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about
What are we doing?
Click on "where" or "who" in the menu on the left or use this page to find out about:
The War Stories: Alcestis project
Our use of Alcestis
Our website
Our workshop process
Our partners
Our creative team
Our current funders
The history of the project
Image credits
About the War Stories: Alcestis project
We are using ALCESTIS, a play by Euripides as a way of inspiring stories from our contemporary world which illuminate the processes of recovery and survival from the trauma of war and violence.
We are running a series of theatre development workshops in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Algeria, Kosovo, and Palestine.
In each place we are working with three groups of people:
Artists (working in different disciplines and art forms from the communities of which our partners are a part).
Young people (aged between 16 and 25 years, sometimes members of a youth theatre group)
Therapists and activists (people who through their profession or conviction are involved in working on the consequences and impact of war and violence)
After we have reviewed all our research and development work we will compose a theatre piece from the images and stories. We will extend our creative team, some of whom may come from our partner companies.
We will rehearse in the spring of 2007 and present and tour our work in the summer of 2007. We plan to take it to all the places we are running workshops and many more. We are currently raising money to make this work possible. To contribute to our fund please contact us at the address below.
Our website
This site is full of stories. They are told through pictures and images as well as words. We want to grow our collection of stories so that we have a mass of material from which to build our final production. To contribute please log in here.
Our workshop process
Our workshops are creative sessions in which participants share stories and create images . Sometimes they are simple meetings in which people talk about experiences.
We use games and drama exercises to create images of stories. We encourage people to use other people's bodies to make dramatic pictures. First they create an image that depicts the situation before recovery and another which depicts the situation after recovery. Then we explore the movement between these two images. We explore the figures in the story and we explore the different stages of the story. At the same time we are exploring voice and song.
We create short 'voice and movement' pieces. All the work is video'd and photographed.
To read Jonathan Chadwick's article Talking About Theatre and Therapy written for Psychotherapy and Politics International, please click here.
Our use of Alcestis
We are looking for a common thread in the stories of spiritual and psychological recovery and repair. We are using Euripides’ play Alcestis as a kind of model or template for other stories so its dynamic and movements will act as a kind of magnet. We are not proposing to subsume all contemporary stories into ALCESTIS. We are using this play as a way of giving a perspective from which to view contemporary stories. We envisage the relationship will be one of mutual illumination.
Written over 2400 years ago by the Greek playwright Euripides, Alcestis is a satyr play and was performed at the end of a sequence of three tragedies. It is like a magical romance and recounts the story of Alcestis who agrees to die in her husband's place and then is rescued from death by Heracles.
English versions:
i Kovacs, D. EURIPIDES Cyclops, Alcestis, Medea Cambridge Massachusetts London England Harvard University Press 1994
ii Vellacott, P. Euripides Three Plays Alcestis Hippolytus Iphigenia in Tauris London Penguin Books 1974
iii Arrowsmith, W. Euripides Alcestis New York London Oxford University Press 1974
iv Hughes, T. Euripides Alcestis in a new version London Faber and Faber 1999
Our Partners
In the United Kingdom:
Riverside Studios, London
www.riversidestudios.co.uk
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Alumni Network
www.lamda.org.uk
National Association of Youth Theatres
www.nayt.org.uk
University of Manchester In Place of War project
www.inplaceofwar.net
In Turkey:
Trabzon International Black Sea Festival
www.kultur.gov.tr
Festival director: Kemal Basar
In Algeria:
Masrah El Tedj
BP 13 A, Bordj Bou Arreridj, 34000, Algerie
00 213 567 1055
President: Halim Zedane
In Kosovo:
Centre for Children's Theatre Development
www.cctdkosova.com
Director: Jeton Neziraj
In Italy:
Il Torchio/Le Nuvole
www.lenuvole.com
In Palestine:
Theatre For Everybody
Gaza
Palestinian Occupied Territories
Directors: Jamal Al Rozzi, Hossam Madhoun
Associated Partners:
In Serbia:
Bazaart
11000 Beograd, Krunska 33, Serbia
Directors: Ivana Despotovic, Suncica Milosavljevic
In Romania:
Sibiu International Theatre Festival
www.sibfest.ro
Our creative team:
Jonathan Chadwick, Director
Anna Schmitz, Producer
Louise Burns, Dramaturg
Stephen Lowe, Literary Adviser
Mamoru Iriguchi, Designer
Emma Sangster, Graphic designer
Netuxo, Website designers
Thanks are also due to Nadia Hamdan for her assistance with Arabic translation.
Our funders:
European Cultural Foundation
www.eurocult.org
Roberto Cimetta Fund
www.cimettafund.org
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
History of the War Stories Project:
Az Theatre has been working under the War Stories umbrella since 2002, producing work in London, Romania, Belgrade and Kosovo, including public presentations, festivals, play readings and theatre workshops. For more information see the Az Theatre website.
Image credits:
Iroquois pot image: Reproduced with kind permission from the New York State Museum in the United States.
Other images by:
Maysoon Pachachi
Roy Cornwall
Handan Ilyas
Mary Pappalardo
Jamal Al Rozzi
Hossam Madhoun
Anna Schmitz
Jonathan Chadwick
Jeton Neziraj