This Thursday 30th January our new "Play in a Day" Over By Christmas will open at Worcester Cathedral working with 100 children from local schools. The play will run throughout 2014 commemorating the Out-break of WW1 and exploring and promoting peace and reconciliation. We will also run the project on 31st January at Worecster Cathedral and then on to Gloucester Cathedral in February.
Christian Aid has recently launched an online exhibition called In Kony's Shadow (Warning that readers might find content disturbing) It is the story of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army and those it left behind – from children forced to become soldiers to civilians caught up in the conflict. In my time working for CMS I took part in a Campaign called "Break the Silence" highlighting the plight of many children who were taken captive by Kony and forced to become Child Soldiers and others who were displaced from their homes. It is incredible that almost 10 years on and he has still ot been caught.
Christian Aid have put together a collection of photos representing the nativity story through
the eyes of some of the people and communities they support around the world. Click on the Christmas Nativity Gallery
Here's my first gig for Christian Aid... A line-up of top gospel artists taking part in a festive fundraising concert for Christian Aid.
Special guest, X Factor runner-up Jahméne Douglas, will be joining MOBO award-winning Lurine Cato, Paul Lee, John Fisher and London gospel choir IDMC, and the winners of 2013's Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year, Town Hall Gospel Choir (THGC).
John Fisher, founder of IDMC, is looking forward to hosting the evening: 'This concert is so very special not only because of the stellar line-up of musical artists, but also because we will be able to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ while supporting the awesome work Christian Aid are doing.'
Event details
When: 13 December 2013, 7-9.30pm
Where: Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London, W1C 2DJ
Tickets: £15.50, with a limited number of concessions (£13) for children aged 15 and under, and those over 65. A booking fee of £1.50 will be added to ticket purchases (£1.37 booking fee for concessions) and all profits go to Christian Aid.
Buy tickets
For more details and to purchase tickets, go to the Eventbrite website
Yesterday my brother and I visited Denville Hall for their Christmas party. Denville is an care home for retired actors. It was a great event that brought everyone together both the residents and their families. The evening started with a mulled wine reception. Dan and I went to get our Mum from her room to bring her down for the booked entertainment Franz Hepburn a renowned Opera singer. We went down stairs led by his amazingly deep bass-baritone voice and seated Marg right at the front. This meant she got a lot of the serenading as he sang musical classics like "Old Man River" from Show Boat and "The Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera. After some very tasty food and visit to see the widest Christams tree I have ever seen inside a property, we made our way back upstairs. It was that difficult time of the evening where we have to say goodbye to our Mum but it was eased by listening to a recital of her lastest poem for Advent. You can find it here
Last week Scene Change Theatre took our DREAM Project to Jubilee Primary School in Thamesmead. James Manning and myself worked with two year 6 classes to learn out Martin Luther King's iconic "I have a dream" speech, the civil rights movement and other dreamers who have changed the world. It was a great day working together and seeing how the children visibly gained confidence and stage presence as the day went on. It didn't go unnoticed by the Year 6 Teacher who assisted us throughout the day:
"All the children joined in and were keen to take part. They all loved the acting and it really built on their self esteem. Our Children benefitted a lot from the day."
This was our last DREAM day of 2013. We will be taking DREAM to Guildford Cathedral in January 2014 before we launch our new project "Over by Christmas" to commemorate the out break of WW1.
Friendships
Friendships are from heaven above,
They are full of love.
They take and give to those most dear,
And bring to life, a joyful cheer.
For it's now a time to celebrate,
Lift up your hands and celebrate,
To God who loves us and gives us joy,
And brings us doves from above.
For more poetry from Mum go to http://margogracecooper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/friendships.html?spref=fb
I haven't blogged since May 2011 but I have decided to re-open my old blog to attempt to bring together all the different strands of my life. Running my own business SCA, Coordinating a Christian Charity WSP and freelancing as a drama facilitator. I have tried to explain the focus of my blog in the About this blog page. I worked as a Youth Advisor for CMS when I decided to originally blog in 2005 and was encouraged and inspired by my colleague and friend Jonny Baker. Once I finished at CMS in 2009 my blogging cheerleaders were gone and by 2011 I began to run out of steam and time and so stopped. BUT now I am back.
These are some of the things that I might have blogged about iI hadn't stopped in 2011,
The Royal wedding (May),
Bin Laden killed (May),
Amy WineHouse death (July)
Holiday to Canada (July-Aug),
English riots (Aug)
Gaddafi Killed (Oct)
In 2012
The Torch Project (jan)
Cruise Ship Costa Concordia runs aground (jan),
Cold snap (Feb)
Discovery of Prehistoric Penguin (Feb),
Fabrice Muamba Collapses in game (March)
Man City win premiership (May)
Chelsea win champions league (May)
The London Olympics (July-Aug)
Goodbye to Zach (Oct)
Gangham style fever (Dec)
In 2013
DREAM Schools Project begins (Jan),
New Pope (march)
Man Utd win premiership (May),
Trip to Disney Land (May),
Amma and Daddy visit London(July/Aug)
Syria Crisis (July/Aug.)
"Saturdays' Cool" is a new performing arts school project that starts on Saturday May 7th in Kingston Upon Thames run by Scene change theatre and Studyscool. The project involves teaching three sessions of 45 minutes between 2pm till 5pm to three age groups, 7-9 yrs, 9-11 yrs and 11-14yrs. The rate of pay is £25 per session, so £75 for the 3 sessions. The project will run for 12 weeks.
If you are interested in being a Singing Tutor on the project please contact David Pollendine on david@scenechangetheatre.com or by mobile on 07862728056.