Our Film Premiere

On Wednesday 15th June we did our film premiere of all of us. On the film I was talking about my job in the cafe. At the end I spoke to everybody about about my job at Tesco. I felt excited and it felt alright talking in front of people. The best bit was seeing everyone, I like them as friends. I gave then all hot drinks, biscuits, crisps and grapes. Thanks everyone who came. 

By Charlotte from the Work Skills Group.

STORYTELLING AT THE LAWRENCE CENTRE. By Clemma Fleat

We were all invited to the Lawrence Centre at Wells. And we all told a couple of stories, one story was called Silly Jack, it's a story about someone who has a disability and lives with his mother. In the end Jack finds his own way in his life. 

The 2nd story was called King of the Goblins, all about a Woodcutter, a Baker and Goblins. What a good story it is, every resident liked our stories, we all had good feedback, they said our stories were very good.

Robin and Jem told a story on their own, we all watched and listened to them, it's about a priest and a little mouse chewing all the bellows of the organ. The story came from Germany, it  was Christmas eve and they had a midnight service, and the organist realised the organ wasn't working so the vicar wrote the silent night song for the guitar.

Katie was in the audience and she really enjoyed our stories. And thought the audience were all engaged and comfortable while listening.  She thought that the storytellers did extremely well, remembering different stories by heart and the audience were amazed by how much went into it.  She said, "I was proud of my work colleagues."

Spirit conference

On Wednesday Kit and Robin went to the Spirit conference in Southampton to do some artwork for Dorset People First and Hampshire People First.

Robin talking at the Spirit conference.

Robin drawing

Dorset People First talked about getting together, then Norway Day Centre talked about their pie-chart. Then after lunch Bristol People First talked about impact and how it can help people in care places, then Wiltshire People First talked about organisation in the community and how to keep people safe. Then Robin talked about his artist job for Openstorytellers and how to draw for conferences. After a coffee break we all did a spider chart of the day and had a chat about the day before goodbye! We had a good day at the Spirit conference.

Robin's picture of  Bristol People First impact talk. 

 

Lawrence centre gig

Lawrence Centre Gig

On the 6th of June 2016 we are really looking forward to performing our version of king of the Goblins with the kavad !! at the Lawrence Centre which is in Wells, it is a community centre supporting elderly people. We've performed there before, and it went really well. We're happy to do a story and there may even be a surprise for the people at the Lawrence Centre!

By Robin Meader

Sharing stories with the Legends of Frome group

We were invited to share some stories with Edventure's Legends of Frome team.

They shared very good stories about people from Frome.  We heard a good poem about the buildings of Frome,  it was very interesting. 

They shared a real story about how peoples lives were affected by a factory that was closed down - we learned what this would feel like.

Good sensory skills were used in all the stories - somebody offered real chips with vinegar which reminded us of fish and chip shops in Frome.  

We told a story of Silly Jack based in Frome and it made all the audience really laugh, it was a very good experience to share with other performers. It helped us both improve our storytelling skills.

There were lots of communication and action skills which helped both artist groups to work together. We'd love to find out more   stories and legends about Frome (please share with us!)


Thank you Edventure for inviting us to share stories with you!
From Clemma and Robin                

Outside In at Bristol museum.

Last Thursday, Robin and Pete went over to the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery to take part in a Outside In meeting upstairs to talk about artwork by people with learning disabilities and how to display artwork in a gallery, on websites and how to sell artwork. Then after the coffee break we looked at barriers and publicity and how that may affect our artwork and listened to a talk about people's artwork going on display in public exhibitions from a member of Outside In. I have been invited to display some of my artwork in the Outside In exhibition next year. The date is May 20th 2017 at
the Bristol Museum and Gallery!

Storyknowing Symposium by Clemma Fleat

Nicola and I went to York to a conference about storytelling with young people, organised by ICAN the International Centre for Arts and Narrative at the Theatre Royal.

(http://store.yorksj.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&catid=6&prodid=402).

We got there Friday late afternoon in time for a really nice hot dinner which we needed after our 5 hour journey. The first person we saw there was our dear friend and ex trustee Rona Barbour!

After dinner Jo Blake told a story about a husband who didn’t like listening to stories and how he changed his mind.  Then there were some performances by young people. The first one was a girl telling a personal story about her own life and her best friend. She used simple t shirts and vests to show changes in the story.  She used a blackboard with a chalk map of the main places in her story and she wrote on it as she told the story.  And she turned this story into a fairytale because the friend changed into a bird.  And there was an African story told by Cath Heinemeyer with some Indian dancers.And another group of young people did a play about refugees. 

On Saturday we had a fantastic breakfast in Betty’s Tea Rooms

(www.bettys.co.uk)  which has been in York for a hundred years.  

We heard about the work of ICAN. Then we went to a workshop given by some students on a theatre and storytelling course at Warwick University.

They came from China, Taiwan, Portugal and England.  They used gestures and sounds from Chinese opera. They all wore black. They used a mixture of  mime and narration, and we learnt a lot.

We ran a workshop on Multisensory Storytelling in the afternoon, and we think it went very well. 

Thanks to all the lovely people who took part and to Cath Heinemeyer from ICAN for inviting us and making it possible for us to go.