India calling: will Trestle be touring the Unicorn’s stunning Snow Queen to India this Summer?

I had a delightful time, as Movement Director, collaborating with director Rosamunde Hutt on the Unicorn’s 2011 Christmas show, The Snow Queen, set in India. Trestle has developed an Indian influenced physical theatre language, following our Indian/UK collaboration in 2006-7. Rosamunde asked me to bring my experience of interpreting classical Indian movement into contemporary character work and physical storytelling to the Unicorn process.

Drawing on Indian dance (mudra hand gestures), martial arts (kalaripayattu), rasas and archetypal characters, we created a world for The Snow Queen in which a contemporary teenager could exist alongside a classical goddess and an ancient tree.

Indian based writer Anupama Chandrasekhar created a compelling version of the Hans Christian Anderson tale translated into an epic journey from the southern most tip of India up to the Himalayan Mountains. The British Council’s ‘Connections through Culture’ scheme made this commission possible. I first met Anupama in Chennai, her home city, in 2002, when I was researching young people’s theatre in India for the Unicorn (at the time I was Unicorn’s Associate Director). Anupama shared a spark of interest in writing for children and families and I was so pleased to work with her a decade later on her fabulous first script for young audiences.

Ten thousand people saw the production at the Unicorn Theatre, which was a resounding success, and there has been great interest in touring the show to India. The leading South Indian Hindu Metro Plus Theatre Festival has invited the production to Chennai and Coimbatore in August 2012. There is also the possibility of touring to Mumbai and Bangalore.

Trestle, with our experience of touring and international collaboration, has become the leading UK partner for the potential tour. We are planning, fundraising and negotiating along with the British Council in India & the UK and the creative team to make this adventure possible; taking the piece to the writer’s home would complete this cultural connection. The production really could encourage new writing for young audiences in India and inspire more touring of thrilling young people’s theatre internationally. Soon we will know if it is going ahead…..

Emily Gray

New focus for Trestle: Expansion of mask work and emphasis on youth provision

Trestle, the St Albans based mask and physical theatre company, is to expand its highly acclaimed mask making business, backed by a programme of workshops and performances. Participatory and performance work for 11 to 25 year-olds will be Trestle’s priority. A year of consultation, reflection and restructuring followed Arts Council England’s decision not to award National Portfolio funding to Trestle.

The Company has reviewed its mask making business and will be taking the creative stimulus of Trestle’s work with young people and physical storytelling theatre into its mask resources and workshops. Driven by the last five years of international influences and cross-cultural collaboration, Trestle aims to take the masks in a new direction, with the offer of digital and live resources to support training, participation and performance.

Emily Gray says:

‘It was tough losing Arts Council subsidy, of course, but focusing on what we do well, and what our stakeholders would like us to offer, has driven a creative process which has been liberating and fruitful. In the past year, with a reduced, but highly effective staff team, we toured three productions, developed arts programmes for young people at Trestle Arts Base and Platform, and continued our workshops and training across the UK and abroad.Looking forward, we will launch a new website, deliver work with and for young people which responds to our masked and unmasked performance and continue collaborating with our partners and supporters.’

In the next year, Trestle will enjoy working with its new partners, looking for innovative ways to fund new performances and inviting young people to experience and shape the Company’s work. Trestle continues to have a good relationship with the Arts Council, who have a vested interest in the lottery funded Trestle Arts Base.

In the past year, Trestle has consolidated a number of strong international and local partnerships and been nominated for two awards; the Peter Brook Empty Space Award for Collaboration and the St Albans Mayor’s Pride Award for Cultural Innovation. Trestle has also been successful in securing funding from two Local Councils; St Albans District and Islington, where Trestle is in a partnership developing Platform, the new youth arts hub at Hornsey Road Baths.

Celebrating the talent and creativity of young people in St Albans.

Tip of the Iceberg  and Trestle Youth Theatre

Celebrating the talent and creativity of young people in St Albans.

Production of ‘Peter Pan’ at Trestle Arts Base Monday 12^th December 6pm and 8pm

On the evening of Monday 12^th December Trestle Arts Base will step back in time as the youth theatre will perform an original Victorian version of ‘Peter Pan’.  The production includes every member of the youth theatre with nearly 40 young people aged between 4 and 16 and is a truly magical theatrical production including a flying Peter Pan, puppets and a moving 13ft pirate ship. 

The story is told by J, M and Barrie an eccentric trio who take us from the Darling’s house, to Neverland, the Lagoon and back again. Trestle and Tip of the Iceberg are two professional local theatre companies who joined forces in September to ensure that despite arts cuts they could still offer affordable professional theatre fun and training for all ages and abilities. 

The youth theatre is going from strength to strength and this performance shows how the young people, directors, theatre companies and the Trestle Arts Base are all working together.  Lisa Schulberg the youth theatre director said  “We chose Peter Pan as it’s a story about being young, having fun, and enjoying imaginary places, which is exactly what the youth theatre is all about.  Our production is a large step away from the Disney story and has been a real challenge for everyone involved, however it’s been amazing to watch all the age groups working together and finding creative ways to bring the traditional version to life.” 

The groups meet on a Monday evening at the Trestle Arts Base – TYPTO 4-7yrs 4-5pm TYPT2 8-12yrs 5-6.30pm and TYC 13-18yrs 6.30-9pm and the Spring term starts on 9^th January there are a few spaces available.   

There are also a few tickets available left for both shows. 

For information on the Youth Theatre and for Tickets for the show please contact Tip of the Iceberg on 08454747907 or email admin@tipoftheiceberg.biz

The Man with the Luggage Special Guest Narrator Announced!

Jim Broadbent with Trestle Artistic Director Emily Gray, Oliver Jones of Blindeye and Rhian Desborough,  Trestle Marketing Manager at Trestle Arts Base, St Albans  Touring the UK 21 Sept - 10 Dec 2011 Director                       Oliver Jones Writer                          Lizzie Nunnery Designer                      Anoushka Athique Lighting Designer            Matt Haskins Composer                    Ben Glasstone Associate Artist               Emily Gray This autumn leading theatre company Trestle and the Director of emerging company Blindeye collaborate on the UK premiere of The Man with the Luggage written by award winning playwright Lizzie Nunnery. We are delighted to announce that Trestle’s Patron and Oscar Award Winning Actor Jim Broadbent will feature in The Man with the Luggage, as the voice of an old, war ravaged Tree.   A note from Jim Broadbent: I have supported Trestle as a Patron for over twenty years and have been delighted by the inventive use of mask, puppetry and storytelling through the Trestle's Masked years and into the Unmasked productions. The last show, The Birthday of the Infanta was a celebration of performance, storytelling and physical theatre; evidence of the Company’s continuing and considerable prowess as a creative force in UK theatre. Trestle led the way as the first UK touring company to build its own home and the beautiful Trestle Arts Base in St Albans has inspired artists from across the globe to make new work. The Company has moved with the times and adapted to circumstance while sustaining a strong commitment to artistic quality, community development and young people. However, Trestle's unique creativity and ways of linking touring work with participation programmes and a community building are threatened by cuts in government funding. For thirty years Trestle has given the arts community, young people and audiences across the UK inspiration and learning and now is the moment for you to give back to Trestle. Please support Trestle by patronising their new show and donate whatever you can to help Trestle stay creatively vibrant and effective. Anything our supporters can give will make a difference to Trestle’s future.   About the Show Inspired by the Eugene Ionesco absurdist play of the same name, The Man with the Luggage draws on the themes, and atmosphere of the original piece, but fuses them with contemporary stories of migration and repatriation to create an invigorating, visually stunning, and often very funny stage adaptation, set deep within an imagined European state. The story traces a man’s journey home after becoming a refugee during a war in his homeland. We follow Damir, as he arrives at a train station and starts his tortuous, bizarre, and often hilarious journey back home, to his village, to his house, and to his loved ones. On the way, he is forced to take any means of transport available, from a bus, to a motorbike and side-car, to a solitary roller skate! Through the people he meets along the way, he discovers the true horror of the last ten years, and the divides that are still apparent between different people and neighbouring communities. Make sure you don’t miss this, compelling, highly charged theatrical spectacular!   The Man with the Luggage tours the UK from 21 September at Trestle Arts Base in St Albans and finishes at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury on Saturday 10 December 2011.  Suitable for everyone aged 12 and up / Runtime approx 70 mins (no interval) Please note that this is a Trestle Unmasked production.

Please click here to view photography from the research and development of The Man with the Luggage (NB: Cast members have changed) Click here to view Cast and Creative Teams For further information please visit http://www.trestle.org.uk/pl352.html

Dates and venues 21 September - 10 December 2011 September 21 - 22      Trestle Art Base, St Albans (Previews) 23 - 24      Greenwich Theatre, London 26              E M Forster Theatre, Tonbridge 27              Sundial Theatre, Cirencester 28              Rhodes, Bishop's Stortford 29              Hat Factory, Luton (Post Show Discussion) October 4 - 8           New Diorama Theatre, London 12              Teddington School, Teddington 14              Platform, Hornsey Road Baths, Islington 15              Braintree Arts Theatre, Essex 18              Vivacity Key Theatre, Peterborough 19              Guildhall Arts Centre, Grantham 20 - 22      Trestle Art Base, St Albans December 6 - 7          Capstone Theatre, Liverpool     8 - 10        The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury Text TRES11 £5 (or whatever you can afford) to 70070 to donate to Trestle Theatre Company Limited and make a difference today! www.justgiving.com

The Man with the Luggage R&D 2011

The Man with the Luggage R&D 2011, a gallery on Flickr.

A man strives to return home, in search of his past, hopeful of his future, and longing for those he left behind. As his journey unfolds, he finds his path repeatedly blocked and his identity endlessly questioned. His luggage and his status are lost as borders are crossed, languages confused, and modes of travel conspire to thwart him. Will he ever reach his destination? ...will his luggage? ...and will his identity arrive with him?

Informed by contemporary stories of migration and repatriation, The Man with the Luggage explores our relationship with home, with nationality, and with authority. It also delves into our dependence on travel and the multitude of obstacles that await us on our journeys through stations, through ports, and through life.

Trestle Unmasked and Blindeye use an agile mix of text, movement, music, and projection, to tell a dashing and deeply moving story where notions of time, space, and memories merge to create a dreamscape of great insight, passion, and humour. It illuminates the struggles that face many of today’s displaced people, and speaks to everyone who has ever been stranded in a foreign land.

www.trestle.org.uk

The Mystery of the Random Image

Thanks to those that responded to our Facebook appeal (http://on.fb.me/lEjGpD), we thought we should give you an update on our mystery image.

Thanks to Katerina Radeva (www.katherinaradeva.co.uk), we were able to confirm that the image was in fact taken at Chisenhale Dance Space(www.chisenhaledancespace.co.uk).

After contacting them (thank you Bryony!) we were informed that the image was of dancer and choreographer Mel Simpson (www.melsimpson.com). After tracking down and contacting Mel she informed us that the dancer featured was in fact her ‘doppelganger’ Dani B. Larson, who is also a dancer and choreographer! (http://on.fb.me/jlesTL). Dani kindly has been in touch to let us know that the image in fact came from a dance piece entitled Caught up created by Artistic Director and choreographer Katie Green (www.madebykatiegreen.co.uk) who has agreed to let us use the image –

Thanks to everyone who helped solve The Mystery of the Random Image! Just popping off to the shops to now to purchase a deerstalker and a magnifying glass! "What one man can invent another can discover," wink wink!

Author Blog On Burn my Heart--The Play!

August 2010

There are more than twenty characters in Burn My Heart. So how would you turn it into a stage play for just five actors? This challenge is being undertaken as I write, by Trestle director Oliver Jones with translator and playwright Rina Vergano. While I’ve previously adapted some of my own work (The Other Side of Truth for radio and The Playground for stage – see www.beverleynaidoo.com ), this feels rather like handing over a child for adoption! Yet some paths, I believe, are meant to cross...

A month before Burn My Heart was published in Britain in 2007, Oliver Jones and I spoke for the first time. He told me about his passion to form a company, Blindeye (www.blindeye.org.uk), that would make theatre about human rights. When he spoke of his interest in the Mau Mau, I suggested he read the novel. “I’ve so many images about how I’d stage it!” he said afterward, “but one thing is difficult--the number of characters.” I wondered if he would be deterred.

Yet Oliver's ideas brewed on. Making a play is a collaborative process and quite different from brewing a novel in your head. In addition to the director’s resolve, a lot depends on “things coming together.” Now, three years on, with Oliver now working at Trestle, he has set up Blindeye. I was delighted when he got in touch again. I not only knew of Trestle as one of Britain’s leading touring companies but I’d seen productions on tour and admired the physical storytelling.

In May, when I made my first visit to Trestle’s Art Base in St Albans - during development workshops on Burn My Heart - I wasn’t expecting this hundred-year-old chapel full of gothic shadows and ghosts of a huge Victorian asylum. When I stepped inside the large wooden doors, it felt like the right place to dig into Burn My Heart’s secrets.

It’s now only a few weeks until the play’s autumn première, at Trestle Arts Base, St Albans before its eight-week UK tour. And how are Oliver and Rina tackling the challenge of twenty-plus characters? Well, with a good script, good actors, and imagination you can do almost anything. The list below reveals who will morph into whom, plus some other creative surprises in the casting! Of course specifics can change because that’s the challenge of physical theatre – discovering what works. But women will play the boys and the same actors will play both black and white characters. Am I nervous about seeing the story that still lives in my head take a completely new form on stage? You bet. But what a grand journey for my characters as they stride out beyond the page.

CHARACTERS (5 actors – 3 female, 2 male)

Mugo (Female)

Lance (Female)
Mrs Grayson
Dreadlock
Auntie
Gitau


Mathew (Female)
Mami
Mrs Smithers

Kamau (Male)
Old Josiah
Insp. Smithers
Child at club
Waiter at club
Schoolboy

Mr Grayson (Male)
Longcoat
Schoolboy
Child at club

Red Hats/Guards random members of cast


By Beverley Naidoo