FRIEND OR FOE PERFORMANCE
COLCHESTER GROUP BRINGS POPULAR FAMILY STORY TO LIFE
Friend or Foe Sell-out Success
“A beautiful retelling of a fabulous story by a charming theatre group. Well-done to everyone involved”
Well, it’s certainly been a rollercoaster ride for the Black Dog Theatre Creation over the past eighteen months. We’ve had to adapt to the challenges of Covid:19, shifting everything online in order to continue running the project and supporting our members. It’s been great fun learning new things, challenging ourselves to be creative and think outside the box more. After nearly two years, we were able to return to the stage and perform in front of a live audience since Covid and it was so good to be back on stage doing what we love.
Our performance of Friend or Foe went down better than expected with a sell-out audience. It was great to see both family, friends, and welcome new audience members. They’re support was so much appreciated. They clapped and laughed throughout. The cast were absolutely amazing bringing to life some larger-than-life characters (many playing multiple roles). For many of our members it was the first time which they have performed, and they all rose to the challenge and did themselves proud. We had a fantastic team too including Edd Paris as our Stage Manager, Alex Ray as our Lighting/Sound Technician and Madeleine and Barry Ockendon doing our Front of House. A special thanks also to the Kelvedon Institute and Kelvedon Players for their help and support and to the Arts Council, England and Colchester Borough Council.
About Us
"A unique, special theatre project"
The Black Dog Theatre Creation is a special not-for-profit theatre group set up and run by Alfie James Productions which aims at using performance skills to support people suffering from poor confidence, anxiety and to help to reduce the risk of people becoming isolated. It is also open to those who simply love being creative, learning new theatre skills and staging plays regularly. Now in its sixth year it is slowly growing and is building its reputation as being a wonderful, positive, and successful group. We currently have two groups in Colchester and Camden, London and we often run short bite-size projects in Brentwood and Suffolk. We develop small projects, workshops and performances and work with other artists to offer our members the opportunity to engage in a wide range of artistic skills. Our projects are free to access and open to all.
To find out more about us click here:
CURRENT NEWS
Covid Update
Firstly, we would like to thank everyone for all of your kind continued support over the past eighteen months.
Now that restrictions have been limited, we are really pleased that things are beginning to get back to normal. We know that it is going to take time for everything to return to ‘normality’ and that many of our project members, team and our audiences will still be understandably apprehensive. This is why we will still be working with our members and teams for each project to collaboratively put together a risk assessment / plan of action for returning back to normal. For the time being we will still ask everyone to sanitize their hands, to social distance where possible, to sign into our workshops, rehearsals and meetings. (For track and trace purposes) Everyone will be given the option to decide whether they would like to wear their face mask during our activities. Where possible, our workshops and performances will be held outside.
Alfie James, Artistic Director
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FANTASTIC MR FOX
THE BLACK DOG THEATRE CREATION TOUR AS PART OF THE
CAMDEN TOGETHER FESTIVAL
Join in the thrilling adventures of Fantastic Mr Fox and his friends as they try to outwit the beastly farmers Boggis, Bunce and bean - while they try to outwit him!
Over the past couple of months, the Black Dog Theatre Creation and The Regents Park Singers have joined forces to put together something rather special to celebrate being able to come out of lockdown and to say a big thank you to the local community. We have been rehearsing a special adaptation of Roald Dahl's story FANTASTIC MR FOX.
With puppets, oral storytelling, songs and the odd rap - this really was a performance not to be missed. We performed to sell-out audiences at the H-Pod in Cumberland Market, Bloomsbury Square and Pond Square. All performances were free and we received positive feedback from everyone who came.
You can now see some of the pictures and find out more about the project on our London group page by clicking below.
In the meantime, you can also watch a special recording of our performance at Pond Square above.
OTHER NEWS
PUPPETRY FOR WELLBEING
COURSE A SUCCESS
Following our successful pilot project last year, we are over the moon to be joining up with the Puppet Soup Theatre Company and Artist Jacob Anderson to offer another "Puppetry for Wellbeing" free course. Last year, we ran a special 3 week online course where participants were able to learn how to design, make and use different types of puppets from basic materials found in their own homes. In this new project, we will continue developing people's confidence and using our creativity to make more puppets before working towards devising short performances. Places are always limited and do go quickly so it's best to sign up quickly. Click below to learn more about the project.
“Really enjoyed the course. It was just what I needed right now” (Anna)
“Such a lovely course. It brightened up my day. I thoroughly enjoyed the puppet making” (Nena)
“Such a wonderful group of people, in a warm, friendly and joyous environment. It was the nearest thing to being in a room with people.” (Lisa)
Since we began the Black Dog Theatre Creation we have been incredibly lucky to have been supported by the many organisations including:
