Season's Greetings! Buone Feste a tutti!
It’s been a while since we were last in touch so as we approach the end of 2022 we wanted to tell you about the work we’ve done this year, what we need to continue to run the company successfully and what we would like to do in the year ahead.
To achieve our goals we need your help and support, both in terms of the events, ideas and through donations. For instance, our basic running costs before we do anything including accountants’ fees, insurance, website and support, email hosting and ITC membership are £2.5K.
But more later as to how you can help.
Below is a round up of the year's activities.
In the spring, Collette Parker concluded a programme in W10 funded by Clifford Chance with service users from St Charles’ Mental Health Unit who took part in a Well Written project centred on writing for performance, inspired by our first production A Merchant of Venice at the Playground Theatre in late 2021.
The eight-day summer school in the beautiful Cagli theatre in July was the best attended ever. Director Chris Luscombe led a module on The Comedy of Errors and Vic Sivalingam on Much Ado About Nothing. We plan to hold the next course in early September 2023. The summer school is very important in giving everyone taking part the chance to work with practitioners who are top theatre professionals. We award student bursaries and give The Woodland Trust a generous donation to offset the carbon footprint the school incurs.
The Arts Council awarded us a grant to run our second open air creative arts course for young people in Brighton, Apples and Eyes, plus this year, Wildfest, a free, inclusive open air event for the community to celebrate the arts and the natural world with live performances and workshops.
The young people had a great time acting, making music, filming and making costumes and props focussing on resilience and the principal characters we meet at the start of The Tempest. A short drama / doc is being edited that reflects the time spent together.
Over 3K people came to Wildfest on Saturday October 29th in One Garden, Stanmer Park. It was a wonderfully up beat day with people of all ages enjoying the live music and workshops in perfect autumn weather.
An eight-week programme, O Brave New World, with women who attend the Venus Centre in Bootle, Liverpool ended on December 13th with a show for friends and family. The Eleanor Rathbone Foundation gave us a grant for the work which was led by Ida Casilli, Mary Chater, Rachael Pirie and Emily Thompson.
Times are incredibly hard worldwide financially but if you could help us with a donation towards running costs, however small, we'd be most grateful. Please contact us at info@shakespeareinitaly.org.uk
We are in the process of appointing new Trustees and have exciting plans which will expand the scope of the company considerably. Let's see if we can get an Arts Council grant for another Apples and Eyes and Wildfest in 2023.
With many thanks - have fun and plenty of festive cheer from Mary Chater ( co founder) Collette Parker and the Trustees