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Dateline: 14th August, 2005
Brazil, Brum and the RSC A year-long collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company, Brazil’s Nos do Morro (We from the Slums) Theatre Company and Birmingham’s arts apprenticeship scheme Gallery 37 begins in Stratford-upon-Avon on Sunday 14th August 2005.
Ten young people from Nos do Morro (aged between 18 to 25) will spend a week working with RSC Director of Voice, Cicely Berry, actors, assistant directors and fight and movement specialists, to develop their performance skills. They will be joined by eleven Gallery 37 apprentices to share experiences, see a performance of As You Like It and begin the process of working together.
The collaboration will culminate in a performance project based on Shakespeare’s early comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona for the RSC’s Complete Works Festival in August 2006.
Nos do Morro Theatre Company is based in Vidigal, one of the toughest favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro where gangs and drugs are prevalent. The Brazilian actor and teacher Gutti Fraga runs the company. He demands that the young people who enrol leave behind drug gangs and commit to rehearsing and performing plays, which can range from improvised pieces to classics. Some of Gutti’s young actors have gone on to appear in the recent award winning film City of God.
The invitation to Nos do Morro to be part of the Complete Works Festival developed out of the long term relationship between RSC Director of Voice Cicely Berry and the young people of Vidigal. Through regular visits to Brazil over the last ten years to lead training sessions and workshops, Cicely Berry has both encouraged and inspired the young people and helped to support Gutti Fraga and his work at Nos do Morro.
An initiative of Birmingham City Council, Gallery 37 shares the same intent to help young people realise their potential through the arts. Each year Gallery 37 offers arts-based apprenticeships which enable young people to develop the necessary skills to move into further training and employment.
G37, now in its seventh year, has seen over 1000 people pass through its doors. The programme is based on an award-winning scheme run by Birmingham’s sister city Chicago, where young people work on an arts summer programme in Block 37, Downtown Chicago.
All artistic programming for Gallery 37 is devised with major visual arts and arts education establishments in Birmingham, and this will be the first time that G37 has worked with a partner organisation outside of the city. Current projects include work at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and a multi-media project in G37’s own new building on the eastside of the city.
The Birmingham side of the Two Gentlemen of Verona project will be led by Juliet Forster, a regular workshop leader with the RSC’s Learning Department, which is producing the year-long project.
The venture will culminate next summer in a second, longer visit to Stratford and a performance in the Courtyard Theatre on 27 August 2006. There are plans afoot to look at taking the project to Rio de Janeiro, possibly in the following year.
Cicely Berry, RSC Director of Voice, said of the project, “The work of Nos do Morro is invaluable in developing the communication skills of young people in difficult circumstances. I am delighted that we are bringing young people from Rio and Birmingham together to share in exploring the international language of Shakespeare. This project is just one part of the whole international melting pot that will hopefully develop during the Complete Works Festival to create a truly innovative theatrical adventure.”
Councillor John Alden, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture for Birmingham City Council, said, “This is a very exciting opportunity for Gallery 37 to work with the country’s leading theatre company and to develop its international links at the same time. We hope this will be the start of a partnership with the RSC which will enable participants from Birmingham to develop their understanding of the issues facing young people in Brazil, to reflect on their own experiences, and to work together in a unique project which promises to challenge them personally and artistically.” Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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