No pics tonight. I forgot the camera. But anyway, lots of costume was being worn and I don't want to spoil the big night for anyone who may be coming by letting people see how the cast will look. Saying that, we didn't get to practice with the face paints, and I think that we probably should have.
Anyway, the cast will have plenty of time tomorrow so if they balls up the first time they can wash it off and start again. I won't be there because I am compering. Which will be fun, but oooooo such a feeling of losing control. The cast will be getting costumed and painted and I won't be there to help (or interfere?). I will see them as an audience member. Scary. Even though I know they are all great, and can cope very well without me, it's still scary not being able to hang around clucking like a mother hen, painting faces and fixing scarves and arguing with Billie about how best to wear her hat. Interesting thing, fear. What am I really scared of then? is what a psychologist type person might enquire.
Anyway, seeing as how I can't show you any pics, I won't bore you will blow by blow account of rehearsals, but will have a quick mention of something that is starting to interest me ('interesting' being a very loaded middle class word, like 'fine'). I am starting to realise that I need to really spell out what I am doing. For instance, I am a dramatherapist, and if I ever get work doing this, I will be working as a health practitioner. With Konnektiv, I am a drama practitioner. I am an arts practitioner. I live in the boundary blurred world of Arts and Health. But us humans love to categorise. This week I tried to speak with someone who manages the county fund for arts. A £600 grant is available to arts organisations. I called her and said that Konnektiv, a drama group, who have an interest in investigating arts for health, want to do a performance of the Japanese Fairy Tales at the local theatre (The Gatehouse). She thought that this would be too expensive for us, and gave me the name of someone in the Health Trust who, if they got back to me, may arrange for us to do performances in psychiatric hospitals in the area. Now I'm happy to do performances in psychiatric hospitals, and for me there would be excellent networking opportunities, so I have emailed the Trust lady (who hasn't got back to me). However, what made the Funding lady think that the Gatehouse would be too expensive for our group? I know that she has happily funded other groups to perform at the Gatehouse, so what's wrong with us? I can only guess two things:
1) She has assumed that we are not very good, and therefore not worth the money, or certainly not good enough to perform at The Gatehouse.
2) She has assumed that we are in the 'health' cagegory, and not the 'arts' category, and so should only perform in the 'health' environment, to people with 'mental health needs'.
If we were a black performing arts group, experimenting and working with black awareness and education, would she say we should only perform to other black people? I think not.
Now I am the first to admit that I do have a chip on my shoulder about many things. I am quick to pick up when someone is acting on a pre-made assumption.
Luckily I am very determined, and will do everything possible to ensure that we do get the £600, and that we do perform at the Gatehouse.
Second. I have filled in a funding form applying for funds to run a dramatherapy pilot. The funding pot is the Health and Wellbeing Fund. A concerned voluntary sector support worker has called me to say that I need to speak with her because I have inappropriately put in a funding application for a drama project. I am very grateful to this person, and think she is very genuine etc, but dramatherapy is a Health and Wellbeing activity. Yes it uses drama, but it is primarily health.
So, dramatherapy, arts and health, boundary blurring, upsetting the preformed categories that we have to make our lives meaningful and to give us structure through which to draw our mental maps. Yes it is Drama, yes it is health. Sometimes I do drama, sometimes I do dramatherapy. All humans are artists on some level and all humans have some level of mental health need. Arts activities can promote wellbeing, they can be therapeutic, they can be fun, they can be entertaining, they can enrich us and our culture (God knows our culture needs enriching).
I just need to be able to spell out what I am doing, because I can see that this applying for funding business may become a bit disheartening as people turn us down for being 'drama' not 'health', or 'health' not 'drama'.
No comments:
Post a Comment