Walk with Amal - Good Chance and Everyman Theatre
On Wednesday, 9 June, join us for this free talk about Good Chance Theatre’s groundbreaking work with artists from across the world and the 8,000km journey of a 3.5 meter-tall puppet. We'll also be joined by the Everyman Theatre's Community Arts Manager.
Good Chance works with artists from around the world, bringing communities together to tell bigger stories of hope and humanity. They build their theatre domes across the world to bring refugees and locals together to create art and produced the multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed play The Jungle.
They are now starting “The Walk” – the journey of Little Amal, a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl, created by the acclaimed Handspring Puppet Company, the world-famous creators of War Horse. Representing all displaced children, many separated from their families, Little Amal will travel over 8,000km embodying the urgent message: “Don’t forget about us”. Amal will leave Turkey in July for a four-month travelling festival of art and hope, and we can follow her along her journey as she is welcomed across 8 countries through 65 towns and cities throughout Europe.
Join us on Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84238925528?pwd=UnZNak5NMkQ0NHRCZ2R6OFlrUjljUT09
Meeting ID: 842 3892 5528
Passcode: 58
The Walk is produced by Good Chance with Stephen Daldry (The Crown, Billy Elliot, 2012 Olympic opening ceremony), David Lan (artistic director of the Young Vic 2000 – 2018), Amir Nizar Zuabi (artistic director of the National Theatre of Palestine), Tracey Seaward (film producer, 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony). And we are delighted to have Cheltenham locals and Good Chance’s Executive Director and Head of Poetry here to tell us more.
Given the number of refugee children who have found a new home in Cheltenham with their families, we’re keen to give Amal a voice for all of them to be heard! Come and join us to hear more about Good Chance, Little Amal and the inspiring journey that sheds light on young refugee children worldwide. Everybody is welcome and there will be plenty of time for questions.
We’ll be joined by:
- Naomi Webb (Executive Director)
Naomi has worked as a producer for internationally renowned theatre company Complicité (worldwide tour of The Encounter, A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer at National Theatre, The Kid Stays in the Picture at Royal Court), at the Rose Theatre Kingston and Oxford Playhouse. She has led Good Chance's growth as Executive Director since 2017, including over 300 presentations of award-winning production The Jungle in London and the US, the production of seven Dome theatres across the UK, France and America and the creation of the international Good Chance Ensemble.
- Emily Webb (Head of Poetry)
Emily has led national creative writing charities First Story and Ministry of Stories and as Director of First Story she co-founded with over 20 partners the UK's National Writing Day to reach over 80,000 young people across the country. At Good Chance, she ran their Dome theatres in refugee centres around Paris in 2018 and she founded and runs Good Chance’s groundbreaking poetry collective Change the Word, bringing refugees, asylum seekers and locals together to share their stories with each other and the world.
- Camille Cowe (Community Arts Manager at the Everyman Theatre)
Camille has been leading creative projects with Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS) for many years and in more recent years with CWR.
The Everyman Theatre have commissioned a mural to raise awareness of The Walk with Amal project which is on St Margaret's road, Cheltenham (next to the Brewery Quarter). The Everyman is commissioning an artist to create a piece of community art. It will be a larger than life sculpture of a displaced child which will be covered in hundreds of pegdolls that members of the community will provide.
The sculpture will be an installation at the Gloucester Cathedral in October this year. The Everyman are doing a series of workshops with CWR and other organisations on the "Walk with Amal" theme and they aim to take some flashmob performances by members of the Cheltenham community to meet Amal in both Oxford and Manchester.
https://www.walkwithamal.org/
https://www.goodchance.org.uk/