Teaching Skills for Life Through the Joy and Magic of Theatre and Arts

New Moves 2010

Funforlife & New Theatre Works in India and Sri Lanka

In this Jan/ Feb 2010 project, NEW MOVES, we continued to connect children from the several divergent cultural backgrounds in North East Sri Lanka. Although peace has been officially declared, there is still an atmosphere of suspicion and fear. People ‘disappear’ and journalists are literally murdered. A thirty-year civil war has taught various groups suspicion of one another, and differing language and cultural practice has enhanced this. We remain convinced that art is its own language and performing allows the children to enjoy play as children and to unselfconsciously connect with groups they wouldn’t normally socialise with.

We worked with over 100 children of a mix of Tamil and Singhalese cultures and of Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist backgrounds, whose lives have been badly compromised by the war.

Professional artists delivered dance, design/craft and music- based workshops and as a culmination of the sessions we created with the children an informal showcase production to which members of the local community, helpers, parents, friends and dignitaries were invited so the children were left with a great sense of excitement and achievement.

Our team was led by Ellie Parker (director New Theatre Works). Kate Deeming, dancer/choreographer, directed the workshops and showcases, Sam Wyer, designer, led the designing and making workshops and Nathan Portlock, musician, was responsible for the sound creation. Alison George has made an excellent documentary of the process that is to be publicly screened during Glasgow Refugee Week in June 2010

This project formed the second stage of our work in battle-torn N.E. Sri Lanka. We focussed on two particularly badly affected areas; Trincomalee and Batticaloa. This project built on our warm relationships with the Ambu Illam Orphanage for Girls in Trincomalee, as well as with local teachers and volunteers from the Sri Lanka Centre for the performing Arts.

Batticaloa was new and challenging for us. We worked with a much larger groupof students than we had thought possible in our first week, with almost no facilities. The students were training to become drama teachers but had not experienced any practical theatre before so were really receptive to our creative techniques. At the end of the final show, they were so enthusiastic they lifted Kate, Sam and Nathan above their heads and paraded them around! For our last week at Butterfly Peace Garden – a place of creativity and rehabilitation to which culturally mixed children from out-lying villages are brought - we enjoyed exchanging skills with the experienced ‘animators’ (arts workers) and contributing to their sessions with the children.

Fulfilling our aim of sustainability, the team trained ten local teachers and over 60 student teachers in creative teaching methods, with the aim that they will employ our creative methods in their future work with children.

We are convinced that our growing experience and commitment to working with these young people gives them confidence and hope and, of course, fun. We are so glad we have a film and a gallery to show and record this.

Sri Lanka - New Moves from Alison George on Vimeo.

 

 

A Drop in the Ocean

FunforLife & New Theatre Works in Sri Lanka 2009

Yes it was a drop - but how it sparkled and shimmered as it grew.

Courtyard based New Theatre Works, in partnership with funforlife, has returned from a gruelling but rewarding four week project in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. This was once a prosperous seaside town in the north east of Sri Lanka but now, after the civil war of more than twenty years, it's a war-torn, war–tired, heavily armed and still Tsunami- damaged coastal sprawl.

With Ellie Parker at the helm, New Theatre Works has been fund raising for over a year to finance an international band of six artists who have volunteered to work in Trinco with a mix of Tamil, Singhalese, Muslim and Christian young people, two Sri Lankan NGOs, two translators and nine Sri Lankan teachers. Under the experienced guidance of local practitioner Janine Sharpe, the workshops incorporated dance, pupeteering, improvisation and song and led to three performances.

'You have to be prepared for anything.' says Ellie. 'Our first group were bussed in from neighbouring villages so the Tamil youngsters were searched and questioned at each of the six or so government checkpoints and were sometimes hours late. Our second group walked from the nearby refugee camp of over 3,000 IDFs – Internally Displaced People - and nearly twice as many as we had asked for turned up for the workshops. Of course we couldn't turn them away. Although we had had to change the venue, that performance attracted a huge audience, most of whom arrived during our dress rehearsal, and guess what – as soon as it got dark there was a power cut. Amazingly some builders nearby were using a generator, so after a lot of sign language and negotiation, they lent it to us. Lights and music – thank heavens! But after about twenty minutes we were plunged into darkness and silence again. The generator had run out of diesel. I ran blindly towards it and handed over my plastic water bottle to be cut into a funnel while some one produced a can of diesel from somewhere. Ten minutes later and the show went on...
The final week was in a girl's orphanage. On the day of the performance we were told we would have to cancel as, with a proposed protest march through the town it would be too dangerous. Luckily this didn't materialise, so the last show went ahead with a lot of tears and laughter. They have so little but they are such wonderful spirited girls. I think of them often.'

New Theatre Works hopes that the teachers throughout the project will continue the performance work but the NTW' aim to integrate various factions through the creative process is a complicated and sometimes dangerous process. Nevertheless, they would love to go back to Sri Lanka - the Tear Drop of India.

Download Full Project (8.5mb Powerpoint Presentation.)

 

Here is a short report from Kate:

I arrived back from tropical Sri Lanka to a London Blizzard nearly one month ago. It was a surreal experience to say the least. Not only because of the weather change, but also the change in circumstance. You don't realize how much you get used to things till they are not there. The relief at not having constant military surveillance was felt immediately.

It was a brilliant and difficult month. Brilliant in that I genuinely felt that the work I was doing was good and that it was valuable and appreciated.

Difficult in the knowledge of the suffering the young people we were working with have grown accustomed to. The random 'sweeps' by the military of civilian areas where members *disappear*, the silencing of the media as evidenced by the assassination of a leading Sri Lankan newspaper editor and assassination attempt of another, the 250,000 new refugees in the North with new military offensives against the Tigers. Every single individual I met or was working with had their life, or their loved ones lives in some way directly effected - death, imprisonment, torture - by war, and doubly victimized by tsunami. It is difficult to fathom.

In the face of this we created performance, dance, theatre- and it was GOOD - chaotic, fraught with blackouts and delays, lacking resources and set by the whims of the bureaucracy- but celebrated in the face of it all - and for that I would do it 100 times over.

I would like to think that the experience I had was unique. Multiply it by a million and maybe that's a little bit closer - for every war a countless amount of victims, the silent majority.

I am now speaking to numerous media outlets about the possibility of returning to Sri Lanka and continuing the performance work and doing a documentary therein.

We shall see what transpires, but so far so good.

Sending you much love and peace,

Kate E. xx

• Home
• About Us
• The Work
• The Programmes
• Corporate Workshops
• TUNE Model
• Testimonials
• Gallery
• Support us
• Contact us