Ages & Stages: Conference on Intergenerational Performance

Why make intergenerational community performance? 
What are the challenges and the opportunities?

Join us to explore developments in the field of theatre and dance made with and for an intergenerational community. Professionals and amateurs, participants and commentators debate an area of theatre making that is as controversial as it is old.

• Panels include theatre critic Lyn Gardner, choreographer Rosemary Lee, Dr Mike Tyler from York Mysteries and academic Dr Louise Owen.
• Participants and practitioners will share their experiences of intergenerational work and talk about adopting a long term approach
• Critics and Artists examine the aesthetic of intergenerational work and discuss the task of commentary and criticism.

The day will be built around 4 sessions:

“A strange Beauty”** – Directors and writers  talk about the particular aesthetic quality of intergenerational work (David Slater from Entelechy Arts, Director/Choreographer Rosemary Lee, and Playwright Simon Startin).

Critiquing Community – Critics, academics and peer reviewers discuss the task of commentary and criticism (Dr Louise Owen chairs a discussion with Guardian critic Lyn Gardner, Helen Nicholson from Central, and Alison Rooke from Goldsmiths).

Who’s it for ?  – Participants from different companies (and of many ages) share their experience with community arts.

Not just one-timers – Practitioners (including Mike Tyler from York Mystery Cycle and Tony Horitz from Wimborne Community Theatre), who have been working in response to a community for a considerable time, talk about their long-term approach to the timeless cause of community enrichment through the arts.

** words used by a critic after seeing an intergenerational piece this year – the whole sentence was, “It really opened by eyes to the strange beauty of community theatre. I found the whole experience rather affecting in the way that the performers seemed to honour and embody, to stand in for, those that had come before them”.

Registration fee: £25 includes lunch and refreshments.
Venue: Canada Water Culture Space, London SE16
Book your place online on http://bit.ly/AgesStages or call Lucy on 020 7237 4434.

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