Community Project: Certitude

Certitude is a charity that is run in south and west London created to support people with learning disabilities and mental health support needs. As a group of mixed strand members coming from Theatre, Musical theatre, Dance and Community Arts Practice aim to work with our friends from certitude and facilitate as best we can to let them explore the arts and have a great time doing it. 

About certitude:

Formed in 2010 certitude came from merging Southside and Support for living. The organisation supports over 1700 people however we will only be working with 8 members and 3 members of staff. Below is a list of why  the organisation exists. I found this on the website and feel that it’s really important we value this as our job is to create an experience for them. 

Certitude exists to:

• provide leadership to group organisations
• develop group strategy
• ensure the highest standards of quality
• support services administratively
• deliver value for money

“ We believe that by working together and sharing expertise we can offer better opportunities for people to lead independent lives that are truly their own.” 

Certitude. 

From this research I was more able to understand the needs of the people I was working with. By this I don’t mean there individual needs but the importance of making this experience as inclusive and fun as possible. 

Session One:

• Today we began by meeting the other students from other strands. We then looked at interesting ways of introducing ourself. We said our name and something we like doing. This allowed us to use gesture which later proved a fantastic tool when first meeting our friends from certitude. 
• Meeting our friends from Certitude. This was nerve racking, I felt slight apprehensive as i didn’t want top patronise anyone but also wanted to communicate as best i could. We used the gesture game to break the ice and i think thats was successful. 
• We then looked at various rhythm and movement exercises. My favourite was the ‘blooming flower’ mime. This involved using the body to demonstrate a a plant growing and flourishing. 

Why did this exercise work so well?

I think this exercise was effective because it could be interpreted by everyone differently. This meant that no one felt pressure to be ‘doing the right thing’ furthermore it was adaptable to each individuals needs so it was inclusive. 

Leading each other:

From this session i got the feeling that we were building trust. we had to trust our friends from certitude and they had to trust us.  We did a trust exercise when one person closed there eyes and the other was led by there finger tips. I worked with frances. He was very nervous to begin with and had trouble keeping his eyes closed. But i found that he relaxed into as I was talking to him and reassuring him constantly.  When he led me I wasn’t nervous. This is because I new that I wasn’t in any great danger I just needed to relax and trust him. I think this was the moment for me when i really felt comfortable with our friends from certitude. 

Dreams and Likes:

Tashan and I worked with Ian and wrote down all our likes and dreams. Ian likes going to the pub and his dream is to drive a nice car. I must be honest and say that I found this exercise quite sad because as Brit students we have so many opportunities. But for our friends at certitude are more restricted, I decided that i should celebrate there ambitions and embrace there dreams because thats what I would like people to do for me.  

Augusto Boal, ‘Spectator to Spect-Actor’ :

Augusto Boal was a Brazilian theatre practitioner most renowned Promoting social and political change through using his theory of theatre of the the oppressed. This explored the oppression felt by audiences within a theatre situation. Boal believed that everyone was involved in the theatre. Therefore ‘spectators’ became ‘spect-actors’ Breaking the fourth wall and allowing audiences to explore and be involved with the world created by the performance allowed them to analyse and transform the reality of the society they were living in. 

This is an interview with Boal. It really interesting because it gives a good account of his life but Boal also explains his journey to exploring theatre of the oppressed and the reason why he began to write political plays at just 15 years of age. Furthermore the video deeply explains the theory from Boal himself. 

How will we use Boals work to inspire and educate ourselves?

I believe that we will be exploring theatre of the oppressed but simply working with Certitude. Furthermore our exploration into different worlds created by them and inspired by them will allow the audience reflect on reality. However we must find a way to break the fourth wall and allow our spectators to become spect-actors. Im sure a way will be found. 

Session 2:

Today we weren’t working with our friends from certitude as they only come on mondays. However  we were given a task in which we had to explore some of the dreams given to us by our friends from certitude. 

Working with Nina and Tiff: 

Tiff, Nina and I work well together as we all have the same ambition this term and that is to give our friends from certitude the best expearience possible. This allows us to work with focus and drive. 

• We chose the dream of being an organ donor. We liked this because we could do so much with it. We decided to explore this physically as we think that this medium can be changed and adapted in reference to who we are working with. 
• Once we had the basics we discussed what organ donning was about and we came to the conclusion that its about giving something to someone in a completely selfless way. 
• We took this physically worked through our objectives. This might sound pretentious but it allowed us to discover movement that related directly to our stimulus. The movement turned into Tiff and I rebuilding Nina. The movement demonstrated struggle but ended in a parting of three people which i think represents recovery. 

Other groups work:

We all watched one an others work. For me Tashan and Senel’s song they wrote about dreams is really good. They kept it simple and applied actions which will help us all to remember the words. They broke the piece down so we were able to learn it quickly but also demonstrated how this piece could be taught to our friends from certitude. 

Session 3:

This week was alot of movement based work. We warmed our whole bodies up and explored the space using pace and size of our physicality. I think that this warm up could have been better as Ian was unable to fully participate because his movement is so restricted. However it energised everyone and it meant we were all able to have a laugh and grow even closer as a group of people. 

Working with Lisa:

We got into groups and Tiff and Nina and I worked with Lisa. We were meant to teach Lisa our physicaly movement piece we created on friday. However Lisa wasnt able to do this because she doesnt like leaning. From there we decided to ask Lisa what she liked doing. We then used her love of swimming to create a movement piece around that. 

• Lisa is a fabulous mover and had loads of ideas and wasn’t at all shy about telling us what she wanted to do. I really liked this because by listening to her we were making her happy. 
• Crafting Lisa’s movement into set movements proved difficult. However we took her movements and pieced them together teaching her along the way. 
• This technique enabled Lisa to perform brilliantly as she had created a sections of movement that other people were performing with her. 

Other Groups work:

Kieran’s Version of the Wizard of Oz

• Kieran is free spirit with strong vision when he’s working with us. He worked with Charlie and Tashan ect.. 
• Kieran wants to recreate some of his favourite shows ans when performing and creating her wants to be as accurate as possible. 
• The performance was hilarious and Scotts piano accompaniment made it really interesting to watch. 

Everyone began to learn the pieces we had made up on the friday but i must say that Tashan and Senel’s wong went down a treat. I believe that this is because they kept it simple and used actions therefore everyone was able to remember the words and have a good time. It was a really fun activity. 

Here is a copy of the lyrics. The movements respond to the words and the result is fantastic. 

The Dream Song 

We all have dreams, dreams, dreams 

We all have dreams, dreams, dreams

We all have dreams, dreams, dreams 

We all have dreams 

I want to fly, fly, fly 

For no one to cry,cry,cry 

Maybe I'll drive, drive, drive 

We all have dreams 

I want to be Beyoncé's backing dancer 

Be the greatest hip-hop master 

But most of all I want the world to be a safe environment for you and me

These are my dreams......

Session 4:

Today was mainly a research lesson, we discussed some of Auguto Boal’s methods and looked into his life and expeariences and a practitioner and political activist. We also looked in books given to us in groups. 

 Once we had got to grips with the gist of the book as a group we began looking for interesting exercises to do with our friends from certitude. 

Here is an image I took from ‘Special Talent, Special Needs.’ this exercise appealed to me because its allot of fun as well as exploring emotions and how they are portrayed and perceived. 

Here is an image of the introduction of the exercise. This is what really made me want to use the game because it allows the participants to express themselves freely when often people with learning disabilities are suppressed due to what our culture deems acceptable.  

Rainbow of Desire

'Observing itself the human being perceives what it is, discovers what it is not and imagines what it could become.' Augusto Boal 

This quote by Boal explains the human beings natural attachment to theatre. As human beings are the only species known to be able to imagine themselves. Using the imagination we are able to put ourselves in a completely different situation, creating the basis of theatre.  

Sculpture Game

• Making two circles one inside the other we stood facing the person in front of us. This was our partner.
• We were given an emotion and the person on the outside was told to portray it by creating the other persons physicality by positioning them to what there interpretation is. 
• The group then walks in circle getting faster and faster. These ‘statues’ start to piece together and an atmosphere is created from the still image. 

Presentations:

We all had to give a presentation on an organisation that focuses on arts in the community. 

Oily Cart 

• Oily Cart are a theatre company that targets young people in the community. Set up in 1981 they have been able to tour to schools and cities both nationally and internationally.  
• Oily Cart focus on ‘Early Years’ thats 2-6 year olds and ‘Complex Disabilities’ People with profound and multiple learning disabilities. 
• Oily cart aim to create new worlds for there audiences. In order to educate and enrich with shows focusing on ‘Early Years’ and providing sensory immersive theatre for people with complex disabilities. 
• Oily cart use many different mediums in order to create the stories within these worlds. Such as aromatherapy, instalation, hydratherapy pools, lighting ect..
• Oily Cart are funded by organisations such as The Arts Council, BBC children in needs and many other charities and organisations.

here is a video i used in my Presentation, It showcases Oily Carts passion and attention to detail through the voice of the artistic director. This helped me to understand the importance of working with small children as it can be terrible influential. 

Green Candle 

Claire chose Green candle and as I used to dance I found the concept of using movement, music and theatre to bring generations and cultures within in the community together was a fascinating theory.  The inclusive organisation aims to create pieces that say something about the community. 

Little Fish Theatre:

They are an organisation that work with youth offenders and young people as a means of transforming the values instilled these often troubled young people. Furthermore they pin point certain areas of trouble within society such as sexual exploitation. I Think this is a really important way of bring young people into society after they may have felt isolated of angry with there journey so far.

Canduco Dance Company:

An intergrated company of both disabled and able bodied dancers forms Canduco. The organisation run projects which teach people how to teach dancers with disabilities allowing them to branch out into the wider community. The company was formed by a professional dancer that found herself severely injured and in a wheelchair, the company has grown since then and performed in the Olympic ceremony. 

Evaluation and Performance:

The workshops were something I always looked forward to when working with certitude. I always felt motivated and really enjoyed group work as much as whole group warm ups. At first in the workshops I will admit I was nervous. This was because I wasn’t sure what to expect, having never worked with adults with learning disabilities before. Despite this over time we developed relationships and built trust and respect. The activities in the workshops always worked really well. As they were planned carefully we were always doing something however I think for them to have worked better we could have been given a greater understanding of the disabilities our friends from certitude have. This is so that exercises could have been pre adapted. For example Ian has ceribalpalsey  this restricts his movement, as we were mainly working with mime, rhythm and gesture he found allot of the exercises difficult despite his enthusiasm. This made me often worry that he wasn’t getting as much out of the workshops as the others. I think that in general the workshops were a brilliant success, they were inclusive productive and allowed everyone to be creative and expressive however they liked. 

Evidence of the success achieved in the workshops was the vibrant performance we created. The performance focused on dreams. It was well structured through the use of ringmasters and and ‘Ian’s magical pub of dreams.’ Furthermore all the performance material was created by us as a group of people. I think this was a great thing because it ensured that our friends from certitude were totally included and felt immersed by the performance experience. I was expecting a small audience, however we had a huge turnout and even I was a bit nervous, despite this everyone fed off of the great atmosphere. I think that the songs we sang, ‘We all have Dreams‘ and ‘Any dream will do‘ bought eveyone together at the begining and end because so much of what we performed was group work. For example I worked with Kieran and Esulla from certitude and group of brit students on a beauty and the beast reinactment because this was Kierans dream. I feel that in the workshops we could have worked more efficiently to make our piece more interesteing exploiting our ability to create a story through physicality and mime. However the finished product was hilarious and so much fun. It also taught me alot about working with Kieran, I grew to be less of a control freak and tried to just go with his ideas. However during the performance Kieran did a bit of improv, despite this Fin went along with it perfectly and if anything it added to the piece. I think the worlds we created, for example the space world and the underwater world could have been stronger. Dont get me wrong they were really fun to do but I think we could have broken the fourth wall more and truly immersed out audience. 

Through this term I have learnt so much and I am so pleased to have done it, after the performance I felt so happy and proud. Our friends from certitude have taught me about communication and how it can come in so many different shapes and forms, this is something I will take into my training as an actor because its so vital. Furthermore we have been able to use the arts in order to include a part of society that are usually isolated. This has given me a great deal of fulfillment. However its slightly sad because this is only 5 weeks. I think as a school that has so much money and influence in the community we should constantly be doing projects like this. Wokring with certitude has made me realise how vital community arts practice is and what it can do for people, its a great thing to have experienced.