#kitchenconversations

As usual, there were lots of exciting things to update members on tonight.  Shereen, new Head of Neighbourhood Theatre, led the meeting, and there was lively discussion around new initiatives and hopes for the future of NhT.

Shereen talked about the new initiatives she has launched since taking up position three months ago, So You Want to Be...., Neighbourhood Play, and Neighbourhood Voices.

So You Want to Be....is a series of masterclasses, currently available to NhT members only (see details in earlier posts below).  

Neighbourhood Voices will be a year-long writing programme, run by Dramaturg Ola Animashawun, meeting once a month, and including an introduction to playwriting, trips to see a range of plays in fringe, regional and West End venues, as well as gig theatre.  There will also be visiting playwrights teaching one-off sessions.  

There have been over 100 applications for the twenty places on the course.  Shereen is keen to make it a progression route in to the industry for those seriously wanting to make a career in playwrighting, hoping that the course will bridge the gap between community and industry.   

Neighbourhood Play is an ongoing series of workshops for those aged 55+ centring around the themes and ideas of Main House shows.  Participants will see a show at the Young Vic, and will then take part in a set of three workshops, using movement skills to create a short piece for a ‘soft sharing’.  The workshops will be facilitated by Movement Director, Corinne Meredith.  The project launched in December with a taster session, including a trip to see Spring Awakening (see earlier posts below), and has proved extremely popular, with 80 applicants for sixteen places.  The next set of workshops will revolve around The Convert, currently showing at the Young Vic.

Other work Shereen updated members on included Our England, the community response to the Young Vic’s My England project (see earlier posts below for details), for which selected writers from the community were mentored by professional playwrights, and wrote monologues.  These monologues are being rehearsed this week, and there will be a sharing this Friday (11th January) for an invited audience of friends, family and industry professionals.  There is very limited space for audience as it is a one-off sharing, and it is important that the writers are able to share their work with family and friends, but NhT members are invited to express interest if they would like to come.

NhT members have also been invited to see a preview of Draw Me Close by Jordan Tannahill, a National Theatre and National Film Board of Canada production, presented by the Young Vic.  The production combines virtual reality and animation and is experienced in separate sessions that start every 25 minutes and last about 70 minutes.  NhT members will be asked for feedback on the experience.

Shereen also talked about the next community show, which will be American Dream, in response to the Main House production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, which opens in May.  Recruitment workshops for this piece will be held in the next few weeks.  Many members have already signed up for these.

There will also be a community response to the show Bronx Gothic, which opens at the Young Vic in June.  The show is written and performed by Okwui Okpokwasili, and uses theatre, dance and visual art installation, to explore her memories of growing up in the Bronx.  Shereen suggested that the community response could also entail a multi-disciplinary approach, inviting different artists of different disciplines in over the course of a week to teach their skills, meaning that participants could choose the form which best suits them to express their ideas.  NhT members were very enthusiastic about this idea, and the proposal that the performance would take the form of a cabaret night.

Before closing the meeting, Shereen invited feedback from members about the projects she has initiated so far, and what else they would like to see coming up.  Members had the opportunity to discuss this with the person next to them, before feedback to the whole group.  Discussion included terminology for what is currently called the ‘recruitment’ or ‘selection’ process for community shows, and how individuals might obtain feedback from these processes if they are unsuccessful in securing a place/part; and the desire for more opportunities to learn about directing.  

One of the key areas of discussion was around members’ thoughts about initiating a forum for skills sharing and creativity that is not purely reliant on NhT/Young Vic staff.  Mathilde suggested some form of intranet which could host members’ profiles so that members are able to ‘”tap into each others’ skills” if they wanted, for example, to put on a show independently, or contact each other to create their own social activities.  Many members are already proactive in asking to use space or resources at the Young Vic, and this seems to be an area that could perhaps be developed more formally.

There was also a lot of praise for what NhT is providing for members.  In particular, members were pleased about the provision of activities for over 55s.  Deborah talked about how difficult it can be to change career at that age, and how exciting it is to have the opportunity to do this through the Young Vic.  

Tonight saw the first Kitchen Conversation of Year 2 of NhT.  NhT and Two Boroughs members gathered to welcome people newly arrived in London, including residents new to St Mungo’s.  

Many of the attendees had brought dishes they had made themselves from scratch, including a traditional Spanish dish (photo below) and a vegetarian aubergine curry.  As always - and as intended - it was a very sociable evening, with everyone sharing food and chatting.  The fact that so many people had prepared homemade food not only made the event more special, but also provided a good topic of conversation: as food is so universal, it encouraged talk about culinary likes and dislikes, as well as recipes and cooking experiences.

After eating, guests joined in with exercises led by Imogen.  These exercises encouraged mixing, listening and getting to know each other, with participants being invited, for example, to pair up with others in the room and talk about different subjects for a minute.  Between us, we also created a map of the world, standing in the place we were born, sharing where we are from, as well as little stories we had heard about our births.  This provided wonderful little windows into the lives of the people in the room, from places as far-flung as Mauritius and Virginia.

A busy evening for Neighbourhood Theatre: following the last quarterly meeting of NhT’s first year, and a Q&A with Artistic Director David Lan, members attended a Kitchen Conversation event.  

Kitchen Conversations (originally called Kitchen Talks) were started as part of Neighbourhood Theatre back in September last year, and have been held regularly every couple of months at the Young Vic.  The events aim to welcome and meet people who are refugees, either newly arrived in the community, or who have been living locally for a while.  Members and guests are invited to bring food to share, to eat together, chat and mingle.

Tonight, NhT members welcomed 25 guests, including a number of children.  The evening started with everyone standing in a circle, introducing themselves, followed by a quick game, which was a great way of breaking the ice and helping everyone relax.

There was loads of food - more than could be eaten in one evening - and guests and members sat around in groups eating and chatting together.  The atmosphere was really relaxed, warm and friendly.  Many of the guests, and members of NhT, expressed how much they had enjoyed the evening.  One guest told me that she had initially been reluctant to come, but had then arranged to meet family and friends to travel to the Young Vic together, and was delighted that she had changed her mind.