Firebird Newsletter

This is the first of the informal newsletters that we hope to be able to post every so often, to keep you up-dated with what we are doing.

We want to do a better job of keeping in touch with you all and hope this will be a more successful way of doing things! Any feedback will be much appreciated.

News

At a special Launch on 29th May, Bristol Old Vic announced that Firebird is to become part of a small group of associate companies and artists who will work with them as part of future discussions, planning and sharing of work over the next 5 years. We are, of course, honoured to be asked to be part of this group; it will give us the opportunity to contribute to and be involved in what is exciting about making theatre in Bristol.

This July, Firebird has been working on a storytelling project with pupils and teachers at Briarwood School. Firebird worked with Year 6 children and their teachers. This project enabled us to look at ways of using theatre to tell a children’s story as simply and as clearly as possible. We also learned more about how we can involve the children in the telling of the story.

Firebird is also currently fund-raising for The Breadhorse Project, which is about us working with young disabled and non disabled people to
create a new, inspirational show to be performed at Bristol Old Vic in 2013.

With this project we will be working in partnership with MAYK (who will work with us as producers), Bristol Old Vic and the Young Company, Theatre Bristol, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College and other Bristol schools. We are hoping to work with Tristan Sturrock, Sarah Moody and Ann Pugh again and new artists that we haven’t worked with before: Mark Lawrence and Laurie Stewart.

The Breadhorse is written by Alan Garner, who has given his permission for us to perform his story. We think this is the first time that the story has been performed, so this is a real first in lots of ways.

We will work hard to make this project happen, subject to funding. We will up-date everyone about our progress and hope to confirm one way or the other about funding by the end of September.

On September 30th Firebird will take part in Bristol Poetry Festival at the Arnolfini; we will send more information nearer the time. The Firebird Poets are currently working with Claire Williamson, well-known Bristol Poet, to write poetry around the nature of games; we are using The Breadhorse to inspire this poetry and hopefully the work can feed into the The Breadhorse Project, later this year.

Thank you Friends

Firebird would like to thank all those people who have joined our Friends and Supporters Scheme. This monthly giving via direct debit is extremely helpful in giving us regular funds that are vital in terms of planning for the future. We now have a new page on our website ‘Support Us’ http://www.firebird-theatre.com/supportus.pdf which tells you about the scheme and also suggests other ways you can support us, shopping on line for instance, or donating via ebay.co.uk

We really appreciate all the support and friendship we have from so many of you, but in these difficult times of funding, where many small arts and theatre groups struggle to survive, we do need your help. So, if you can, let’s formalise our friendship, and get just that little bit friendlier still! We know how hard money can be, so with the Friends scheme you can give as little as £3 (or more if you would like!); every penny is appreciated by us because we know it is from you, and we can promise that it all goes directly into helping us make theatre.

Also, if you know other people who might be interested in supporting us, please direct them to the Support Us page on our website; the more, the merrier. For people who do not have access to the internet and would like to support Firebird, we can also send leaflets in the mail if needed; please just ask.

Finally, please feel free to contact us if you want more information about Firebird, or if you have any ideas or suggestions about supporting Firebird or if you just want to send us a comment or say hello.

Our very best wishes and thanks from all of us at Firebird Theatre