Look out: the Story Lady is out & about

During the months of June and July Women & Theatre’s ‘Story Lady’ is popping up all over the place – accompanied as always, by her giant ‘story bag’, brimming with objects relating to her many, many stories.

The Story Lady has a passion for stories; for telling them, collecting them, sharing them, performing them, singing them, for perfecting them. She is always looking for new stories, new listeners and new learners. She often appears when she is least expected; she might be hiding in a classroom, in the corner of the library, in a stationary cupboard or even under the head teachers desk! You never know….

The Story Lady project is being developed primarily in partnership with Allens Croft Primary School. It will involve regular visits from the Story Lady who will share stories with pupils and explore the ‘ingredients’ of a good story and help pupils set about creating their own. They will carry out research with people in their local communities and use their real life experiences as the basis for writing stories. The Story Lady will then work with the pupils to share those stories through performance.

The Story Lady will also be travelling on to 6 other Primary schools in Birmingham that will experience a scaled down version of the project, which will nonetheless celebrate stories and develop pupils’ speaking & listening, writing and performance skills.

This project is funded by Allens Croft Primary School and Creativity Culture and Education, as part of the national Creative Partnerships School of Creativity programme.

For more information about bringing the Story Lady to your school, community centre, hospital, workplace, or anywhere where people would like to hear a good yarn, please contact Women & Theatre on 0121 449 7117.

Posted: May 24, 2011 in Announcements, Education, news
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See Me, Hear Me – Local Research

Following the success of Tuned In, Women and Theatre are currently working in collaboration with visually-impaired children from Priestley Smith School on Beeches Road, Perry Barr. Our aim is to bring together the students with members of the neighbouring communities to build strong links and relationships where there have previously been none. The students will then work with us to create an original piece of theatre titled See Me, Hear Me to be performed at the school in March 2011 (dates TBC). There will also be a creative exhibition of word, sound and image on show at the school to accompany the performances.

The project offers local residents the opportunity to visit Priestley Smith School and find out more about what happens there. It will also benefit wider community audiences by enabling them to see a high quality theatre performance about a subject matter they can relate to.

All of our plays and programmes are rooted in the experiences of real people, and so every project begins with a period of research, at the heart of which is talking to people about their experiences.

This is where we need your help!

We are looking for local residents to share with us their stories, memories and tales of the people and history involving Perry Barr – Particularly the Perry Beeches/Priestley Smith School site, Beeches Road, and the surrounding local area. This is a genuine opportunity for sharing and strengthening local community relationships, and our findings will form part of the creative exhibition at the school.

To be part of this valuable research, please contact Pippa/Bianca/Terina by phone, e-mail or post.

Women & Theatre
The Friends Institute, 220 Moseley Road, Highgate,
Birmingham B12 0DG

Tel: 0121 440 4203
Fax: 0121 446 4280
Email: biancaprentice@womenandtheatre.co.uk

Posted: November 19, 2010 in Announcements, Community, Education, Projects, Theatre, Uncategorized, news
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Tuned In: Young People’s project for Spring 2010

Tuned In is an exciting new radio drama project, made possible with funding from Birmigham City Council’s Creative Futures. We will be working with young people from two schools in Birmingham – a group of year 9 students from St Alban’s school (in Highgate) and the whole of Priestley Smith school for the visually impaired (in Perry Barr).

The idea is to create a collection of 6 short radio plays – three from each school – which will be written and rehearsed by the young people from their own thoughts and ideas under the guidance of experienced writer Steph Dale, radio director Jenny Stephens and W&T’s associate director Terina Talbot. Once the play scripts have been written they will be ‘swapped’ with the other school and rehearsed in readiness for recorded performance at the BBC studios in The Mailbox. The young people will have opportunities to meet and work together and the project will culminate in a celebratory event which will include a recorded performance of each of the plays. We have already had an ‘ inspiration day’ with all staff, students and artists involved in the project – this was held at the Botanical Gardens and was a wonderful day!

We look forward to beginning work with students and getting the script work going …. watch this space … and stay ‘tuned in’ for more!!

Posted: January 21, 2010 in Announcements, Education, news
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Hooded at the Birmingham Rep on 12th and 13th June

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Thursday 11th & Friday 12th June 2009, 6.30pm
The Door, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Tickets: £3 (£1.50 concs.)
Box Office: (0121 236 4455 / www.birmingham-rep.co.uk)

Are they carrying knives? (Or books?)

Exploring young people’s lives, alliances and prejudices in our multicultural city, Hooded is a refreshing, fast moving, and seamless piece of contemporary theatre created by a diverse group of teenagers working with Women & Theatre.

Is it any different being a teenager now than it was then?

Real stories from the lives of “The Hooded Ones” are played out with verve, passion and conviction whilst original music, film and projection made by the young people weave an authentic back drop.

They may all look the same but everyone’s story is different…

Hooded has been developed with funding from Birmingham City Council’s Creative Futures, Awards for All, The Bryant Trust, The Baron Davenport Charity and The Harry Payne Trust.

Posted: May 27, 2009 in Announcements, Community, Education, news
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