Youth theatre? Join the A-Team!

Lottery funding supports new Youth Theatre Company

In February 2013, inspired by our backgrounds in theatre and youth work, a small group met to discuss and develop an ethos and a strategy to build foundations for what later would become ‘A-Team Productions’.

Our vision was to put together a new youth theatre company which would change the image of Amateur Dramatics and youth entertainment. We wanted to encompass new ideas and experience of what has worked in the past to create something which would not only benefit the lives of young people in Edinburgh but the wider community as a whole.

Our ethos is simple: to promote teamwork, equality and encourage individuals with raw and unnourished potential to get involved, give it a go and grow under our roof.

We believe that Edinburgh has a wealth of talented young people, we see it all around us. We want to provide an opportunity for these young people to be the best, allow them to meet new friends and work with them to reach a common goal of putting on a five star production.

We at A-Team aim to do it like the professionals would! Our young people will wear the finest costumes, get star treatment and perform to full houses of eagerly awaiting theatre goers.

However without our funders we would be nothing. In April it was announced that A-Team Productions were granted funding to run productions for 3 years with a generous fund from The Big Lottery. Their Young Start programme will ensure that we have the necessary funds to put on an extravagant show without the families having to pay a penny.

Our first production “Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” will be performed in St Brides Centre in February 2014. Auditions for this production will be held at Ocean Terminal on 28 September 2013, call backs on 29 September.

For any information regarding the company, auditions or our february production please mail ateamproductionschair@live.co.uk or call 07973317031.

www.a-teamproductions.org

United.Passionate.Successful

Friends, Romans, countrymen … lend me your bike!

An unusual troupe of well-travelled travelling players will perform Shakespeare at Lauriston Castle this weekend. On Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 July The HandleBards, a four-strong, all-male troupe of travelling players, will perform Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night as part of a cycling tour of Britain that will see the group pass through 25 venues across Scotland and England.

Beginning at Glasgow’s Riverside Museum and finishing up at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, which recently hosted its 100th Chelsea Flower Show, The HandleBards will also perform at The Dell in Stratford-upon-Avon (the Royal Shakespeare Company’s outdoor playing space) Bolton and Newark castles and Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire, where Shakespeare himself performed in 1585.

As part the challenge, The HandleBards, who are supported by the Old Vic Theatre, will carry all the required set, props, costumes and camping equipment necessary for the 926 mile journey on their bikes, with no back-up vehicle in support – covering a distance equivalent to that between Land’s End and John o’ Groats.

The four HandleBards will play multiple characters in each 1930s-set play, fully engaging showgoers with some unusually energetic audience interaction. So grab your picnic blanket and head down to Lauriston Castle to enjoy this enthusiastic and engaging show, with some special music thrown in too!

Tickets are £10 (£8 concessions) – find more details on how to book on the Edinburgh Museums website.

For one night only: Alice at Craigroyston

Craigroyston Community High School will be staging ‘Alice in Wonderland’ TONIGHT at 7pm.

Marie McGarrol, drama worker at Craigroyston Community High School, said: “Craigroyston Community High School’s senior Drama club is putting on a public performance of Alice in Wonderland at the school tonight at 7pm, adult tickets £2, children’s tickets £1.50. The students involved would really appreciate any external support as the school as not seen a performance of this nature for many years. Please could you pass this email on to your colleagues that work in the area”.

For further information contact Craigroyston Community High School:

Telephone:      0131 477 7801
Email:         Admin@craigroyston.edin.sch.uk
Web Address:      www.craigroyston.edin.sch.uk

Citadel double bill for Leith Festival

Citadel Arts Group is presenting a double bill of environmentally friendly plays during Leith Festival, which gets underway this weekend.

‘The Junk Food Vampire’ which features four Leith school pupils who delighted audiences in Citadel’s 2012 Leith Festival show, and ‘Granny was a Rock Star’ which uses humour, pathos and song to drive home the importance of recycling and explores cross generation friendship between two Leith teenagers and the older lady whose veggies they were trying to nick!

Two shows for all the family for the price of one!

Venue: The Granary, The Shore, Leith

Dates: Wed 12 June 7.30pm, Fri 14 June 2pm and Sat 15 June 7.30pm

The Granary are offering a 20% meal deal to our ticket holders so why not make it a night out with a healthy meal – no junk food of course!

Tickets@ £7/£5 from lizhare@blueyonder.co.uk or 0131 337 8570

TV students set for big screen debut

Edinburgh College Granton Campus TV students will be showcasing their talents at a screening at Edinburgh Filmhouse on Wednesday at 6pm. Telford’s Film and TV course has produced some fine creative talent over the years – take the opportunity to view the next generation!

For further information contact Television Lecturer Fergus Robb at Edinburgh College by email at fergus.robb@edinburghcollege.ac.uk

Arts the way to do it

North Edinburgh Theatre Project is preparing for a summer spectacular – and you can be part of it, as Stephanie Knight explains …

This message is to everyone to remind you that as from tomorrow (Saturday 18 May) we shall be having workshops from 12 noon – 2pm as well as the Friday evening workshops from 6 – 8pm. This is because we are working towards our performance on Saturday 29th June.

We are also working on a Saturday as some of you have said that you can come along then, but Friday evenings are not always so convenient. Everyone is very welcome to both sessions – Fridays and Saturdays.

We are working towards a very comical performance and there is fun for everyone to join in. So if you haven’t been at the workshops for a while, please don’t worry, you know you are always very welcome when you can make it. We have a crèche and it would be good to know if you are bringing your children so that we can plan crèche workers. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with me or Kate at North Edinburgh Arts.

Looking forward to seeing you soon, take care

Stephanie Knight

North Edinburgh Theatre Project

Celebrate with St Serf’s Players at ‘The Steamie’

The award-winning St Serf’s Players celebrate a special anniversary this year and the popular local amateur dramatic society are staging Tony Roper’s hilarious ‘The Steamie’ later this month as part of their birthday celebrations.

Don’t miss it!

Auditory Hallucinations. Eh?

Creative Electric have a new production touring Scotland that we thought you’d like to know about!

Auditory Hallucinations is an interactive theatre production that explores the comfort we find within our own heads.
Memories.
Moments.
Things that belong only to us.

Creative Electric were awarded Quality Production funding from Creative Scotland to create an interactive piece exploring memories. Inspired by an artists debate in Stockholm in February 2012, where the idea of collecting performance art and moments was discussed, the company decided to explore whether it was possible to own another’s moment and, in the case of verbatim theatre, their memory. The result is a little insight into a memory that the audience can share with performers. We’d love you to be a part of it.

Please note audiences are capped at a maximum of 15 people.

Audience members will be required to wear headsets.

Auditory Hallucinations is a part of Creative Electric’s emerging artists programme where the company aim to support artists at the early stage of their career with paid work and mentoring. This is the companies second emerging artists production.

‘Debutantes’ was produced in February 2012 and was performed in Edinburgh, Glasgow and at Stoff Festival Stockholm where it was nominated for the Audience Choice Award.

Performance Dates:

Howden Park, Livingston (Previews) 27th April 7 & 8pm

The Bongo Club, Edinburgh

30th April 8 & 9pm
1st May 8 & 9pm
4th May 2 & 3pm

The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow 7th May 7, 8 & 9pm 8th May 8 & 9pm.

Imaginate Fringe, Traverse Theatre Bar 12th May 12-6pm (adaption, installations running throughout the day, no ticket required)

The Space, North Berwick 14th May 7.30 & 8.15pm
Kelburn Garden Party 6th & 7th July. (included in festival ticket price)

Tickets £5.

Each performance can accommodate an audience of up to 15 people.
For reservations email Creative_electric@hotmail.com

To keep up to date with Creative Electric please add https://www.facebook.com/CreativeElectric

Independence? Posing the question through drama

Stuck in the Middle Poster

That referendum – made your mind up yet? If leaflets, TV debates and party political broadcasts leave you unmoved, maybe a drama performance will spark some interest and generate debate? Inverleith CLD worker Callum McLeod is certainly enthusiastic about a forthcoming event:

I’ve attached a poster advertising performances by Inverleith Youth Theatre which will take place in Broughton High School and North Edinburgh Arts theatres of in two weeks time (details in the poster).

The ‘Stuck In The Middle’ storyline concerns a teenage male’s journey and his subsequent thoughts towards becoming “Independent”. However, I’m sure the audience will find various other messages and subplots – and perhaps even a wider social issue for them to explore through the watching the performance!

We’re also planning the event so that there’ll be space at the end for discussion and so folk will have time to discuss the piece further, and share their thoughts with other audience members – and we do imagine that the subject matter will carry over for some time!

Without doubt, I’m slightly biased towards Inverleith Youth Theatre’s performances but they are usually of a good standard and so I can honestly say that I’m sure this will be a fab performance and well worth attending!

The main aim of the performance is to get as many people as possible talking and thinking about the actual issues raised, so we’ve made the event free. We’ll still be taking donations though as this youth group are trying to take it’s members – and the performance – to a youth drama camp over the summer, so any contributions towards this will be welcomed!

Inverleith Youth Theatre’s ‘Stuck In The Middle’ performance dates:

Tuesday 16 April 7pm Broughton High School

and

Thursday 18 April 7pm North Edinburgh Arts

Callum McLeod

Inverleith CLD, Broughton High School

Muirhouse set to stage double arts event next Friday

Muirhouse is the place to be for culture vultures next Friday, with not one but two big arts events planned:

North Edinburgh Arts is hosting ‘Echoes’ on Friday 12 April at 7pm

A new version of Mamma Mia has been written by a community group fighting the city council’s plans to close Castlebrae secondary school.

The Abba track IT, will be sung by members of the Save the Brae campaign group during a performance of a play that they have written called Echoes, which will express their opposition to and frustration over the council’s proposals for the school next summer.

Among those taking part in the play is Kevin Finlay, chair of the Save the Brae group, who said: “I think if you go back in history, any local issues like this have been tackled by using arts to get points across.”

Around eight men and women, most of whom are members of Save the Brae will perform the 55-minute play at North Edinburgh Arts on Friday 12 April at 7pm.

Susan Heron, 54, plays Ina in the play – a fictional character who has lived in Craigmillar all her life and doesn’t want the school to close. Susan says the play was a “powerful statement of how Castlebrae school life was and is”.

Tickets are £3 or £2 Good Neighbours (GN) price. To book tickets please call Box Office on 0131 315 2151

and in the afternoon …

Travelling Gallery visits Craigroyston High School on Friday 12 April 1 – 4pm

with ‘feel-good’ art exhibition

The Travelling Gallery will be visiting Craigroyston High School on Friday 12 April, with its latest exhibition ‘Turquoise Heid’ on board. This curiously named exhibition is a busy group show of established and emerging artists from both home and abroad.

Working in a broad range of media including drawing, animation, film, sculpture, photography, performance, collage and painting, the exhibition will include artists who use a playful, childlike, feel good essence in their work, sometimes hiding darker depths but more often making us smile. The simplicity and low-tech nature of many of the artworks disguises sometimes complex processes and skills but also makes the exhibition instantly accessible to audiences of all ages.

’Turquoise Heid’ includes work by artists Matthew Barnes, Olivia Bee, Yeodoo Jung, Peter McDonald, Alex Millar, Jock Mooney, Kim Rugg, Yukako Sakakura and David Shrigley.

Visitors can also look out for artist Ellie Harrison’s Early Warning Sign which the Travelling Gallery is hosting in 2013 and which will sit outside the vehicle. Utilising the brazen marketing techniques of capitalism, the sign attempts to grab the attention of passers-by: to remind them of the consequences of excessive consumption and to force climate change back on the agenda. The harder the wind blows, the faster they go! www.ellieharrison.com.

The Travelling Gallery is a custom-built, mobile, contemporary art space inside a big beautiful bus. Supported by Creative Scotland, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Museums and Arts Division of the City of Edinburgh Council, the Travelling Gallery brings high quality contemporary art exhibitions and events to schools and communities throughout Scotland.

North Edinburgh Arts has arranged for the gallery to be open to the public on Friday afternoon at Craigroyston High School. The Travelling Gallery’s visit has been supported by the City of Edinburgh Council’s Children and Families Department.

See www.travellinggallery.com for all the details or ‘like’ on Facebook