Interacting

A quick note to say that the second of the two projects that I'm running while I'm in Ghana has gone online today.

The Interact Link Project - www.interactproject.blogspot.com - is a video exchange project linking practitioners working for Theatre for a Change with practitioners working for some of the most exciting theatre companies in the UK. I'm still waiting for final confirmation from some of the UK practitioners, but am hopeful that the final list will have representatives from the Almeida Theatre, Company of Angels, Hampstead Theatre, Pilot Theatre, the Roundhouse and the Young Vic.

I have wonderful group of practitioners lined up to do the links from Ghana. It was only today that I realised that pretty much all of them have come through the Theatre for a Change ranks from the very beginning - either as founder practitioner or as young people in the Community Theatre in James Town.

Please do check out the Interact Project Blog for more information - I would like it to become a real focal point for the work of Theatre for a Change so do please pass it on to people who might be interested.



My other project - 100 Voices - is also going well, with over 65 interviews completed and more than 4,500 words transcribed (with lots more to go). The massive majority of those words are positive, with many young people citing real and substantial changes in their lives as a result of TfaC's work.

It has also been really heartening - as I think I've mentioned before - to hear so many passionate, well informed teachers talking about the impact of the work. One woman who teaches tailoring to young girls who have not had a formal education told us that the Interactive performance that she'd just seen was brilliant - but that it was most important to ensure that parents and teachers were spreading the right messages because "you come, you go ... we are always here". A difficult thing to argue with - and one of the reasons that TfaC targets all sections of the community with their performances and training.

I spent the weekend at the James Town Community Theatre and then, on Sunday, at Amasaman, where the new project has been going from strength to strength. What's great for me going there is that, because there are so many local languages represented in the room, the majority of the workshop took place in English. This means I get a much deeper insight into the world of the young participants and I learnt a lot about how having sex raises your status in your 'gang' at school, how people respond to HIV/AIDS messages and what the participants think are the main problems in their communities.

Almost without exception, the young people in Amasaman are passionate, clued up, responsible and generous with each other. Nii - who is also recording links for the Interact Project - is a gentle, encouraging workshop leader. I have no doubt that he will help produce some outstanding facilitators who will leave the group to set up their own throughout the area.

One sidenote - it was in Amasaman this weekend that I saw my first cobra of my trip - a long flash of brown and a startled look in its eyes when we discovered it sunning itself in the corner of the yard outside the workshop venue. Don't get many of them in Islington ...