Super Hero Day draws near!

Have you ever jumped the Heroic Hurdles in a Cape of Courage? Or dodged the Dodgeball of Destiny to reach the Gate of the Greats? Then Super Hero Day could be all the bank holiday fun you need, from the young people of the Shout Action Project.

Shout Action is a group of around 15 young film makers from New Mills, and they are fundraising for their next film-making project. With help from High Peak Community Arts they have already launched a Crowdfunder campaign on www.crowdfunder.co.uk, and this event will contribute to their target to raise money for a professional film maker to help them on their next project.

Super Hero Day will appear at New Mills Primary School on Saturday 4th May from 11am – 3pm. Come along to take part in all things Super Hero; watch their first film ‘Super Chowder’, have your fantasy portrait taken; compete in the fancy dress competition (Super Heroes only, please) and try your skills on the assault course. There will be refreshments on sale and a special guest appearance from The Evil Hunicorn himself. Free entry with activities priced from 50p – £2 (or get the all inclusive ticket for £4, or £10 family ticket!). For more information call Sophie at High Peak Community Arts on 01663 744 516

Shout Action – the results!

So after many weeks of planning, writing, shooting, editing and much more – here is the finished film:

Super Chowder!

Superchowder from matt kowalczuk on Vimeo.

“I had a dream, which was not all a dream”

Candle in the dark

The Youth Arts Network High Peak have struck again with their second collaboration – set in the murky shadows of Peak Cavern.

 

On 2nd November three audiences were taken through the chambers of the cavern, led through a dystopic world of uncertainty, panic and thoughts of the future.  The performers have been on a journey which began in early September.

Kaleidoscope Youth TheatreAfter a tour around Pooles Cavern, Fairfield DreamScheme and Kaleidoscope Youth Theatre were full of ideas! They met up, talked through everything and came up with the two themes – Trapped and Lost & Found.

Kaleidoscope Youth Theatre, from Buxton Opera House took the Trapped theme, and after some research Sian Dudley found the poem Darkness, by Lord Byron and loved it!

“As a bit of a Zombie super-fan anything apocalyptic is a winner with me!”she says.

They tried out loads of ideas in the rehearsal stages like throwing water around, writing in chalk on the floor (the floor will never be clean again) and lifting each other in the air.  In the end it was Kaleidoscope Youth Theatrejust a case of asking ‘what looks the coolest, what makes sense and what can we do in a cave?’.   Sian was also able to work with sound designer, Sam Woolstencroft, to produce some original soundtrack for elements of the show.

She says

“Music has played a big part in shaping this piece. There is something extremely visceral about the modern British Drum and Bass music which really captures the essence of panic.”

Sam also worked with the idea of bird cry building as the light drops.

Fairfield DreamSchemeMeanwhile Fairfield DreamScheme had run with an idea for a mysterious disappearance, and more mystery when the group is reunited.  Some worked on the script, some wrote the joke sequences and then Britney came in with a rap!  DreamScheme first worked with High Peak Community Arts on We Make Our World last year, working with drama worker, Tammy Foley.   This year they’ve taken on the creative direction themselves, under DreamScheme member Tamara Lacey.  Who says

Fairfield DreamScheme“I’ve enjoyed taking more responsibility this year, but it’s been hard having one of the main parts as well – it is quite stressful.”

Sian from the Opera House came in to one of their last rehearsals to work on the grand finale, a piece for both groups to perform together.  Sam also took pre-recorded voice overs to feed into the mystery of their dialogue scenes.

Then lines had to be learned and costumes produced by young people from two local children’s homes.  Manchester-based theatre and costume designer, Nerissa Cargill Thompson, spent 4 evenings on steam-punk customisation of a range of jackets, and a double costume for the character of Eve, who ages 50 years during the story.

After an afternoon of rehearsals to get used to the challenging environment of the cave, the whole show was ready to open for it’s three consecutive runs.  Audiences quickly got used to Fairfield DreamSchemebeing part of the action as they were asked for help and pushed around into new positions.

 

After all the shocks, the laughs and the drama closed, Eve delivers her message about the future of planet earth, and the audience were asked -

what would you do if you only had one year left?

 

Preview from rehearsals – Darkness

Here’s a little teasy taster from Tuesday’s rehearsal!

 

 

 

Performances are at 6.30, 7.30 and 8.30pm on Friday 2 November 2012, Peak Cavern, Castleton.  Tickets can be booked through Buxton Opera House Box Office, 01298 72190.

 

Find High Peak Community Arts and Youth Arts Network High Peak on Facebook, and read more on our website: www.highpeakarts.org

 

Please note – The paths of the cavern are uneven and sometimes slippery.  If you use a wheelchair please get in touch before booking your ticket.  We are also planning to use some strobe lighting effects, again please get in touch to let us know if you are unable to view this technique.  Call Sophie at High Peak Community Arts on 01663 744 516.

Enter the Darkness!

 

Poster image

On Friday 2 November 2012, Youth Arts Network High Peak came together for their second joint performance, inspired by the atmosphere of Peak Cavern and their own fevered imaginations.  The show  featured young people from Fairfield Dreamscheme and from Buxton Opera House’s Youth Theatre, who had worked together to set up the story.  They had then taken their own sections of narrative to develop separately, before coming back together again in the final rehearsals.  Meanwhile young people from College Road Children’s Home had been creating Steam Punk costumes to conjure up a futuristic, dystopian world.  Others were learning stage make-up and developing the sound design.

The final results were a challenging vision of the future, not for the fainted-hearted – but those brave enough to attend left the Cavern with plenty to think about. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some funny animations made at Low Leighton Methodist Church!

We had a good turn out for cartooning and animation with Jim Medway when we opened up at Low Leighton Methodist Church in Ollerset.

And here are some of the contributions from the people who came in:

Tommy’s Avengers:

Katie’s Dancer:

Isabelle’s Singboom:

Finley’s Dancer:

Emily’s Dancer:

Hope you like them!

Fairfield Dreamscheme report on the Olympic Torch on its way through Buxton

Olympic Torches Young people from the Dreamscheme in Fairfield worked hard all afternoon, to capture the spirit of Buxton on 29th June.  They had prepared themselves with photography skills and interview questions to find out what people thought about the historic moment as the Olympic flame entered the town.

Orange BandstandA reported 15,000 people flooded the town centre to see the International Market, High Peak Community Arts’ Yurt and highlights from the Buxton Fringe Festival.

The young reporters grabbed interviews with Olympic officials and local torch bearers.  They were snapped with the mayor and gathered their own reflections on the day.

 

The umbrellas

Crowd-sourcing video from Olympic Torch day in Buxton

Crowdsourcing the Olympic TorchWe want to put a call out to gather as much footage as we can from the crowds that witness the event, and use it to create a piece of film to remember the day.  You may meet some of the roving reporters from Residents of Fairfield Association Dreamscheme – they will be out and about taking pictures and interviewing people who they meet.

So if you shoot some footage that looks good, and you want to share it with the project, these are your instructions:

1)         Upload the footage to Youtube.
2)         In the title field include the words “Buxton OTR sharing video”.
3)         In the description include the phrase “I agree for this footage to be used in the sharing film”.  By using this phrase you are agreeing to High Peak Community Arts using the footage, editing it and sharing the results both online and as part of their arts programme.
4)         Also in the description include the phrase “Credit:  YOUR NAME” – we will credit all contributions at the end of the finished film, if you don’t include a credit name we will use your Youtube username.

Alternatively you can visit us on the day in the Pavilion Gardens building, by the coffee bar, or get in touch with Sophie at High Peak Community Arts on 01663 744 516, and we can arrange another way to collect your contribution.

We Make Our World

The first collaboration of the Youth Arts Network High Peak, We Make Our World brought together music, drama, movement and film into an interactive performance at the Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton.

Sea MonsterThe Background

Discussion at the Youth Arts Network meetings of February 8th and May 10th developed an idea to invite groups to join together and collaborate on a performance.  Buxton Opera House offered to provide the Pavilion Arts Centre as part of their Children’s Festival, Octoberfest.  Groups from across the district were invited to join the programme, and through the Grants for the Arts budget, High Peak Community Arts was able to fund a series of workshops with a film-maker/VJ, musician, and drama practitioner as Creative Director.

The timescale was tight, so a theme of Water was set by the Youth Arts Network, and a loose storyline came from workshops lead by Sian Dudley of Buxton Opera House, with young people at Harpur Hill Children’s Centre.  This storyline was shared with the groups as they came on board, but with the understanding that nothing was set in stone.

Instrumentals

The Aims

  • To bring together at least 4 different groups of young people, from a range of backgrounds and places.
  • To use at least 3 different artforms in a final performance.
  • To bring the elements of performance from the different groups together into one narrative.
  • To re-imagine the performance space at the Pavilion Arts Centre and challenge convention.

These are the groups who got involved in creating material and performing on the night:

ROFA Dreamscheme

I would say that I enjoyed it all, I would say the first thing I remember was the boats, because they were so big!  And it was like if you turned round, you could knock someone over with them!

Julia Roos

MissingNew Mills School

We wrote down stuff to do with Water and we did little drama games to kind of like get some ideas and then we started to come up with the story… and then we kind of gradually got a story together and like worked, like we all put different things that we wanted to put in

Rosie

our thing we had all the physical theatre in it and stuff, which was really funny

Ben

InstrumentalsHope Valley College

we went through general plan and how we were going to… and where we actually wanted to go.  We kind of split up the workshops as well.  We had really little time, we had one section two of us doing percussion, and two of us doing music, and we kind of – so we kind of lead different areas, and swapped round.

Joss, HVC

Chapel Jam Night

I enjoyed working with the young people at Chapel Jam Night and I feel that the one young person who did join in with the performance found it very rewarding.

Laurie Agnew, Musician

Dazzled audienceChinley

I was just swimming, in front was it green-screen?

Oh they edited it, to make it look like she was actually drowning in water, as opposed to just drowning in air.

Emma, Chinley

Children’s Centres

We enjoy making the lantern, it was very interesting and very messy!  The children are looking forward to Friday, and going for a spooky walk!

Parent, Fairfield

The final week

In the final week there were three days of rehearsals, first the two drama groups and the two music groups, and second the drama and the film group.

It was in this time that ideas were shared and cross over between the groups was possible.

  • Some of the ROFA drama group joined the Hope Valley College musicians, to learn their drumming parts, allowing them to play the instrumentals over the top.
  • The lead character from the New Mills drama group was filmed to be edited into the pool of water projection made at Chinley.
  • All the groups got involved in the opening scene of the performance, lying under the waves, or helping to round up the audience.
  • Joss from Hope Valley College got involved with the track from Chapel Jam Night, as most of the group couldn’t come on the final week, they had to re-shape the track for the performance.

On the third and final day, everyone met at Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre from 2pm for dress rehearsals and last minute nerves.

We came in there was lots of drama rehearsals going on again, and then we sorted out some more drumming, like then everyone practiced the drumming bit, and I talked to Joe and Laurie, to ask them to do it too.  That was fine – I just literally went “bah bahbah bahbah” for the rhythm, and then they played it – so they played it

Youth Arts Network High Peak

In 2010/11 the first phase of the Youth Arts Development Strategy concluded, with support from the Future Jobs Fund.  Working with High Peak CVS we were able to employ a Youth Arts Network Development Officer, who researched networks across the country, strengthened our local contacts database and made recommendations for the Youth Arts Network High Peak.

This network now links together 10 different groups from permanent institutions, such as Buxton Opera House, to small ad hoc community voluntary arts projects and voluntary youth clubs.    It is set up to communicate via a blog site and Facebook page, and from the beginning has aimed to collaborate on practical initiatives, rather than act as a talking shop.

In October 2012 we held our first collaborative event:  We Make Our World, 28 October 2012, Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre.

MissingLooking to the future the Network will develop by word of mouth and marketing to include as many groups from across the district as we can contact.  Initial research demonstrated a demand for extra support, training and better communication between groups.  Development for this year will publicise the blog site and Facebook page, to explore the extent of demand for different types of support.

We want to collaborate again on another performance for October and build the network to involve at least 15 different groups in the area.

Go to the blog for more detail on the discussions from the meetings and the database of youth activities mapped across the district:  www.yanhighpeak.blogspot.com

 

 

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