I’ve been ask to deliver a training workshop for male staff at Lambeth Council for International Men’s Day
This highly practical hands-on workshop is an experiential learning session for those looking for CPD development in using creative activities to engage and explore issues they face working within challenging contexts
Who is this for?
- People interested in using creative action methods as a tool to explore personal and social issues, and for people who want to gain new CPD skills to fulfil their obligation and commitment to the people they serve. The workshop covers exercises with explanations, instructions and suggestions to help you develop your own style and approach. The creative action methods can be readily adapted to a wide range of settings with adults and young people.
- No previous creative experience is necessary however a willingness to actively explore new methods of working is an essential requirement. This will also be an opportunity for professional development, networking and skill sharing so as to enable continued high standards of good practice.
I have just been commissioned by Age UK to produce a 12 week community theatre project for their members.
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/lambeth/our-services/mysocial
I’m working with a large mixed group of Windrush Elders and their Kin to produce an interactive performance event for Lambeth Heritage Festival & Black History Month in October and November.
Catch the performance here:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/uppernorwoodlibraryhub/441940
Currently working with a group of women (aged 50-80) called Lambeth Theatricals Drama Group aka the Autumn Glories. I am making a performance with them about their thoughts and feelings about ‘lockdown’. The show will be ready for Black History Month in October
- How can Black Men survive post COVID 19 and remain proactive during these challenging and uncertain times?
- How do we ensure that Black Men are not the first to die in this ongoing pandemic ?
- What are the current obstacles Black Men face in the time of lockdown?
- What can Black Men do collectively to look after their Mental Health & Wellbeing and address our current reality?
- How can Black Men support and guide the next generation so that we are better prepared (when?) for civil action?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jUXVR7qVQy4%3Ffeature%3Doembed
Just been commissioned by Public Health in Lambeth to create a performance for middle aged black men on the issue of male Suicide. You can catch the performance by here:
http://www.kuringa.org/en/april-in-kuringa-forum-theatre-festival.html
I will also aim to provide them techniques to take away and utilise when they are working in challenging contexts.
Very excited to announce I was successful in a partnership bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for our Celebrating Dark & Light (Brixton’s first Black Theatre Company) Theatre at Longfield Hall.
I am now looking for around 15 local residents aged 70+ to participate in a free drama/heritage course in September and October. If you have memories of living in Brixton in the early 1970s and want to build skills in drama, performance and interviewing then do get in touch!
About to start work with https://onca.org.uk/event/the-food-journey/ as part of the https://rapportfestival.com
Watch this space
https://love.lambeth.gov.uk/drama-brings-50-men-mental-health/
In less than a 5 days time I return back to Slovenia to train teachers in the use of drama and theatre with vulnerable groups. I will also work collaboratively with 3 schools in the region of Konjice to make new shows about vulnerable groups.
Currently touring around London with a intergenerational street theatre performance group creating interactive-participatory stories around the issues coming from the 75th Anniversary of the Windrush Generation.
Proud to part of this event that will raise questions about how we use prison, the purpose of punishment, its impact and the ways in which the idea of ‘exile’ and exclusion do and do not effect positive change.
There will be performances and panel discussions asking how we got here and where do we go from here? Check out the details here:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/safeground/185489
Busy rehearsing and preparing with the amazing ensemble cast from ‘so you think i’m craZy?’ for ‘a deaths in custody‘ show at Oval House Theatre.
https://www.blackthrive.org.uk/Event/sean-rigg-never-forgotten
Dynamic performers and non-performers of African/ African/Caribbean background for live interactive street-theatre performances in public spaces in Brixton for the forthcoming festival Rapport Festival http://www.rapportfestival.com/
The performances will be memorable, fun, rewarding and created by the group (teenagers, adults and older people) covering a range of themes like ‘change’, ‘memories’, ‘journeys’, & ‘the future’ and involve different art forms e.g. poetry, musicians, song, dance, puppets etc.
We will be rehearsing at Brixton Road Youth Club (143 – 145 Brixton Road SW9 6LZ) Wednesdays 5.30pm – 8.30pm & Saturdays 11.00am – 4.00pm. These workshops* will all lead up to the festival performance.
The project aims to bring people of different ages together to increase awareness and understanding between the generations leading to improved communication, mutual understanding and respect.
*During the workshops, you will be given the opportunity to develop your creative ideas and though games, character, narrative and plot; the essential grammar of dramatic improvisation. The participants will develop skills in research, interviewing, writing, devising and rehearsing. Tony Cealy will guide, support and mentor you throughout the whole process in group work and in one-to-one sessions.
In less than a 5 days time I return back to Slovenia to kick start a series of interactive and improvisational drama based projects that vary from applied theatre training to performance.
- Devise two new theatre shows with Staff & Users at a Drug & Alcohol rehabilitation centre http://www.projektclovek.si/
- Teach Social Pedagogy Students at Faculty of Education drama and social change techniques https://www.pef.uni-lj.si/377.html
- Lecture to post – graduates studying Arts Therapy http://www.pef.uni-lj.si/818.html
- Train Teachers and educators in primary and secondary schools in http://www.aemanet.eu/en/users/sic
Please help me this year to create 70 Windrush acts of exuberance!
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=70%20windrush%20acts%20for%202018
In less than three days’ time I return back to India to work with Artists on Citi’s Entertainment Network Cultural Exchange Programme. I will also be working in local schools and colleges.
www.cityentertainmentnetwork.com
I’m currently in the process of exploring the potential scope of a large scale cultural programme in 2021 to commemorate/ celebrate/ consider the contemporary impacts of the 1981 Brixton Uprisings at it’s 40th year anniversary. The aims of the programme are to:
- Provide a lens on our contemporary experience of equity in the area
- Catalyse collaboration between disparate, diverse grass roots organisations
- Engage the changing demographic in the area’s rich activist heritage
- Explore, discover and champion new modes of shared creative advocacy, enabling hidden voices to be heard and championed within the collective experience
- Create 81 acts of exuberant defiance and incite future radical responses*
The community-led programme will ideally happen in cultural and public spaces across Brixton, be inclusive & accessible and champion social action inspired by collective research and artistic programming. It will provide an opportunity for our community to re-think the strategies of resistance and resilience currently being employed.
The working title for this programme is 81 Acts of Exuberant Defiance
If you are interested in attending the one of the idea labs then please purchase your free ticket here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/brixton-uprising-commemorative-year-2021-tickets-42169381756?aff=es2
In less than a weeks’ time I return back to Slovenia to complete the final phase of a community based theatre in education tour:
- Teach Social Pedagogy Students at Faculty of Education drama and social change techniques https://www.pef.uni-lj.si/377.html
- Devise a new theatre production with staff at a Drug & Alcohol rehabilitation centre http://www.projektclovek.si/
- Lecture to post – graduates studying Arts Therapy http://www.pef.uni-lj.si/818.html
- Train Teachers and educators in primary and secondary schools in http://www.aemanet.eu/en/users/sic
- Implement ‘Migration & Accepting Others’ workshops to Teachers and Students at http://www.podgoro.si/
Phew!
I will be travelling to Kingston Jamaica to implement a social innovation programme through Drama on behalf of the Ministry of National Security & Department of Correctional Services.
I will also be guest lecturing a series of workshops to 3rd year students and sharing my practice with applied theatre Lecturers at the Edna Manley College.
With a meeting schedule in with British High Commission, I also hope to generate other threads of work whilst I am on the island.
The 2 videos below express what this means to me.https://youtu.be/DUiY21O7cFU
I’ve been invited to delivering training sessions to explore psycho-emotional health in the context of social justice for a week in Berlin.
It’s part a radical, international gathering of conversation, ideas and practises around/for psycho-emotional health in the context of working for social justice. There will be workshops, discussion spaces, info exchange, collective & self-care tools, networking of support and solidarity.
The aim is to learn and share in order to dismantle the alienation that can accompany emotional struggles and step towards destigmatizing the subject. In the process of creating this event together the organisers have noticed that we lack the time, language, courage and supportive surroundings to give space and appreciation to the inner struggles that many of us experience and the ways in which we stand with each other through emotional distress. This gathering is an attempt to make that time and space and to discover and practice languages that can describe our experiences together.
for more information: https://gpeh.noblogs.org/
Each training workshop uses harmonizing techniques for a range of group work applications from theatre of the oppressed techniques, devising, managing resistance, working with difficult groups and individuals, running sessions in closed settings likes prisons and secure estates, performance techniques, facilitation, improvisation, and much much more.
These trainings are for people who are in related professions such arts practitioners, social care, therapy, mental health, education, community arts or personal development as well as students and trainees in such professions. The training courses are a resource for: performers, youth workers, social/health workers, PSHE specialists, drama graduates, project managers, community workers, artists, workshop leaders, teachers, theatre practitioners, creative art therapists, counsellors, mental health workers, team builders, special needs workers and people who work in closed institutions with difficult and awkward groups and individuals.
These courses empower you to reflect, practice and develop your own style and approach. The techniques can be readily adapted to a wide range of settings with adults and young people.
Free training manuals provided on completion!
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/breaking-barriers-a-3-day-intensive-creative-arts-training-course-tickets-36272152986
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beyond-resistance-a-training-course-for-facilitators-group-leaders-in-dealing-with-resistance-tickets-36437280888
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rainbows-of-desires-training-augusto-boals-theatre-of-oppressed-2-days-tickets-36277640399
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robust-games-exercises-based-on-the-book-for-those-who-like-to-say-no-by-chris-johnston-tickets-36935105896