Phakama's BigGive Campaign

This winter your donation can go further.
Please give from as little as £5 to as much as £5,000
And every pound will be doubled!

Phakama and Index on Censorship have joined forces this year to run Tripwires - a young people’s leadership training and performance programme. We use theatre, poetry, music, dance, film and more to explore freedom of expression, offence and self-censorship.

This project has already secured the support of City Bridge Trust, Awards for All (Big Lottery Fund) and Queen Mary, University of London but in order to deliver the full programme, we are still fundraising and need your support.
We need your help to meet our target of £6,000 this December. Every donation made online between 6 and 10 December 2010 will be matched pound-for-pound by the Reed Foundation and Phakama’s and Index's major supporters.

Your donation will:

* Help 25 young people gain access to a 20-week arts training programme designed to develop their leadership skills enhancing their prospects of further training and employment
* Enable the 25 trainees to run workshops themselves with peer groups widening the project’s reach
* Support a group of culturally diverse young people achieve Arts Awards Accreditation
* Enable the production of a final large-scale performance involving 60 young people (including the 25 trainees) in a two-week devising period with the support of professional artists


This chance to double the value of your donation is only available between 6 and 10 December 2010 – so please to log on during these days go to:
http://bit.ly/tripwires

Please make your donation go even further by choosing to GIFT AID. For every £1 you donate, we will receive a further 28p through HMRC.

Please pass this message to all your friends.

Thank you for your support!

Tripwires Voxpop

Check some interviews with our Tripwires trainees

Phakama's BigGive Campaign

This winter your donation can go further
Please give from as little as £5 to as much as £5,000
And every pound will be doubled!

Phakama and Index on Censorship have joined forces this year to run Tripwires - a young people’s leadership training and performance programme. We use theatre, poetry, music, dance, film and more to explore freedom of expression, offence and self-censorship.

This project has already secured the support of City Bridge Trust, Awards for All (Big Lottery Fund) and Queen Mary, University of London but in order to deliver the full programme, we are still fundraising and need your support.
We need your help to meet our target of £6,000 this December. Every donation made online between 6 and 10 December 2010 will be matched pound-for-pound by the Reed Foundation and Phakama’s and Index's major’s supporters.

Your donation will:

• Help 25 young people gain access to a 20-week arts training programme designed to develop their leadership skills enhancing their prospects of further training and employment
• Enable the 25 trainees to run workshops themselves with peer groups widening the project’s reach
• Support a group of culturally diverse young people achieve Arts Awards Accreditation
• Enable the production of a final large-scale performance involving 60 young people (including the 25 trainees) in a two-week devising period with the support of professional artists
  

This chance to double the value of your donation is only available between 6 and 10 December 2010 – so to log on during these days please click here

Please make your donation go even further by choosing to GIFT AID. For every £1 you donate, we will receive a further 28p through HMRC.

Please pass this message to all your friends.

Thank you for your support!

Phakama AGM and Housewarming Party - 01 Dec 2010

Dear Friend,

Come and join us for our Annual General Meeting and find out about our latest achievements, our present endeavours and our future plans.
We would also love to officially invite you to come and see our new home at Queen Mary University and to toast with us.
This evening will be a great opportunity to hear about our projects from artists, board members and young people.

When?
Wednesday 01 December 2010 from 8.30 - 10.00pm

Where?
Pinter Studio (Arts Building - number 29 on the map) - Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
Please click here to download a map of the Campus

If you would like to attend this event please email RSVP to Ines at inest@projectphakama.org by Friday 26 November 2010.

We look forward to meeting you,

The Phakama Team

Tripwires

Tripwires is a leadership training and performance programme. We use theatre, poetry, music, dance, film and more to explore freedom of expression, offence and self-censorship.

We are looking for 25 people aged 17-23 from East London to be the Tripwires leadership trainees.
Starting on Saturday 23rd of October at Queen Mary, University of London (Mile End Campus), it runs for 20 Saturdays, followed by outreach and performance in Spring 2011.

If you would like to join us to explore these issues, learn new skills in the arts, plan and deliver your own projects and help devise the final performance, with the opportunity to go for accreditation, email Isobel by 26 September 2010 at arts@indexoncensorship.org for more details.

-----------------------------------
Tripwires is a collaboration between Index on Censorship and Project Phakama UK, with the support from City Bridge Trust and Queen Mary, University of London

Phakama and Orpheus group photo

A huge well done to all members of Phakama and Orpheus for creating the most amazing show!

Phakama and Orpheus Outdoor Spectacular

Dear Friends,

Phakama and Orpheus have joined forces this summer to create a site specific event at the Orpheus Centre.

Phakama's and Orpheus' young artists and facilitators will be in residence at the centre for two weeks this month. The two groups will bring together shared experiences and stories which will become a short exploratory performance full of puppetry, music and audience interaction.

Come and join us at Orpheus Centre on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th August, 7.30pm.
Tickets are £8 (£6 concessions) available on 01883 741414 or email marketing@orpheus.org.uk

For details on how to get to Orpheus Centre please check the link below:
http://www.orpheus.org.uk/contact-us/map-and-directions.html

We look forward to seeing you at the performance,

Best wishes

The Phakama team

Postponing The Inevitable

Dear Friends

After careful deliberation between Teater Tetas, Project Phakama and our UK supporters - Queen Mary's University and The Indonesian Embassy - we have made the decision to postpone the European premier of The World At My Feet until October this year.

Although we have been working extremely hard to try and ensure the project went ahead this month, time has really been against us. We set ourselves a difficult challenge when the TWAMF plan was first hatched in March because of two excellent performance opportunities that presented themselves to us:

• The chance for Tetas to perform with us at the Trashcatcher's Carnival in Tooting

• The chance to take The World At My Feet to Contact The World international theatre festival in Manchester

These two events, both taking place now in July, were the reason we gave ourselves such a short amount of time (4 months) to garner the high level of support needed for such an ambitious project.

Sadly, although very generous offers of support have been pledged by organisations both in the UK and Indonesia, there were certain key pieces of paper that we were unable to obtain in time, namely:

• Visas

• Plane tickets

HOWEVER! We are now, thanks to the revised schedule, able to give The World At My Feet an even brighter future for October. Our intentions are now:

• To increase the number of performances in London

• To offer enhanced workshop opportunities for local schools

• To offer enhanced workshop opportunities for drama practitioners and the public

So do not take your eyes from this spot because over the next 3 months it's gonna get hot, hot like a Latin disco. And we want you there in the front row at the opening premier European show! See you in October, if not before.

Viva Phakama! Viva The World At My Feet!

Un abrazo muy fuerte

De los Phakamistas

Trashcatchers Carnival route this Sunday

Click on the poster for all the details you need to know for
Sunday's Trashcatchers' Carnival including the route and the
finish point on oft-locked Fishponds playing fields! We can't wait!

Volunteers for Sunday

Are you free on Sunday and want to volunteer on our Carnival? We are looking for extra stewards and groups hosts - come and join our parade! It will be a joyful and fun experience - email inest@projectphakama.org for more details

Volunteering opportunities

We are looking for volunteers for our Trashcatchers’ Carnival in Tooting.

Everyone is welcome!
The roles include technical support, front of house, group hosts and more.

If you have some free time between now and the 4th of July get in touch!

Also if you know of someone that might be interested in volunteering with us please pass them this message

Email Ines on inest@projectphakama.org for more details.

The World At My Feet

THE WORLD AT MY FEET (TWAMF) - update

Well now what a lot to report! We have been extremely busy working towards what is setting out to be an incredible performance event and an amazing achievement. As we have been working away in London to try and secure the best possible support for TWAMFs transfer to the European stage, our comrades in Jakarta, the fantastic Teater Tetas, under the unswerving belief and determination of Director Mas Adji Dipayana have been working hard towards the same ends in Indonesia. Here are some of the biggest recent news items:

The Bake-A-Thon was a sure-fire hit and no miscake! Yes the fundraiser that saw Corinne's carefully co-ordinated and expertly enacted 24 HOURS OF BAKING AND SELLING take place on the 3rd and 4th of June was fantastic. Many thanks to the Francis Lee Community Centre for the use of their kitchen for 13hrs of cooking, and all the staff involved with staking out our pitch at Queen Mary's University for 12 hours of selling. Also we really could not have pulled off the magnificent achievement of baking over EIGHT HUNDRED CAKES without the tireless efforts and generosity of Elaine and our professional aides, Lee The Baker and Mikolaj The Chef. And of course we would heartily like to thank the generosity of Queen Mary's staff and students, and our own friends and relations without whom we could not have raised over £1000! (which we did). It was also brilliant to see some of our multi-talented fellow Phakamites at the end of the day at our evenings festivities, Andrianne, Noelle, Janice, Sara, the funky feelings of the Yabbafunk Trio (AKA Helen & The Baldies), the beautiful music of JP and Adilson (Jake's Cousin).

Next in line for a massive thanking is The Indonesian Embassy who are continuing to provide invaluable support for the project - both in terms of their first-rate diplomatic assistance regarding the acquisition of passports and Visas for Tetas which can be a difficult process; and also their continual commitment to supporting the project logistically as far as their resources can allow. We are eternally grateful for this. We are now hoping to stage an Indonesian theatre weekend workshop at the Embassy itself in Grosvenor Square.

More details to follow soon!

I will leave you with a poem which I think sums up all our feeling here at Phakama regarding the TWAMF project:

Yeah yeah yeah!

Yeah yeah yeah!

Yeah yeah yeah!

Phew.

We're gonna get there.

We continue to welcome any support you may wish to give.

Stay tuned for more updates...

Charity Fundraiser - HUGE success!

Hello!

So Last Friday we hosted the Charity Fundraiser......and If i do say so myself the night was an absolute success. I wasn't down to play on the bill myself, but in true cem fashion I managed to sneak a go on the guitar!

Now it goes without saying that there were some fantastic performances. A particular favourite of mine was Dynamo David Weston's song "Umpah Lumpah".

Also the comedy stylings of Chasity ButterWorth A.K.A Gemma Whelan (she's one to look out for.

My Mum's food was pukka! Cheers Mum. You always manage to pull it out of the bag, and that's why i love ya.

It was stressful to organise but I loved every second of it.

For those of you that came, thank you for all of your support and help. For those that couldn't never fear, the next event will be just as big, just as bashy, and just as in need of your Support!

Support the arts!

I've been Cem Pakiry-Turgut, You've been wonderful! Thank you and Good Night!

Check out the link below to see a small film from one of our latest workshops in Tooting. 

We are preparing, together with various members of the community, a sustainable Carnival made out entirely of recycled materials!
Come and join us on the 4th of July in Tooting High Street to see this fantastic event come to live!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCM3cTKo3Uw 

The Orpheus Centre: Day 2

Got so excited about writing about the experience that we forgot to tell you a bit about the piece that we are working on!

"All Over the Place" is a piece that explores three diverse real life stories that, in one's opinion, acknowledges the lack of communication and equality in our world. With these stories, today's sessions were focused on an improvisational devising process which allowed us to create a structure for various scenes.

Music is a core element in the work at Orpheus, whereby every song produced and sung is done by the students at the centre, therefore they are consistently at the heart of their projects.

As enablers, we have found these experience liberating as no structure is ever produced before hand and then imposed upon the students. The art work is solely created by them and we are the support mechanism that can ensure guidance and encouragement.

On a personal level, we have noticed how the students' confidence has risen dramatically in the two days' rehearsals he have had. We are looking forward to witnessing their achievements when preparing themselves to perform at such a venue as the Royal Opera House!

We shall keep you updated!

Salwa and Juancho ;-)

Orpheus Centre: Day 1

First day at the Orpheus Centre, and if there was a word to sum up the entire experience it would be... AMAZING!!!

The Orpheus Centre is an organisation that was founded by entertainer and musician Richard Stilgoe in his former family home in Godstone in 1998. The centre promotes transistion into independent living; providing opportunities for young independent adults to promote personal development through Performing Atrts so they gain the skills to live independently in the community and to make informed choices about their futures.

Over the next two weeks Salwa and Juancho are members of a team of enablers (this consists of dancers, musicians, artists, actors and writers) which will work in partnership on all artistic activities with a group of tutors and the students from the centre, in order to produce a resounding show that will be staged at the Linbury Studio in the Royal Opera House.

Today we met with the entire team (a group of about 40 people) in their theatre which is a lovely converted barn. In this morning's session we explored a number of games which involved the entire group, one to one and small group work in order to learn everyone's names and their personal interests. Bearing in mind this is the first time all parties of the group have come together, by the end of the morning session, in agreement with Danny, the director of the centre, we were delighted with what we had achieved as it seemed as though we had known and worked with one another for a long time.

For the rest of the afternoon the group was divided into three small groups where we explored elements of the performance through devising ideas and games. We also learned a couple of songs that were written by some of the students and with these we brought the day to an end.

The plan for the rest of this first week is to devise all the material that we will use in the performance and use the second week for polishing and tech and dress rehearsals.

We shall be keeping you updated on the process.

Salwa and Juancho ;-)

Charity Gig on Friday 21 May 2010

Phakama's young artists are organising a charity gig on Friday the 21st to help bring their fellow Indonesian artists to the UK.

Come along for a night full of surprises, prices and laughter!

See details for the event below:

Start Time:	Friday, May 21, 2010 at 7:30pm
End Time:	Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 12:00am
Location:	The Sir Richard Steeles
Street:	Haverstock Hill, Chalk Farm, NW3

or to go to event page on facebook click here

Phakama at Queen Mary's

Yesterday Phakama attended a very enjoyable event hosted and attended by academics and students at Queen Mary's University. This was an opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to some of the students and staff with whom we have not yet come in to contact with at the University, and to talk a little bit about past, present and future Phakama projects. After a short presentation by Fabio, Jenny, Sam, Juancho and Ines the attendees were able to ask questions about, and discuss the work. We were then invited to a lovely dinner at a local restaurant where the discussions continued. We made some good new friends!

Flickr account

To see some of the pictures from the project in Indonesia click here

Singing in rehearsals

We are now rehearsing a traditional Indonesian song that will open our show.
The song goes as follow:

"I'm standing at the edge of the day
Wondering of the change of seasons
I see everybody leaving in a hurry
Here I'm standing alone, keep on waiting
Waiting for the golden age to come
Happiness for the whole world
From time to time I keep on praying
Amongst the sorrow of Manking
I'll finish my sorrow without tears"

Day 1 and 2

Day 1

Day one started of early. we all woke afresh and had to leve the apartment by 9. we travelled to the school to get our first glimpse of our future workplace for the next two weeks the whole group was really excited to be working in such a beautiful place. and to be encouraged by the local spirit of all the students. the thatre in which we are to perform is is amazing the main stage is extremely big, and even the supporting rooms such as the wallace stage are big in their own respect. after we had our tour of the theatre and had lunch we organized and planned workshops for the week and even ran one the main subjects we focused on was onsamble work, how to bond within a group it went really well. after our firsty worokshop we finally met with the British international school (bis) group who would be our main chorous. they are really friendly and approacable. they warmed to phakama really quickly and were up for almost anything. we spent time in that workshop designers gaurdians that were personal and what we considered a gaurdian to be. there was some really good images on display most people opting for the mythology type gargoyle. we then finished on a high with a game. after this workshop we went to go visit the free school whitch is founded and funded by BIS this was really good and a touching experiance the classroom was just situated on a piece of land and the classroom was about as big as a caravan but they just made it work ! :D we proceeded to meet with aji and his group of young people ( theatre tetas) they were really pleased to see us and us them, there rehearsal space was outside in the open and was a old boxing ring! none the less we still had fun and made some progress with productive work based around on what both groups had been previously rehearsing. the group of young people are really kind and nice. we finished the session at about 11:10 and then made our way back to the accommodation most people to tired to stand, goodnight...


Day 2

day 2 started afresh with everyone all awake and alive and kicking, we was all looking forward to breaking of into groups and vidting different sites 4 young people went to go visit the free school (jake, regis,jenny,salwa) and 4 went to go visit the scavanger site which was a site full of rubbish and people living there made a living by collecting rubbish and sorting it for the local truck to come and pick it up to recycle it. both groups said that this experiance was really good and they felt good after, a real rewarding experiance for bioth parties and the people at both sites were pleased that outsiders had come to see them. so after this we left with a friendly goodbye and made our way back to the BIS school in order to have lunch and get ready for our workshop. we arrived at the BIS school and ate lunch planned the workshop and then got ready. the BIS students arrived and was ready to work, we progressed our work with the gaurdians in which we designed the day before. we then had to talk about their qualities and choose a single one and then create a still image in what we think these emotions represent. then we moved on to stage 2 and added movement and sound finally stage 3 which resulted in leading the whole group in from outside and putting on what we had done in our small groups of 5. it went really well and the group felt spectacular. were now getting ready to go meet adji and work on some more scenes with the group.

on behalf of the phakama company
Jake Boston.

In Dubai....

Here we are 10hrs later waiting for our connecting 8hr flight to Indonesia!!!

We have mixed emotions; excited, tired, sleep, bloated... overall really need a bed. However, loving the hospitality!

We Shall keep you posted on our arrival.. watch this space!

Salwa

A bit of rehearsals

Hello Teater Tetas

The Company

The World at My Feet

THE WORLD AT MY FEET

I lay my dreams at your feet

Tread softly for you tread upon my dreams

In a world where islands are made of rubbish, stories wash up along the shore, and hope falls from the skies, we ask what will you do to survive?

A leader from a lost tribe, a man who has sold his soul, a mother who leaves her children and grotesque figures stuffing their faces. People hoping, wishing, dreaming, fighting, struggling, running for their lives. We explore what separates us and what brings us together and what is the value of human life in a world where people are disposable?

The World At My Feet is a collaboration between Project Phakama UK, Teater Tetas and the British International School Jakarta. For the past two months both Project Phakama and Teater Tetas have been independently exploring ideas about recycled worlds, stories and dreams and join together for a 14-day residency at the British International School Jakarta to create a performance at BIS, Gedung Kesenian Jakarta and Trento Free School. The project is supported by the British International School, WorldTheatre and Gedung Kesenian Jakarta.

Phakama is going to Indonesia

Project Phakama is flying with a team of 7 young actors and 3 facilitators to Indonesia to work with the British International School and Teater Tetas.
Watch this space for updates on our adventures and experiences whilst in Jakarta.