Women & Theatre, The Laughing Sole and The Feast are running the third Faithful and Funny Comedy Course, this time at the Springfield Centre, Sparkhill.

Young People of mixed faiths from across the city are working together to create original comedy material, supported by Mrs Barbara Nice, through the first week of the Easter holidays, before sharing their work with audiences on Thursday 5th April.

Faithful and Funny Comedy Evening, is free for all to attend, and is open to everyone. The event will be held at The Springfield Centre, Springfield Road, Moseley, B13 9NY, on Thursday 5th April, 7.30pm. All you need to bring is yourself and a good sense of humour – so join us if you can! Faithful and Funny Flyer

Underrated: Birmingham the Musical

More miles of canal than Venice? Unlikely.
A tree for every person? Doubtful.
Underrated? Definitely.

Underrated: Birmingham The Musical will be a multi-voiced theatrical extravaganza celebrating the best bits of Brum through the eyes of its young people. Beyond the Bullring and the Balti triangle, what our city means to our most dynamic residents – the next generation who will shape its future.

Underrated has been developed by Women & Theatre working in partnership with Queensbridge Secondary School, Priestley Smith School for the Visually Impaired, and The Children’s Society’s Strong Voices, Strong Lives project for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

This project has been funded by BCC Next Generation, The Edward & Dorothy Cadbury Charitable Trust, The Eveson Trust, The Ernest Cook Trust, the Harry Payne Trust, and supported by mac Birmingham.

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.

Students will work with W&T to create an original theatre script, developed through creative research, using online resources, local archives, and interviews with members of the local community to uncover the story of the school. The final play will be performed at Perry Beeches Junior School for the local community, pupils of other schools, staff and parents. There will also be a creative exhibition of word and image to accompany the theatre performances.

By encouraging interaction and sharing between the school community and the wider community, See Me, Hear Me is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen community relations and arts participation, bring sighted and visually impaired people together and develop creative skills, as well as create an original piece of high quality theatre.

Scoffing: Available for touring in Summer 2009
Theme: Obesity – causes and diagnosis
Target audience: Weight management professionals, GPs, those diagnosed as clinically obese
Powerful and moving, Scoffing is a one-woman show full of music and images which resonates with people of all ages, shapes and sizes about eating, body image and self-confidence, exploring the complex factors which affect obesity and weight management.

We are holding a sharing of Scoffing on Wednesday 13th May 2009 at 3pm at The Friends Institute, Highgate. Please let us know if you would like to attend

Step by Step with May & June: Available for touring 29th June – 10th July 2009
Theme: Healthy Eating and Healthy Lifestyles
Target Audience: General community, Schools (Year 6, Secondary & parents’ groups)
Larger than life characters May & June tackle healthy eating in this interactive performance.  A great way to get people thinking and talking about the big question: why don’t we eat healthily when we know we should?

Bare Drama: Available for touring in Autumn 2009
Theme: Gang Prevention
Target Audience: Schools (Years 7 and 8 )
An exciting new play about how gangs form and gang prevention.   The programme encompasses a play and workshop where pupils have the chance to engage in-depth with the issues raised.

The Learning Curve: Available for touring in October 2009
Theme: Breast Health and Breast Awareness
Target Audience: Community Health Promotion, Health Professionals’ Training, Schools (Year 9 and up, Colleges)
This audience favourite is back for Breast Awareness Month 2009.  Covering a range of issues from body image to breastfeeding and screening, the play is ideal for health awareness and promotion.

If you have a burning issue you think we could help with, we are also available for new commissions and projects.  Each year we work with a range of partners to produce new pieces of theatre about issues that are important to them; recent partners include Leicester YMCA, Action for Inclusion, Scope, RoC Drama, Walsall tPCT, and Walsall Community Arts.

Downloads:
Health & Community Programme for 0910
Education Programme for 0910