/2012)

As well as winning places for coming first, second and third, there are also several different awards schools can win including best hair and make-up, best concept interpretation, best staging, choreography award, drug awareness award and many more. This event is a brilliant way of making new friends, working as a team, being the best you can be without anybody saying you don't belong. This is the perfect example of community performance, there are events globally as well as in this country.

Game Over-2007

Isn't it time to stop the Traffic?-2011 

I participated in Rock Challenge every year I was at secondary school (2002-2007) where we presented various themes such as 'Game Over' about computer addiction, where I was the cost-host for our school who introduced the theme to the host of the event and the audience. 'Eight Bullets, form a heart that no-one knows' about shootings at a Santa Monica High School, 'The Mousehole Cat'- a story about fisherman, and since I left school they have re-done the Mousehole Cat story, and had themes about fair trade and sex trafficking.  Even if schools have a similar theme interpretation will always be different so everything is exciting. The 2008 version of 'The Mousehole Cat' by my school can be seen here:


   http://www.globalrockchallenge.com/#!915

Whilst at university I was to undertake Rock Challenge a final time, whilst working with Theatre Inc., which could be considered another one of my 'communities'. Theatre Inc. was a company of students from the university that ran drama, arts, sports and music workshops with children from within the care system. This process led on to them competing in Rock Challenges youth division for different groups. We facilitated workshops in which professionals from different dance backgrounds came in and worked with them, and they also prepared all their own costumes. The theme was  'Care around the World'- depicting a boy leaving home and finding love in different parts of the world. This is the first time the children had done anything like this, and whilst at first it was a struggle getting everyone to participate, by the end they were all willing, had a wonderful experience, and made a new 'community' in which they felt it was okay to belong. 

Caretastic-Care around the world 2010

Another creative community of mine that I would consider myself to have been apart of is my time at Grangeside. Grangeside is a pupil referral unit in Basingstoke, which caters for children who are not part of the mainstream school system. This is because some are on the Autistic spectrum, most have special educational needs and behaviour problem. Some have never been to a mainstream school, others have been expelled and then come to Grangeside. We went in a facilitated six weeks of workshops with two groups of eleven and twelve year olds. This is a prime example of people coming together through the creative arts. These children had never experienced drama before, and through the workshops they were able to learn about team work, build their confidence, and feel respected in their environment. Most of them were willing to participate, some more spectators than fully involved but by the end of the process everyone felt comfortable around each other, and we had managed to build up good relationships and had respect for one another. 

Thought washing line (what the children thought about the workshops)

                                                             

We started by doing simple exercises and games to get them focused and interested and throughout the weeks we progressed to bigger exercises, in which they had to think about a topic they were given, and produce ideas and improvisations from this for example the teachers at Grangeside asked us to do a session on cyber bullying, so we gave them this topic and thought about what is was and then made up five minute scenes about the subject. We also did 'Grangeside Cludeo' in which they had to take on the role of detectives to work out which one of us (posing as fairy tale characters) had committed the crime, and another task they did was about jobs, where they took on the roles of the interviewer and had to work out who was suitable for a job by a process of elimination.  

These are just a few of the communities I believe I have belonged to, other ones would include, my workplace, my different groups of friends from home and university, and now my Masters group, but I wanted to focus on 'creative communities' and keep thinking about how arts can make such a difference to people's lives.