CARAVAN NEXT CONFERENCE

Changing The Tune: songs, theatres and social transformations

Changing the Tune: songs, theatres and social transformations is a conference, workshop and barter that considers the songs we sing: the social and cultural tone of our everyday lives and the role of theatre amplifying voices of change.

The project is a collaboration between the Caravan Next Project, a network of European social community theatres, represented by Teatr Brama (Poland) who use archaic songs in community projects, and Alice Williams who works between theatre practice, socially engaged projects and theory, supported by Milk Crate Theatre Company and Shopfront Arts Co – op. The project has invited founding partners of Caravan Next Project Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium (Denmark), part of historic theatre laboratory Odin Teatret to collaborate with local socially engaged theatre companies, artists and communities.

The conference: songs presents a platform for exchange between diverse voices: cultural leaders opening spaces for creative expression, songs from Teatr Brama, artists' and theorists' experiences of transformation through their work, case studies of socially engaged theatre projects and their effects, dialogues with participants and community members. It is a forum for exchanging knowledge, organisational approaches, anecdotes,  songs, and building relationships to create resonant socially engaged theatre projects.

The workshop: theatres is an opportunity for local artists and participating community members to develop theatrical skills through voice performance and tools for socially engaged theatre. The first session is led by Teatr Brama using archaic songs as a means of connection, the second with Anna Stigsgaard from Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium working with participants' own fragments to create a common song in preparation for the Barter.

The Barter: social transformations during the week before the conference Anna Stigsgaard from the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium and Teatr Brama will work with diverse groups of artists and community members to create a Barter: a montage where theatre becomes a form of exchange between of art and everyday life, revealing new aspects of the songs we sing.

Caravan Next This conference is one out of 10 international conferences in the frame of the Project Caravan Next and is a collaboration between Teatr Brama (Poland) and Alice Williams (Australia). The 10 conferences aim on spreading inspiration, tools and knowledge about social community theatre based on the experiences of Caravan Next.

Changing The Tune: songs, theatres and social transformations

conference program 29th October

9:00 – 9:30     Arrival

9:30 – 9:45     Welcome to Country

9:45 – 10:00   Introduction to conference: Changing the Tune, songs, theatres and social transformations

10:00 – 11:00 Creating Culture: Artists, Community and Common  Projects – Reflections on Caravan Next Daniel Jacewicz

 Natural Order: exploring the conditions of change Margot Politis, Milk Crate  Theatre

11:15 – 12:45  Turning the Tables Fiona Winning (TBC), Jess Cook, 107 Projects, Jenny Crissey, Teatr Brama

1:30 – 3:00  Forms of transformation Laleen Jayamanne, Alice Williams, Martin  Edmond

3:15 – 4:45  Case studies of socially engaged theatre projects: Natalie Rose, Shopfront  Arts Co – op, Felicity Nicol, Spark Youth Theatre, Anna Stigsgaard, Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium

5:00 – 5:30  Closing session followed by dinner and drinks at the Tudor Hotel

workshop program 30th October

9:00 – 9:30 Arrival

9:30 – 12:30 Teatr Brama voice, acting and expression

1:00 – 4:00 Anna Stigsgaard, Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium preparation of the Barter

Brama workshops

Methods of work are based on several years of experience of working with actors and community groups. Our work encourages individuals to search for sincere and authentic expression in art, utilizing physical and dramatic acting, rhythm and music/singing. We teach what we feel is most interesting to see on stage - encouraging theatrical spirit, consciousness and developing relationship to fellow actors. Due to our intensive methods, the advantage of our workshops is that our participants become highly involved in a transformative process. Workshops activate and open the group as integration is essential. The purpose is building trust, emotional statements and body expression through movement, voice and improvisation exercises. Our workshops nurture a creative working environment for all participants. Workshops include: theatrical training, vocal work, utilizing old folk songs, work with language, diction and enunciation, exercises to make participants conscious of their body on stage, stage work, elementary theatrical tasks, stage and scenery construction, impulse exercises and reactions to the acting process, performance preparation including all participants of the workshop. People of all ages and from all backgrounds are encouraged to attend. Previous performance experience is not necessary. Workshop attendees are encouraged to bring their own material to share (however it is not required). The workshop will end in a show of work/barter.

Anna Stigsgaard Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium Workshop

In the second half of the workshop day, we will explore the concept of theatrical barter in preparing for the evening event. For this part of the workshop, each participant should bring something he or she can do. It can be acrobatics, skateboarding, singing, playing an instrument, reciting a poem or a monologue; sowing a seed or planting a tree; folding a napkin or a newspaper; opening a bottle with a knife... We will explore how, done in a precise way, each action has musicality and a potential to become part of a musical score, and how some actions can be multiplied by the other participants of the workshop. In the evening concert, we will weave together the input of different artists and community members to create a new, common “tune”.

Barter

Tuesday 30th October 7 pm

Concluding the conference program this public performance event will present the results of the workshop alongside interactions from local artists and community groups.

Barter: Theatre as a common space

“Barter”, in a theatrical context, is a concept developed by Odin Teatret in the 1970’s during a residency in the south of Italy, when they asked local communities to respond to their performances with songs, dances, poems or food - instead of by paying money. The act of making theatre became part of a human and cultural exchange. This concept has evolved in the past forty years in various ways, but the core remains the same: theatre as a common ground to present with what we can do, letting us focus less on who we are and our various identity markers. What we can do can be woven together: a motorcycle club revving their engines can create a rhythm for polka dancers; a local bicycle club circling with dynamo lights on can be a scenography; women embroidering in a square can create 300 metres of lace for the audience to follow through a neighbourhood; a karate club can perform their kata to the soft rhythm of an opera singer, revealing new sides of both elements. The barter weaves in and out of the theatrical space but includes us all in the common space of doing.

Właśnie zakończyliśmy wielomiesięczny dla nas projekt Festiwal LUDZKA MOZAIKA. Stowarzyszenie zamyka związane z nim działania i formalności, a Teatr podróżuje, gra spektakle i szykuje się na nowy sezon jesienny. Wkrótce wracamy z nowymi projektami, warsztatami i pomysłami. Do zobaczenia!

Relacja z Festiwalu LUDZKA MOZAIKA w naszych mediach społecznościowych. Tam też bieżąca relacja z codziennej pracy Stowarzyszenia i Teatru BRAMA. Zapraszamy!

Przerwa wakacyjna - zapraszamy w październiku!