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Background notes:
- Pioneers of celebratory theatre, Welfare
State International are based in Ulverston, South Cumbria,
UK. The company has over the years included engineers, musicians,
sculptors, performers, poets, puppeteers, pyrotechnicians and
more - who create site-specific events throughout the world.
- Founded in 1968 by John Fox and Sue Gill, its work is based
on the popular theatre traditions of the working class; street
theatre, the carnival, music hall and fairground to produce events
from small scale theatrical celebrations to large scale multi-media
spectaculars.
- Inspiration for Engineers of the Imagination - a handbook
guide to creating celebratory theatre published in 1983 and
revised in 1990, which is a NSW HSC set text for drama.
- Their philosophy is to create images that represent a shared
community experience and present them in a way that is accessible
to a broad audience. "Working from an artistic base, in a
mythological near-vacuum, Welfare State are setting about the
reclaiming of myth and its theatrical enactment for the whole
community." (Engineers ... p3)
- The group focuses on the recreation of myth as the focus for
public and private celebration. "In a world where the shared
culture of human beings in increasingly threatened by a largely
imposed electronic culture, myths and archetypes have to be discovered
and re-made, not simply revived". (Engineers ... p3).
- Highlight events include: Glasgow All Lit Up 1990 which
paraded 10,000 lanterns in four processions; Parliament in
Flames 1981 - built and burnt five 60 foot high replicas of
the houses of Parliament; Town Hall Tattoo Barrow 1987-
flew a 40 foot pair of Queen Victoria's bloomers above Barrow
Town Hall after 20 pin-striped bureaucrats abseiled from the clock
tower.
- John Fox and Sue Gill were the artists in residence at the Bathurst
Campus of Charles Sturt University in September 1999. As guest
artists at a workshop for drama teachers from across the State,
they ran the Devising Celebration course which this web
site document belows.
Additional online resources:
The Bathurst Workshop, 1999
Welfare State International create theatre rather than interpret
existing text and they use a wide range of popular techniques. They
make theatre for specific audiences and particularly for people
who would never consider entering a theatre building. Their concern
is focused squarely on their audience and their tastes, interests
and stories. Yet they take the right of the artist to transform
that material into new shapes and combinations, to explore the dark
side, the lyrical, the political. This they combine with an overall
sense of celebration of the value of the life of the audiences.
During this five day workshop WSI rapidly developed the participants'
skills in working with light, large scale, quickly built images:
lanterns, music, bands, pyrotechnics, devising, crowd control, shadow
puppetry and giant puppets. Above all, they developed the capacity
in the participants to react quickly and imaginatively to what might
have otherwise been seen as quite commonplace sites.
The results of their work are this case study. It is a resource
for teachers who may want to devise their own celebratory performances
within their school or community.
Welfare State International - Australian distributor
Books and videotapes including Engineers of the Imagination,
Plea for Poetry, Learn about Lanterns, The Dead
Good Funerals Book, Visions of Utopia, Ground,
The Dead Good Time Capsule Book, The Dead Good Guide to
Namings and Baby Welcoming Ceremonies (and more), will be available
from:
Vianne Tourle
email: vtourle@ix.net.au
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