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General information
The Occasional Cabaret regards community outreach projects as having equal worth to professional touring productions and seeks to ensure that all work shares the same values and high production standards.
The main themes for this work are:
Promoting creative collaboration
Innovating by extending the boundaries of highly visual and physical theatre Encouraging and facilitating social and personal development
Developing new and extant audiences
The Occasional Cabaret uses drama to contribute to personal and social development and as a way for individuals and groups to explore and enjoy their own creativity.
Our programmes – for promoters, local authorities, education and independent groups – include:
- workshops across a range of ages and sectors
- intensive residences
- workshops in different disciplines (drama, music, video, writing, puppetry etc)
- training in workshop preparation and delivery
- added value activities: tours of the set, post-show discussions
- cross art-form and multimedia projects.
The Occasional Cabaret is fully committed to providing opportunities across all sections of society and will, whenever possible, respond to all requests for new activity.
All projects seek to demystify the process of creating theatre, to teach new skills and to involve all participants in all stages of the work, working to the fullness of all their abilities.
The Occasional Cabaret is currently working in collaboration, with East Lothian Arts, on plans for the creation of a new fully-inclusive large-scale performance company (click here for details). Initial stages of this project have already begun with a workshop programme for learning disabled adults from the Mansfield Road Resource Centre, Musselburgh. Beyond this proposed production – and again in partnership with East Lothian Arts – we will seek to continue to support the group.
The Occasional Cabaret is also currently looking to expand activity into new geographical areas. For any requests, or enquiries, for future projects please contact us at: info@occasionalcabaret.com
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History & Past Projects
Over the past twenty-five years The Occasional Cabaret’s joint Artistic Directors – Peter Clerke and Catherine Gillard – have been involved in an eclectic range of education and outreach projects. These have included large-scale community performances, residencies, workshop programmes and discussion forums; have involved people of all ages and all abilities; encompassed work in community centres, colleges, schools, day centres, mental health projects, youth theatres & arts centres; and operated on both a national and international scale.
Major achievements have been:
With benchtours
- A series of innovative and highly successful collaborations, specifically targeted at learning disabled adults, with Aberdeen’s The Lemon Tree, including three large-scale, multi-media performances, film and installation projects and training programmes. The collaboration led to the formation of the company for learning disabled adults, Va Va Voom, who are now permanently based at The Lemon Tree.
- The delivery of over 100 separate workshops, as part of benchtours’ audience development programme in conjunction with touring productions.
- The creation of a fully-inclusive performance company, in collaboration with The Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh and the production of Mayhem (2005) and The Invisible Man – or A Brief History of Invisibility in East Lothian (2006) featuring casts of 80 and 40 respectively.
‘Theatre as it should be – a communal, passionate, imaginative celebration of life in all its facets’.
The Edinburgh Guide on Mayhem
- The development and implementation of a ‘Leading Drama Workshops’ training programme for learning disabled adults, in collaboration with Lung Ha’s Theatre company.
- The direction of the community arts programme for The Edinburgh Puppet Lab’s Big Man Walking project in Kirkaldy, Fife
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East Lothian project
September 2010 The Occasional Cabaret has now begun to develop work with East Lothian Arts and Mansfield Road Resource Centre in Musselburgh. This is the first stage towards setting up a major new fully inclusive arts project for performance in Autumn 2012.
During this initial stage Catherine has been running drama workshops with clients from Mansfield Rd. Working with 12 participants the work is designed to develop performance skills whilst also building confidence. The work is jointly funded by East Lothian Arts and Mansfield Road.
Over the next 12 months The Occasional Cabaret will continue to work with and support this group. At the same time the company will begin to develop a wider-reaching community programme, offering a series of workshops to other interested groups and individuals. By September 2011 the ambition is to have created a fully inclusive group of around 30-40 people with whom we will work to create a large-scale production for performance, within The Brunton Theatre, for October 2012.
It is envisaged that, as well as The Mansfield Road participants being included within this larger community group, clients from two other East Lothian Resource Centres – Port Seton and Tynebank (Haddington) – will also be involved.
At present, the ambition for the project outstrips the available resources, but we strongly believe that it is eminently achievable. Equally, that the benefits – for both the learning disabled and non-disabled participants – can be of great significance and foster a stronger sense of integration and sharing within the East Lothian community.
For anyone wishing to become involved in the project – or to offer support in any way – please contact us at info@occasionalcabaret.com
Please return to this page for regular updates.
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