Highlights in Youth Arts

Play Resource Warehouse

Arts Demonstrations, at Play Resource, facilitated by experienced artists in May:
Thu 8 May - Plasticene Models with Jim Russell 10am - 12pm
Tue 27 May Moving Toys with Caroline Jeffrey 11am - 1pm
Demos open to existing members. To book a free place call 028 9035 7545.

Creative Paths Arts Outreach Projects

Various arts projects taking place in community settings, with member groups:

• Gaelscoil Na Bhfal, aged 10, Textile Workshops with Artist Anushiya Sandralingham
• St Oliver Plunkett Preschool Playgroup, aged 3-4, Early Years Arts with David Cunningham
• Shankill Surestart, aged 3-4, Painting for Early Years with Artist Sally Young
• Primacy Methodist Church, aged 8-11, Art & Design with Artist Kymberley Lennon Gibney
• Ashgrove Nursery School, aged 3-4, Jungle Themed Mural with Artist Jim Russell
• PAKT Carrickfergus YMCA, aged 6-11, Arts & Crafts with Artist Louise Boylan
• Bunscoil Bhenn Mhadagain, aged4-6, Arts Activities with Artist Jim Russell
• Loopriver Play Centre, aged 8-11, Creative Activities with Artist Sheelagh Colclough
• Morton Community Centre, aged 8-10, Creative Activities with Artist Shauna McCann

Arts Training Workshops

Belfast City Council, Training Workshops for Play Leaders with Artists Bobbi Rai Purdy, Jim Russell & Caroline Jeffrey

Exhibitions at Play Resource - Open to all
New Ideas Gallery exhibition Hey Diddle Diddle….Colourful Characters from Nursery Rhymes to inspire Early Years learning

Scrap Portraits Gallery continues plus Spring & Summer ideas.

Publication of Scrap Rap magazine – Summer issue out now

For further details call 028 9035 7547 or visit www.playresource.org

Big Telly

Witness a new dimension in theatre. The stage is a vast ocean. The surface looks calm but what lurks beneath these uncharted waters?

Follow Sinbad’s fight for survival as he battles with pirates amid encounters with giant birds, bizarre starfish and surreal clownfish. The specially commissioned music and awe-inspiring effects create this unforgettable adventure through the imagination.

Following the international hit water show The Little Mermaid, Big Telly is delighted to present its second swimming pool show, Sinbad, created by Zoë Seaton and Paul Boyd.

Following the World Premiere and run at Lagan Valley LeisurePlex, Lisburn, in association with Belfast Children’s Festival, the production will transfer to The Spark Children’s Arts Festival in Leicester before returning to Cascades Leisure Centre in Portadown and Omagh Leisure Centre in June. Further details can be found on our website at www.big-telly.com

The show is designed for family audiences and will use narration, spectacle, visual effects and music to tell this gripping and dynamic story. The performance is non verbal and suitable for children over five years. Please be advised that performances include the use of strobe lighting.

Dates: Tuesday 27 May 2008 to Sunday 22 June 2008

Further details can be found on our website at www.big-telly.com

Bruiser

Bruiser Theatre Summer Schools 2008
“Professional Development for Young People in the Arts”

Summer School Level 1:

For New Recruits (GCSE)
School Dates: Monday 7th July – Thursday 17th July 2008 (excl. Sun 13th July)

Summer School Level 2:

For Experienced Participants (GCSE, A-level & F.E.)
School Dates: Monday 21st July – Thursday 31st July 2008 (excl. Sun 27th July)

Bruiser Theatre Company Want to Meet You!

If you are aged between 14 and 21 years, and think you have the enthusiasm and motivation to hack it as a professional actor, we want you to audition for the Bruiser Theatre Summer Schools.

Bruiser, in association with the Old Museum Arts Centre, is hosting TWO intensive ten-day theatre schools, during the summer holidays. Young actors will get the opportunity to work with professional theatre directors (Lisa May, Artistic Director of “Bruiser Theatre Company” & Ross Anderson, Artistic Director of “Nor Nothin’”), towards a theatre performance using Bruiser’s unique physical style.

Participants will experience the visually exciting, rhythmic, choral and choreographic elements for which Bruiser is renowned, by participating in a series of theatre workshops, which will be both informative and fun. Participants will learn how to think outside the box, and bring text to life with adventurous and dynamic ensemble playing. The summer schools will result in two professional public performances in The Old Museum Arts Centre.

Audition Dates:

Level 1: Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May 2008
Level 2: Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th June 2008
Where: Old Museum Arts Centre, 7 College Square North, Belfast.
For more information on how to apply for an audition slot click on www.bruisertheatrecompany.com or www.oldmuseumartscentre.org to download an audition registration form.

Millennium Forum

Rehearsals are under way for Marvel Arts Theatre Company’s production of BUGSY MALONE which showcases the talents of children from the North West. The show runs at the Forum from Thurs. 5 –Sat. 7 June.

Bookings are already open for the Millennium Forum’s 4th Summer School which runs from Sunday 27 – Thurs 31July while aspiring young musical theatre enthusiasts are scanning the newspapers for information about auditions for the Millennium Forum Youth Theatre Group’s eagerly awaited production of WEST SIDE STORY, an ideal successor to last summer’s production of Les Misérables School Edition.

Rehearsals will run throughout the summer months culminating in three performances,
Aug 14 – Aug 16

www.millenniumforum.co.uk

Youth Action

‘College Square North’ is the place to see the hard-hitting play ‘Joyriders’, about four teenagers from Divis Flats in West Belfast. The play explores the issues faced by the characters as they take part in the Government’s ‘Joyride of the 80’s’, the Youth Training Scheme. Set to the backdrop of the troubles, class struggle and anti social behaviour, the teenagers reveal their aspirations and dreams through jaunty, tense and often funny dialogue. The production will be produced and performed by the members of ‘The Company’, The Rainbow Factory’s semi-autonomous Youth Theatre Group of young people aged 16-25 as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 2008.

The author of the play, Christina Reid, was born in Belfast in 1942 into an Ulster Protestant working-class family. She wrote Joyriders in 1986 after an encounter with young people on a Youth Training Scheme who came to see a production of Sean O Casey’s ‘Shadow of a Gunman’ while she was the Writer in Residence at the Lyric Theatre. Most of the young people had never been in a theatre before and their reactions to the play and the middle class atmosphere of the theatre made her want to write a play about them.

Performances - 8pm (9th to 14th May), Rainbow Factory Studio, College Square North.

Tickets from Joanne on 028 90 240551 or book online at www.cqaf.com

Click here to go to ACNI Youth Arts Web Page