OTHER SERVICES
"Jon Oram is a leading authority on community plays and one of Britain's finest theatre teachers. In his hands, it seems even the most unseasoned actor can do anything" - Toronto Globe and Mail
COMMUNITY PLAY SERVICES
Producing Full Scale Community Plays
Claque can work in partnership with a community in producing a full-scale community Play. Claque will support you from the moment you have the idea that a play would benefit your community, through the whole process to production, and beyond.
Consultation
We can offer short or long-term advice to communities who want to go it alone in administrating and producing a play. We can also run workshops on the management of community play process or the research and writing process. We can also act as an agency if you are looking for writers, directors, or designers.
Community Play Manual
Jon Oram has written a manual on community plays to help in all aspects of production and management. The manual includes short cut draft documents such as contracts and job descriptions for free lance artists; policies for health and safety, equal opportunities; forms for casting, volunteering, design measurements and much more. The manual is an essential guide for any individual, group or organisation seriously thinking of taking on a community play.
Community Play Training
Soundings and Drama Searching
These workshops are invaluable to groups wanting to devise or write a play about their community or contemporary issue. It involves exercises and techniques for identifying themes and ideas and exploring research through dramatic improvisation to help find the play.
The Community Play Simulation Board Game
This workshop or series of workshops offer practical simulated experience of running a large-scale community arts event. In role as project management teams the participants are confronted with daily rewards and pitfalls common to community play projects. Researched and developed over ten years the giant board game asks players to keep budgets, make funding applications, face sponsors, confront difficult adversaries, and deal with problems typical of such projects. Everything in this challenging game has happened at one time or another. It’s an inspiring, short cut game in learning what a community play is and what it entails.
Professional Apprenticeships
Claque encourages theatre professionals to work within their team to gain experience of community plays. This are offered to potentially strong candidate director's designers, stage managers, community arts workers, theatre students and others. Apprentices are able to shadow the professional theatre worker appropriate to their needs for the three-month production period on a community play. Following an interview and acceptance an appropriate programme and brief is prepared for and with the apprentice. They are offered local hospitality accommodation and a small stipend to help with their personal expenses.
Special Events
Interactive Events
Claque can help you create parades and living large-scale festival events for special sites. Claque directed three of the International Festival of the Sea’s popular Georgian Streets in Portsmouth involving hundreds of community and professional performers, musicians and re- enactment societies and included living Georgian Pubs, markets, quayside, theatre events, concerts and vast parades. They have created lantern parades for Tunbridge Wells.
Installations and exhibitions
Claque creates Mystery houses, labyrinths, interactive exhibition spaces, outdoor exhibition and environmental installations. Past installations have included the Story house at Canada’s National Writers Festival at Eden Mills, Ontario; The Four Seasons Labyrinth for the Arts Council Millennium Year of the Artist, the Museum of Trash for Tonbridge, Kent, Camden Road in Camera outdoor photographic exhibition around the streets of Tunbridge Wells. Claque will work collaboratively with communities to devise installations and exhibitions suitable and relevant to the commissioning group or organisation.
Theatre and Performance Workshops
We can offer one off workshops or short courses in directing, writing and performance:
Directing
Directing the Promenade Theatre
Playwriting
Writing social and community based plays
Writing for promenade Theatre
Drama Search – devising scenes and plays from research material or themes.
Performance
The Social Actor
Improvisation
Mime, the mask and Physical Theatre