Kati Francis, 27 January 2013

lots going on in Lambethcontacting

the Young Vic- Old Vic New Voices- Bureau of Silly Ideas- St.Annes

Church, Peckham- The Assylum- SE1 United, Royal Festival Hall, St.Vincent's

community centre…

getting someone from the council on your side- Arts people at Lambeth Council are

good contacts!

Not limiting projects to set demographics- keeping it open to different people, but the

limitations of applying for funding for such projects…

Getting people through the door- how to get involvement?

Do something exciting!

What if you don't have the backing of an exciting space (such as the amazing outreach

of the Roundhouse)?

Tapping into existing community groups- knitting circles! craft groups- stalking

community boards!

If people don't have the time or inclination they won't come anyway….

What is the space for truly collaborative work between professional and community

groups?

why are we sometimes afraid to open our practice to the community? or keep the 2

areas separate?

wanting to keep one's practice sacred vs. being grounded in reality- connected to the

public- opening up your practice to potential audiences- grounded in

non-theatre-world-reality…

we do have a specialised practice- dedication, passion and time will produce a certain

level of aesthetic production- however it is possible to open up community

collaboration to go beyond tokenistic am-dram level performances that have no real

connection between the professional and community members of the team.

the quest to find a graded integration of community involvement where the aesthetics

can reach professional levels- allowing for involvement by community at all levelsdependent

on their wish/commitment/talents….

the importance of demystifying our practice- inviting people in- the challenge and

potential improvement of our practice through opening it up and sharing it with the

community.

keeping ideas of Process AND product high on the agenda in an ethical way…

how to manage informal spaces with community groups?

tapping into the rhythm and ideas of the community….finding

inspiration/subjects/ideas that will appeal to a community to work on…

difficulty in finding professional practitioners genuinely interested in creating

collaborative community large-scale performances…

(some) people present:

aimee- drawn stars theatre

sasha brooks

mhairi- t collective

flora- hiru dance

Tim Lenkiewicz

Tags:

street theatre, Lambeth, community theatre, process and product, community projects,

collaborative theatre, professional-community collaboration, non-formal spaces,

site-specific theatre