As posted previously I had the privilege of travelling down to the home of Puppetcraft in Devon to take a week long marionette carving course with John Roberts. This is my second training course with John, the first being in 2016 which took place at the Little Angel Theatre in Islington, London. This time there was a class of three – my colleagues being both fun to be with and wonderfully supportive – last time there was a class of six. Although almost a month ago the experience is very much in my head. I am itching to get back to making once the wonderful Edinburgh Festival has packed up for another year.
Weekly drop in drama sessions for those feeling a bit isolated, or are looking to gain confidence in going back out again or are looking to find new friendships.
What is it?
A weekly session where we play fun games, tell stories and enact small scenes from different inspirations. We also organise trips to the theatre to see different kinds of interesting shows, so far we have visited the Festival Theatre, The Storytelling Centre and we have plans to visit the Lyceum soon.
Questions you might ask:
Ok, so what if I haven’t done drama before or I did and didn’t like it?
The classes are respectful, inclusive and fun. They are built around us sharing stories, playing games which build our skills and confidence – great to transfer to everyday life – and anything we don’t like we don’t do it again.
What if I am not very confident about going out now after the Pandemic?
This is just the place to come to help you get used to getting back out again. The Centre is a safe place to find your feet and the group is friendly and supportive.
What if I have done drama before?
Then please come! The group is learning all the time so this is a place where you can refresh skills whilst having fun.
Why Over 50s?
Because we thought that there are people in the older age bracket that are struggling with loneliness and self confidence after the lockdowns. It is a huge step to take to come along to a new group when feeling like this, we know. So do come and try it out – you will probably find it a friendly relaxing experience and have a lot of laughs along the way… and laughter is the best medicine!
Why have others come along? They came because they were curious, some had done drama before and they say “Honestly it is fun” and “you can express yourself”.
Poster with details of the class – Tuesdays 10 am at the Prentice Centre Granton
Here we have the empty space, an invitation to Tragic Carpet from Edinburgh Palette for the entire month of March. The invitation is to reconnect with the work of the company and with each other and to find out what our next steps will be.
So what will be happening?
We will be getting things out and dusting them down. We will be looking at different ways we might approach the exploration of the Grimm’s fairytale, The Seven Ravens, revisiting work already done, seeing which ideas stay and which have to go.
This process – which is an open one (and we are learning what this might look like) – will help us to talk to people who are interested in this piece, in Tragic Carpet and its work or just curious about puppets! We hope to rekindle relationships, meet new people and work out our next steps. We have a list of questions we want to ask ourselves and also our visitors.
So on Tuesday 1st March that empty space will have some things put into it, props, puppets, some techy stuff, the makings of tea and coffee, a comfy chair or two and we will see where it all goes.
We will be making coffee for visitors every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 11am. We have also invited lots of people to visit at other times – artists who might be interested in the work, venues, festivals – and are really excited and looking forward to meeting them.
An empty space, G16 at St Margaret’s House (Photo by Panna)
tragic carpet 