Swap Shop

We had a great time at the Lichfield and Tamworth District Tourism Swap Shop event at Drayton Manor. Lots of interesting people to meet and networking done. Many thanks to the organisers for their hard work - and look who was at the next table to us... You never know who you're going to meet!

What's your Mystery?

To celebrate World Community Arts Day 2014, we have been asking people to tell us their Mysteries. In exchange we gave them a little pot of Mystery seeds as a thank you. We are going to use these as inspiration and starting points for creative writing projects which we will be running over the next 12 months with various community groups. Many thanks to Tesco for allowing us to hold the event in their store and a very big thank you to all of the people who shared their mysteries with us.

Setting out our stall

Some of the Mysteries...

Mystery seeds - what will they grow into???

Get writing!

Yesterday we had our second creative writing workshop with the Changes group in Burntwood. As well as poetry we had a think about more extended pieces of creative writing; ways of creating stories and characters and considering them from different perspectives. We had a think about using  the five senses to create images and also key questions - who, where, why, what and when? After a go at some word association and rhyming we used all of these devices to create a short piece of writing.

Gary and Mal display some of our word association and rhymes

It's been really interesting learning a few 'tricks of the trade' - writers clearly don't just chew the end of their pencil and wait for inspiration - it's hard work but we have discovered ways of creating ideas and using them in interesting and not immediately obvious ways.
Many thanks to Gary and Mal who led the sessions - I'm looking forward to reading some of the work created as a result. I might even have a go myself!

Competition time!

You are all invited to follow the trail to find the Seven Deadly Sins...  

 

All in a days work! 

To celebrate World Community Arts Day, the Sins’ costumes from Doomsday, the final play of the Lichfield Mysteries, will be on display in business premises around Lichfield city centre from February 15 to 28. All people have to do is name the ‘Sin’ on display at each of the seven venues and submit the completed form. Correct answers will be put in a draw for prizes for themselves or their school, courtesy S & J Music and Virgin Active.

Participating venues are: S & J Music, the George Hotel, Lichfield Cathedral, Spark Cafe Lichfield, Lichfield Library, Oxfam Book Shop and Lichfield Heritage Centre.

Pick up an entry form from any of the venues or download a form from the Mysteries’ website: www.lichfieldmysteries.co.uk

 Three of the ‘Sins’ are pictured, but we obviously can’t name them as it would spoil the competition!

Busy, busy, busy...

Three of our community engagement projects are now underway - it's really exciting when the work you have been planning for ages actually starts to happen!

Wednesday 5th February
Rehearsals for At the Crossroads have now started - an outline of all the scenes of the play has been devised so work has now started on the actual dialogue, music lyrics and ways of setting the scenes.

Director Simon hard at work!

  

Meanwhile...

Thursday 6th February

The Friends2Friends group were introduced  to Peter who is going to be pulling together and directing their drama piece which will celebrate their second birthday in May. After a bit of a chat, Peter cut to the chase and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing drama games - lots of fun on a dreary wet afternoon!

And to round off the week...

Friday 7th February

Changes Burntwood were treated to a poetry workshop led by Gary and Mal.  Creative writing is well out of my comfort zone so I felt the time had come to face up to my poetical fears and have a go myself. Everyone joined in and contributed their thoughts and ideas Two hours flew by and we all felt that actually, maybe we could write poetry after all! Next instalment next week.

 

At the Crossroads - first rehearsal

Having had our workshops to generate ideas and devise the play, our first rehearsal is on Wednesday 29th January, 7.30pm, the Lichfield Room, Wade Street Church, Frog Lane, Lichfield.
If you couldn't make the workshops but would like to get involved in this production it's not too late - just come along to the rehearsal.
The performances are on the 9th & 10th May in the Lichfield Garrick Studio. If you don't want to perform then get the dates in your diary, gather some friends and buy some tickets!

This project is supported by

Happy New Year!

Our Late Night Pop Up Nativity was lots of fun - and we raised £156. Well done everyone!
Here are a few photos taken before we set out...