Photo by Clive Edwards
We had a great day lat Tuesday 12th June for the Horizons project sharing. Welsh National Opera were at Brays School in Sheldon Heath in the morning before they came over to Castle Vale to be in The Ridings in the afternoon and for a public event in the evening at Castle Vale Performing Arts College.
Horizons is a project that has seen a writer, composer, filmmaker and dancer go into Brays School (Sheldon) and The Ridings to work with both groups to help create a new opera film. The groups were selected as WNO wanted to work with children with complex and multiple disabilities and older people with advanced dementia – both of whom have challenges with communicating. Last Tuesday we got to hear some work in progress with a piano and string quintet and 3 soloists. The words were either directly from or inspired by the people they worked with, with Karen Hayes reading out the sections that are yet to be put to music, as well as reading some of the poems created during the project.
All the performances went very well with great responses from the children in the morning, the residents at the care home in the afternoon and those who attended in the evening.
Those at the evening event had the chance to also see photos taken during the day and two short films which the string quartet played live with as part of demonstrating the kind of work in progress that the creative team are going through.
The project hasn’t come to an end. The composer will now complete the music and the filmmaker and movement director are looking at what the film will be. Staff from both the school and the care home are going to be in the film and a live staged version that will be premiered June 2013. The staff have been meeting monthly to be ready for the recording of the music in February, filming in March and then reheasrals for the live staged version and screenings that will take place to premiere this piece.
If you want to find out more then please get in touch with us at AACV.
Finally to say a big thank you to WNO for deciding to work with us here in Castle Vale again and thank you to the ETF who provided the funding for extra workshops at The Ridings and the special preview last week. It was an incredible day and we look forward to what comes next.
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