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We have worked in a range of locations and with a wide range of people around the United Kingdom. Click on the links below to read about:


LAMDA workshops

On Saturday 11th March and Saturday 20th May actors who were a part of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art's Alumni Network worked with Az Theatre on the basic working methods for our development workshops.

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Riverside Studios workshops

We also worked at Riverside Studios in London. Az Theatre ran two days of workshops on Wednesday 31st May with young people from Young Blood Theatre Company and on Thursday 1st June 2006 with actors from the LAMDA Alumni Network. At the end of the second day we did a short presentation for Az Associates and partners.

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National Association of Youth Theatres' Big Youth Theatre Festival workshops

Az Theatre participated in the National Association of Youth Theatre's Big Youth Theatre Festival held in Gilwell Park in Epping Forest near Chingford Essex between 13th and 16th July 2006.

There were over 700 young people, 150 youth theatre practitioners and leaders, over 50 visiting artists and many other visitors. There were over 80 workshops and 40 performances. The majority of the work was carried out in tents and the participants were camping.

Az Theatre ran two workshops at which we had direct working contact with 15 people, mainly practitioners and youth theatre leaders. At our sessions we introduced and described our Alcestis project and elaborated our working methods.

The keynote of the discussion was the question of how young people in the UK viewed the question of war and how youth theatre activities could be shaped around the issue. We were successful in our primary aim which was to make active contact with youth theatres throughout the UK. We are now in the process of confirming follow up sessions with youth theatre fro our October development programme.

Further information: www.nayt.org.uk

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Workshops with York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre

As a continuation of relationships initiated at the NAYT Festival (see above) Az Theatre worked with York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre on Monday 2nd October and Tuesday 3rd October 2006.

This youth theatre has a really good space which looks like a ballroom. Owen and Julian, the directors of the group, had informed people about Az's work on War Stories so after a short introduction and some games we started work. We first confirmed that the participants would work on their own stories of recovery, either something that had happened to them or some story that they felt close to. The idea was brought to dramatic life by acting out falling to the ground and then getting back up. In the shape of this action you could see, in a microcosmic form, a story of recovery. Then after some breathing exercises and a physical manipulation/puppet and master exercise the group started to make images of moments from their story. Every single member of both groups on both evenings gave a 'before recovery' image and an 'after recovery' image. All 35 participants are now linked to our project.

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Az Theatre works with Theatre Venture Youth Groups

On Sunday 22nd October Jonathan Chadwick ran a four hour session with Theatre Venture East London Performance Ensemble which meet regularly on Sundays at the Stratford Circus in East London.

We played some games and worked at relaxing and breathing fully before doing a puppet exercise and image building. Each of the 12 participants created three images of their own story of recovery. We worked at joining up the images with rhythmic drumming. We talked about the qualities which advanced recovery in the stories that the participants created. Here is a list of the qualities selected: COMPASSIONATE PERSUASION, SUPPORT, SHOCK, GRIEF, FAMILY SUPPORT, RESOLUTION, FAITH, STRENGTH FROM A HIGHER SOURCE, BELIEF, CURIOSITY, FORCED SURVIVAL, HELP, FEAR, FRIENDLINESS. Later after a discussion the following was added: CONSCIOUSNESS/ENVIRONMENTALLY.

On Monday 30th October Az Theatre worked with Theatre Venture Youth Theatre Ensemble

The session with 14 performing artists took place at the Newham Sixth Form College near Plaistow. The group quickly revealed their sharp mindedness, focus and talent and we went on to work on breathing exercises, massage and puppet exercises which were preparatory to our image building work. The whole group accepted the aim of working on personal stories of recovery and constructed both images of their story before recovery and then transformed the images into images of their story after recovery. Participants commented at the end that it was good to work on exercises that developed trust.

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