Focus on: Theatre Workshop's community play
Since its early days as Edinburgh’s fine arts and drama centre for children, Theatre Workshop has been a community performance project and then a leading venue for small-scale touring companies. In 1995 Robert Rae soon established Theatre Workshop as Scotland’s premier small-scale professional producing theatre. The Community Play was extended into a year-round activity delivering inclusion and education through the creation of theatre.
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Babylon Burning is a compassionate and moving account of the conflict in today's ancient Babylon, the very heart of civilisation.
The play follows the fortunes of two young women, Fatima and Laura, who recently trained in their chosen professions and whose paths fatefully cross, and for whom events conspire to test their values to the core.
Using the original Theatre Workshop's classic Oh What A Lovely War, this year's Community Play adopts a similar format. |
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It combines popular song, documentary photography and film, heightened with the real life experiences of combatants and civilians, together with carefully researched and documented accounts of those who are running the war.
The production is directed and devised by Robert Rae, with Associate Director Nazli Tabatabai. Robert has been writing and directing Community Theatre for over 20 years around the world. Theatre Workshop's Artistic team work to developed the creative skills of participants of all ages, backgrounds, gender, ethnicity, including marginalised groups of disabled and non-disabled participants.
In 2005, the Theatre Workshop production, Black Sun over Genoa, was created through over 800 intensive community workshops with over 60 participants. It included a range of disciplines from drama, music and dance to prop making and costume design.
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Black Sun over Genoa told the human story behind the anti-G8 Demonstrations in Genoa 2001, and was a cultural working response to the G8 Summit taking place in Scotland in 2005. |
In 2003, Consider Rather the River was a promenade piece interweaving river myths and legends from around the world. It involved approximately 100 participants, who took part in and contributed to workshops in improvisation, juggling, stilt walking, music, set design, lighting and stage management.
Theatre Workshop proudly claim to be Europe's first fully inclusive, professional producing theatre. By 'inclusive company', Theatre Worshop mean that it includes actors with disabilities, as well as able-bodied actors. Theatre Workshop prefer to work with, rather than for, organisations of minority groups whenever possible.
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The work performed is devised with its main company. This allows actors, musicians and designers a fuller role in the creative process. When devising, we work closely with the people whose story we are telling, and writers are encouraged to work closely with the communities they are giving voice to. | |