Jaqueline's last video to Reggie

This is the final video to Reggie Tetteh from Jacqueline Rice at Company of Angels.

Jacqueline writes:

Vanessa and myself made our final video postcard today. We loved Reggie taking us to the beach so we thought we take him/you all to the River Thames. I felt less nervous this time (and tried not to nervously fidget as much as I did in the last one!). I've made two short films but it was making the video postcard that made me appreciate how difficult it is for actors having a camera in their face. However, being outside in the crisp fresh blue air with a wash of soft sunshine overhead instantly relaxed me. Also I felt a stronger connection to Reggie this time and it was like chatting to a friend.

We hope Reggie/you all like the view of the river with St Paul's Cathedral in the background and that we gave you a tiny glimpse of London, on a sunny day! People were quite curious while we were filming and out of the corner of my eye I could see one couple listening, a dog running around and there was another moment when a man walked over having a blazing row on his mobile phone. But I did my best to remain professional and focussed!

This project has been such fun to be involved with. I have always had a huge thirst and need to communicate with people from all over the globe so when John Retallack offered me the chance to represent Company of Angels I was jumping with joy. I'm endlessly curious and have been reading up about Ghana and now harbour a great desire to come and meet, and hopefully work with you all. We have loved watching all the video postcards. What really hits you, and is an absolute joy to see and hear, is the passion and commitment everyone has for the work they are doing. The warmth each TfaC participant communicates is utterly palpable and is a real warm breeze floating into my sometimes quite chilly house.

I've shown many friends your video postcards and all agree that you are all quite special and doing amazing work and there is a great deal of support here for you all. There was something Nii said about how he came to realise that there are people all over the world doing the same work as him and he took comfort from that. Seeing Reggie's second video and his workshop with the Group of Hope, made me feel that too. And I was really excited that we do have this universal language through our work and there is something that connects us to each other.

I will learn Reggie's dance and song warm-up and will start to use it in future rehearsals as Ned has very kindly written the words out for me. I love the moment in warm-up when each person can do a different action/movement. It was really great to see the interviews with the Group of Hope. They each had a real inner strength (and seemed so relaxed in front of the camera!) and that's great credit to the work you've all been doing with them, empowering and inspiring them.

I felt a little sad that it was the last video because in a sense it feels like it's only just begun. I've been thinking a great deal about TfaC over the last few weeks and want to make sure that we keep in touch and that we can continue to share ideas and experiences. Seeing all the good work you are all doing for your young ones in your community, I have begun to ask myself, Jacqui, how can you help and do more? Your work has inspired me and I am hoping that I can start the new year on a new footing, with some new goals, some new ways of working. And of course a plan of how to get to Ghana to meet you all! Until then, I am very much available on email and adore writing, so please let's stay in touch.

Global connection

This is Nii's final video to Gabby Vautier at the Young Vic Theatre in London. After watching Gabby's original video postcard, Nii was inspired by the idea that the work he does has a real global connection, with lots of similarities between his practice and that of Gabby and the Young Vic.

In this video, Nii explores a past project which engaged a specific group of people from the James Town community: the fisherfolk who live in small shanty houses close to the sea. He also talks about his current work leading a Community Theatre for Theatre for a Change in Amasaman and discusses to his hopes for his and TfaC's futures.

The video was made on the edge of the eastern side of James Town, the border between 'Ministries' where many Government departments are situated and what was once the Dutch area of James Town, or Ussher Town.

Gabby's reply to Nii's video will appear here soon.

Collins' postcard for Pilot

This is TfaC Monitoring Officer Collins' Smith's second video to Pilot Theatre in York - filmed at the Theatre for a Change office in Labadi, Accra.

Collins was lucky enough to have four different correspondents in Pilot's last video and he was eager to ask them all questions while filming his reply at the fortnightly meeting of Monitoring Offices.

Theatre for a Change Monitoring Officers maintain, evaluate and record the progress of the company's 'In-School' work, which has trained hundreds of trainee teachers to use Interactive Theatre with focus groups in the schools they practice in and the schools in which they eventually end up teaching permanently. Each Monitoring Officer is based at a Teacher Training College, each situated in a different region around Accra.

The fortnightly meeting is a chance for all of them to come together, discuss issues that have come up in recent workshops, develop strategies for future workshops and training sessions and report back on the numbers of people taking part across their regions.

In the video, Collins also talks about how he got involved with Theatre for a Change and his hopes for the future - including his ambition to lead a similar project in Liberia.

Pilot Theatre's reply to Collins' postcard will appear here in the next week or so.

Hope at the beach: from Reggie to Jacqueline

Theatre for a Change Facilitator Reggie Tetteh takes Jacqueline Rice from Company of Angels to the beach for his latest video postcard. With a significant proportion of James Town's population made up of fishermen and their families, it's an appropriate place to start before heading up the Community Theatre Centre.

In Jacqui's last video she spoke about her work developing theatre for a ten-year old audience and Reggie thought it would be interesting to visit the workshop of the 7-12 year olds at CTC. The fact that they have their entire adolescence ahead of them and are unlikely yet to be in danger of contracting HIV/AIDS means they are known as the 'Group of Hope'.

The video also includes a look at some of Reggie's favourite warm ups and interviews with three of the Group of Hope participants.

This is Reggie's last video to Jacqueline, who will be sending one more back before the end of this stage of the InterACT! project.

Read more about the making of this video.

Forster and Amanda at CTC

In Debra Glazer's video to Forster Gomashie and Amanda Enusah last week, she asked them both where they got the ideas for the Interactive Theatre pieces they made and what their workshops looked like. In this reply, Forster and Amanda invite Debra to join them at the James Town Community Theatre Centre for their workshop.



Theatre for a Change's philosophy means that all the pieces that the company produces are rooted firmly in the experiences of the participants and their local communities. In the video, Forster explains how CTC members are encouraged to talk to local people, find stories connected with the theme of the work they are exploring - say HIV/AIDS or teenage pregnancy - and then report back to the group. The group then work together to develop a performance which is then taken back to be performed in schools, community centres, hospitals and sometimes just a roadside space.

In Amanda and Forster's workshop the pair also show some of the games and exercises they use with their group: including 'Fish Bowl', a discussion exercise where the group are invited to step up from the wider circle to discuss issues sat on chairs in the middle of the space.

This video is the last one that Forster and Amanda will make for Debra, who will send her reply over the next week.

Videos from Reggie, Collins and Nii to their respective UK practitioners will follow over the next couple of days.

From Debra to Forster and Amanda

Debra Glazer, Creative Learning Practitioner at Hampstead Theatre, has sent her video postcard to Forster and Amanda in two parts.





Hampstead Theatre was founded to nurture and present contemporary writing talent for its local community. The theatre now produces 11 new plays to over 70,000 people each year at their North London base and often tours these productions to other regional venues.

A key component in Hampstead's commitment to new writing is their Creative Learning Programme, which provides opportunities for people to express themselves through drama and scriptwriting. The programme aims to help participants develop creative potential and personal, social and communication skills.

Debra’s role involves delivering, project managing, and co-ordinating many of these projects, half of which take place in house and half which take place out at schools and community settings.

The Creative Learning Department works in schools throughout the day (lunchtime writing clubs) or after school hours (scriptwriting club), to improve literacy and make new writing meaningful and relevant to as many young people as possible. The stories and plays produced are performed by professional actors in Hampstead's dedicated Creative Learning studio theatre, ‘The Michael Frayn Space’. They also deliver projects in a variety of settings, including hospitals and community centres. Debra is currently running a project with young people at The Royal Free Hospital School, which is just down the road from the theatre.

Hampstead aims to make the work available to people of all ages and from all aspects of the community. Debra has run adult devising and performance projects for anyone over 18 and worked with ESOL students from a local college, using drama games and improvisation to support literacy.

The heat&light company (Hampstead Theatre’s youth theatre), consists of budding writers, performers, directors, stage managers and technicians. The company produces twelve performances a year which are produced in ‘The Michael Frayn Space’. heat&light is broken into four age groups: 11- 14, 14 – 16, 16 – 18 and 18 – 25 year olds (not in full time education).

This term Debra is working with the 14 – 16 year olds, who have written short plays with playwright Richard Cameron, in conjunction with Graeae Theatre Company. She is also working with Gabriel Bissett Smith, who is currently under commission to write a 50 minute play for the company to begin rehearsing in the New Year.

Jacqueline's message to Reggie

The third video postcard to arrive from the UK is from Company of Angels' Jacqueline Rice, who has sent this message to Reggie Tetteh.

Company of Angels fosters and produces new and experimental theatre for young audiences both by producing shows and by initiating innovative projects that directly involve young people.

Jacqueline recently directed My Days as part of their ‘Young Angels: Directors, Writers and Designers programme in collaboration with Drama Centre and the Soho Theatre, which brought together young creative professionals to collaborate on new work for a young audience. Jacqueline has also directed work for Shared Experience's Youth Theatre who with Company of Angels shares the aesthetic of communicating through ensemble work using movement, song and dance to create distinctive and daring work that gives theatre for young people a new dimension.

One of the beliefs that Company of Angels was founded upon is that the political and emotional centre of social change frequently revolves around children and young people.

Jacqueline sets out to inspire and empower the young people she works. The work can be demanding and often about the serious and sometimes very adult challenges they face in their young lives, but that together, we can work through these issues, find answers as a team and do our utmost to enter into a world of beauty. And of course, have a great deal of fun at the same time too!

Gabby replies to Nii

Gabby Vautier at the Young Vic Theatre has created this video reply to Nii's postcard that we posted just over a week ago.

Gabby is the Audience Development Co-ordinator for the Young Vic Theatre, as well as a Director and Producer for Eat the Cake Productions. Her role at the Young Vic involves developing new audiences for the theatre through funded ticket schemes, targeted participation projects for local residents, families and vulnerable adults, and developing partnership projects with a range of community groups.

She is also responsible for all aspects of community project management: targeted outreach, strategic planning and liaising with directors, technical staff and outside companies.

Gabby works with a very diverse range of adults and families, and many of the projects involve people aged from 7 – 85 from totally different backgrounds with different levels of theatre experience. One of key aspects of her work involves bringing together people from diverse cultures and communities. She is currently project managing a Chinese / African fusion reworking of The Christmas Carol with 20 adult participants from all backgrounds.

The Young Vic has also introduced large scale community productions in to its programme. These shows such as Tobias and the Angel (2004 and 2006) and Ma vie en rose (2007) have become a yearly commitment are an opportunity for local residents aged 7 - 80 to perform alongside professionals in a full scale production.

Earlier this year, Gabby travelled on a Research and Development trip within the Rio Branco / Amazon region of Brazil. During her time there she spent time in the Amazon, met with an indiginous community and ran theatre workshops with Brazilian non English speaking participants aged 12 - 50 years.

Pilot Theatre's postcard to Collins

The first video postcard from the UK arrives from Sarah, Marcus, Ebony and Mandy from Pilot Theatre in York to the TfaC Monitoring Officer Collins Smith. See the postcard that he sent them last week.



Pilot Theatre is a national touring theatre company based at York Theatre Royal.

Established 25 years ago the company has a growing International reputation for innovative use of new technologies within their work. They create, produce and tour new work for young people, run paricipatory programmes of work and are part of magic net a european cultural theatre exchange programe.

Pilot Theatre currently have two shows running: Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy, adapted by Marcus Romer and their new Christmas Show, Fungus the Bogeyman.

Over the next week Collins will be watching the video and responding with his second video postcard.

The end of a long first week of the InterACT! project, during which time I've travelled across Accra and beyond to meet with the practitioners working for Theatre for a Change in colleges, schools and local communities. I've been 2 hours north to Amasaman and 3 hours east to Ada to meet with Nii and Collins and I've spent 4 days at the James Town Community Theatre Centre, making videos with Diana, Forster, Amanda, Susan and Reggie.

The thing that has struck me most during the week is the passion that every single one of the TfaC practitioners has for their work, their projects, the people in their local community. Reggie giving up his job to concentrate on his work for TfaC; Nii spending both Saturday and Sunday every week with his participants; Diana's commitment to the rights of women and girls in James Town.

It hasn't all been plain sailing - video encoding problems, internet outages, the terrible traffic jams that have plagued Accra after the local council shut down one of the main bus stations in the middle of town. All these things have made the week longer, more exciting and more challenging that it might otherwise have been - and seeing the final videos up on the site all the more rewarding.

The UK participants now have a week to respond to their first video postcards. I am travelling to Kumasi in the Ashanti region but will be back on Thursday to upload the responses onto the site.

All the participants here are really excited about seeing how their partners in the UK react to their first videos and we'll be meeting on Saturday to watch the responses and workshop ideas for their next set of video postcards.

All comments and feedback on the project are really welcome - please contact us by leaving a comment under any of the posts or by emailing us.


Ned

From Diana to Beckie

The sixth and final video postcard comes from Diana Quow who has sent her message to Beckie Mills, Projects Co-ordinator at the Almeida Theatre in Islington.

Diana fulfills a dual role for Theatre for a Change, working both as a Monitoring Officer overseeing and supporting the work of the practitioners at James Town Community Theatre, and as a facilitator for group of her own in James Town.

Diana lives in James Town and is a passionate campaigner for the rights of women, as well as for HIV/AIDS prevention and the reduction of Teenage Pregnancy.

Diana's group meets every Friday afternoon after school at Sacred Heart Technical College, a secondary school in James Town. She recorded her video at the main CTC building today before travelling up to Sacred Heart to meet her group who demonstrate the warm up song at the end of this video.

Beckie now has a week to send a reply back to Diana, who will send another video back to Beckie in the week beginning 19th November.

Click here to see Diana's video on YouTube.

In the company of Reggie

Reggie Tetteh is the fifth Theatre for a Change practitioner to send a video postcard - his goes to the Director, John Retallack, and the whole team at Company of Angels.

Reggie is a facilitator at the Community Theatre Centre in James Town, where he has lived all his life. He leads the 'Advanced Group' - a focus group comprised of long standing members of the theatre and the facilitators who run other all the other CTC workshops.

Last week Reggie took the Advanced Group to perform at a sewing/tailoring school in James Town for girls who are not currently in full time mainstream education. They performed and invited the audience to take part in their newest piece, about a girl who takes an older lover after her father loses his job and is unable to support her any more.

John has nominated the director Jaqueline Rice to represent Company of Angels by recording a response to Reggie's video postcard. Her video will appear here on Friday 16th November.

See Reggie's video on YouTube.

Susan introduces CTC

In this video postcard to practitioners Mercy Ojelade and Didi Hopkins at The Roundhouse in Camden, Susan Dartey gives us a guided tour of Theatre for a Changes' Community Theatre Centre in James Town, Accra.

The Community Theatre Centre functions as a laboratory for Theatre for a Change, a permanent base where young people from across James Town - many of whom are not currently in school - come to take part in Behaviour Change workshops and rehearsals for interactive performances in the local community.

Susan joined TfaC as a participant in 2003 and is now, like Collins (below), a Monitoring Officer covering a Teacher Trainee College in Accra. She still regularly comes to CTC to support the practitioners and take part in workshops with the Advanced Group of participants and facilitators.

See Susan's video on YouTube.

School days ... from Collins to Pilot Theatre

The third video in the Interact project comes from Collins Smith, a Monitoring Officer based in Ada in the Eastern Region of Ghana. His video postcard is for Marcus Romer and Sarah Seddon at Pilot Theatre.

Collins' job as a Monitoring Officer requires him to cover a large area of Eastern Ghana overseeing the work of a team of teachers and trainee teachers trained by Theatre for a Change to use Interactive Theatre in their schools.

This year Theatre for a Change is working with nearly 100 teachers, each with their own 'focus group' of 20 young people at their school examining issues like HIV/AIDS, human rights and teenage pregnancy.

Collins is responsible for supporting and developing these teachers, ensuring that their workshops are running smoothly and recording details about the workshops: numbers of people taking part, evidence of behaviour change in the participants and the size of audiences attending (and taking part in) Interactive performances.

If you're having difficulties watching the video, see it on youtube.

Debra Do Dey O!

The second Interact video comes from two of Theatre for Change's youngest facilitators, Amanda Enusha and Forster Gamashie, both 15 years old. Their video postcard goes to Debra Glazer, Schools Practitioner at Hampstead Theatre in North London.

Forster and Amanda both started out with Theatre for a Change as participants at Theatre for a Change's Community Theatre Centre in James Town in 2003. They have acted in numerous Interactive Theatre performances in the local community and both became practitioners in 2007.

Their workshops take place at the same time on a Saturday afternoon. Both have groups of up to twenty young people - many of whom are the same age or older than them. Last Saturday they experimented with combining their workshop: a difficult task in the relatively small space available at CTC.

This video was recorded at Theatre for a Change's office in South Labadi - the first time that Amanda had been to the hub of TfaC's operations in Ghana. After shooting the video we ran a small training session on using the internet and set Amanda up with a brand new email address.

Debra's response to the video should appear on this site by Friday 16th November.

See this video on YouTube.

Dear Gabby ...

If you are on a slow internet connection, please be patient while this video loads.

The first video postcard from a Ghanaian practitioner is from Theatre for a Change's Nii Kwartelai Quartey to Gabby Vautier, the Audience Development Co-ordinator at the Young Vic Theatre in London.

Nii has been involved with Theatre for a Change since it was founded by Patrick Young in 2003. He has lived in James Town, where TfaC has a Community Theatre Centre, for his whole life and is currently the Training Officer at TfaC's new Community Theatre project in Amasaman, in the north west of Greater Accra.

Nii shot his video on Sunday before, during and after a training workshop for 20 young people from Amasaman and surrounding areas. Ten of these young people will start their own workshop groups ('focus groups') in January, while the other ten will remain together to form their own Interactive Theatre performance group.

Read more about the Amasaman Project.

As well as his work as a Practitioner and Training Officer, Nii has also performed in numerous Interactive Theatre performances and has a written a number of his own plays.

Depending on your Internet connection, you may need to wait a short while for this video to load. If you would like to view it on Youtube, please click here.

Please check back soon for Gabby's response to this first Interact video postcard.

Stepping into action: the TfaC participants

The Interact Link project begins this week, with practitioners working for Theatre for a Change in Ghana making their video postcards to send to a group of practitioners working for various theatres in the UK.


(Clockwise from top left: Nii Kwartelai Quartey, Foster Gomashie, Amanda Enusah , Regi Tetteh , Collins Smith, Diana Quao, Susan Dartey)

The practitioners in Ghana all perform slightly different roles across the range of workshops and activities that TfaC operates. Some are Monitoring Officers for TfaC's Teacher Training programme which helps 100 teachers use Interactive Theatre with their own classes and focus groups. Some are young faciliators - running their own groups in James Town and other areas of Greater Accra. Others are Training Officers - teaching local young people how to become facilitators in their own communities.

All of them started out as young participants with Theatre for a Change and all of them are running their own projects in the field - some at the Community Theatre Centres in James Town and Amasaman, others based at Teacher Training Colleges in the districts around Accra. They are all really excited about this project and creating links with practitioners in the UK.

Over the next five days they will all create a video postcard to send to their link practitioner in the UK. All videos (and, by the end of next week, the responses to them) will be posted on this blog: please check back regularly for updates.