Firebird Newsletter, October 2017

A Firebird newsletter and some up-dates to share with you: October 2017

After our 3 week summer break, we have been very busy, picking up on the Research and Development Project, planning a workshop around A Spark and a Beating Heart for schools and colleges; planning Taster Workshops for new people to name just a few things.

We are really pleased to let you know that Bristol Old Vic Outreach Department  are going to work with us to run the taster workshops for new people who are interested in making theatre and possibly joining Firebird Theatre in the future. We are starting with a pilot workshop in December and the Old Vic will host this and the other workshops in the New Year. The pilot workshop will be led jointly by Firebird Theatre and Bristol Old Vic. This is a very exciting development.

We visited the Theatre Collection at Bristol University in September, which was very interesting and we want to go back for more visits. We will also be talking to the archivists at the Theatre Department about putting together a Firebird Theatre archive to be housed as part of their Collection; another very exciting development.

Our visit to the Theatre Department at Bristol 

University: right, Olivia and Chris looking at what is thought to be a weight for opening and closing trap doors on stage. Photo on left: looking at what has been found under seats at the Old Vic in days gone by, Marilyn holding up an old Crunchie bar wrapper! Thanks to Jo Ellsworth and Jill Sullivan, from the University of Bristol Theatre Collection for an excellent and very interesting visit.

Photos of Sonoko, with most of Firebird for her to remember us by (Sonoko standing behind Sarah) and with Dan with the poster he made for Sonoko with words in Japanese characters, wishing her good luck for the future.

We were very sad to say goodbye to Sonoko who spent 8 weeks with us over the summer. Sonoko returned home to Japan on the 8^th October and before she left she gave everyone an origami bird that she had made herself. It was a very good experience for us to work with Sonoko and we will not forget her. Before she left she taught us a Japanese traditional dance that we hope to perform at our Annual General Meeting on the 9^th December

We will be sending invitations out to the AGM over the next 3 or 4 weeks.

We are also working with a student from America who is studying at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. We are trying to answer some of her questions about how we work so she can include them in her study. We are doing this via email and hope we can share some ways of working with her that will be useful.

We are working with MAYK to plan a tour of A Spark and a Beating Heart next year. We are also working on the Research and Development Project that is being coordinated by Cath Greig. This involves us in looking at how we work and also doing some workshops with other artists: we are working with Verity Standen, Nik Partridge and others; we will let you know how we get on in our next newsletter but for the time-being here is a photo of us all after our workshop with Verity Standen, which was really good and helped us with ideas about voice, focus, working together, using song and more. A bit more about Verity's and other workshops next time.

Verity, fourth on the left; on the far right, Cath Greig, who did Verity's workshop with us.

We are also seeing some great theatre in November and December: Up Down Man by Myrtle Theatre at the Tobacco Factory, http://www.myrtletheatrecompany.co.uk/updownman.html

The Little Matchgirl, Bristol Old Vic’s Christmas Show in December http://www.bristololdvic.org.uk/the-little-matchgirl.html

and Snow Globe at the Colston Hall http://www.bristololdvic.org.uk/snow-globe.html

Firebird Theatre Ltd . Registered in England and Wales No. 5728116

Registered office: 5 Dial Hill Road, Clevedon, North Somerset BS21 7HJ
Registered main Charity Number: 1115658
www.firebird-theatre.co.uk