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MED Theatre News New! Download MED Theatre's music Performance opportunities for adults or teenagers Click on the links for more details
New Community Play Catchment Can you step into the same river twice? dealing with water and school catchments - how do the networks of water and school influence us?
New play links Victorian wife-selling on Dartmoor to Baring-Gould MED Theatre performed The Rib on Nov 19th 2011, a brand new black-comedy play written by playwright Vanessa McCartney especially for the company. The performance was sold out. The small cast of seven actors brought to life the darkly humorous story, inspired by research into the early writings of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, documenting wife-selling on Dartmoor in Victorian times.
The performance of John Ford's Story took place in the dramatic setting of Buckland Abbey's barn on Saturday September 24th. It opened with a colourful and lively Elizabethan style fair involving plate spinning, scarf juggling, dance and balancing acts, accompanied by musicians such as Wren Music's Roots A Cappella group and MED Theatre young people.
The play about the life and works of Dartmoor's very own 17th century playwright then took the stage introduced by a film, set in the 1920s. All elements of the production were created by the talented 13-19 year olds, from the writing of the script, the shooting of the film, the making of the masks, the choreographing of the dance, the composing and playing of the music, the lighting operation, to the acting and direction of the production.
The young cast performed the play for a final time in the attractive setting of Burrator Reservoir, very relevant to the local heritage as the ruins of the house of one of the characters in the play, John Elford of Sheepstor, provided a dramatic backdrop. Congratulations to Wild Nights Young Company for producing what was labelled a "polished and professional" performance.
New Life in Trees a family learning workshop from MED Theatre, part of the National Trust's Full Bloom Festival
Afternoon of Sunday 8th May 2011 Orchard at Parke, Bovey Tracey
MED Theatre carried out the third workshop in their Trees series on Sunday 8th May as part of the National Trust's Full Bloom Festival that took place at Parke in Bovey Tracey. Drama exercises and games were used to explore a story about an orchard from greek mythology, which was vividly brought life as the workshop was taking place in the setting the National Trust orchard. Family participants learnt about and discussed how and why trees are important to us ecologically and personally. Look out for our next tree workshop later on this year! Thanks to the Co-Operative for their support
COMMUNITY PLAY 2011: 'NO ACCESS' 'No Access', MED Theatre's community play 2011, was performed six times in March. A contemporary comedy about conflict over land-use on Dartmoor, it was story about a rural community who have differing reactions when the nature of an area of land, which is important to each of them in a variety of ways, changes. The play invited the communities on and around Dartmoor to explore their emotional connections to locations and how important 'place' can be in our lives.
DARTFEST 2010 The two day festival held over the weekend of 3rd and 4th December celebrated young playwrights on Dartmoor, through the performance of a collection of fast-paced, edgy plays written, acted and directed by young people.
The young people not only wrote, directed and performed the plays, they also had input into elements such as costume and makeup, and they designed and painted the floor canvas (featured above) which acted as the minimalistic but dramatic 'horizontal backdop' for each of the eight plays performed. Site specific dance-drama performance took place at High Heathercombe on the side of Hameldown on August 7th and September 5th 2010.
The Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) bridges the gap between the human and animal world, with its ecological, spiritual and mythological dimensions. Currently in steep decline, it was held sacred on parts of Dartmoor as recently as Victorian times. It is featured in the symbol of the three hares which occurs from the Buddhist caves of China in the East to Celtic Wales in the West, with the largest known cluster on and around Dartmoor. MED Theatre’s Brown Hare used dance, music and text to fuse together elements of ecology and mythology in creating a cross-cultural performance that was international as well as local, scientific as well as artistic.
Please click on the links below to read more about this unusual project: To find out about MED Theatre's upcoming events and productions, click on the DIARY page or read our latest NEWSLETTER. To find out more about the team behind MED Theatre, click here: Who We Are If you are interested in the ideas of MED Theatre, and would like to find out more, please email us: Artistic Director, Mark Beeson Education Officer, Abby Stobart Company Development Officer, Gillian Webster |
MED Theatre is a community theatre organisation, a charity based on Dartmooor working with people in a remote rural area.
_____________ MED THEATRE INFORMATION
To support our work - Fundraising: Click on this link for two easy ways to raise funds for MED Theatre without spending a penny! - Or simply:
CURRENT PROJECTS Catchment - Community Play 2012 John Ford on Dartmoor (Young People) The Rib (Adults) Trees - a family learning project Bright Lights & Nights - Children's Drama _____________ LINKS TO PREVIOUS PROJECTS No Access - Community Play 2011 December 2010
August 2010
June 2010
March 2010
November 2009
September 2008
May - July 2008
August 2007
_____________ Read about our work on other websites: BBC - Devon - Arts and Culture Dartmoor Resource website BBC - Devon - Arts and Culture - Community play revisits winter memories Link to Dartfest 08 on BBC Devon website Link to Loricum Video Game Project on BBC website |
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email: info@medtheatre.co.uk
01647 441356
Manaton and East Dartmoor (MED) Theatre
Registered office: 11a New Street,
Moretonhampstead, Devon, TQ13 8PE
Reigstered in England and Wales
Limited Company 6054887
Charity number 1119302