Stand Easy - June Project
In June this year, I was part of the Creative Team to undertake and lead the June Project for Stand Easy Productions.
Stand Easy works with Wounded, Injured and Sick Ex-Forces participants, using drama activities to help their recovery.
Over the course of 3 weeks, I brought a visual element and another practical dimension to the theatre based project. We worked with the Veteran participants, as well as Student Actors, to devise an amazing series of stories aimed at a younger audience. This piece of Children’s Theatre was an attempt to both let the Veterans tell or retell events or moral ideas or even just something amazing with a younger audience, as well as make accessible some of the more challenging aspects of military life to a younger generation.
PLAY. - a play where everybody plays.
Aside from leading and being a part of the daily activities and games, my main objective was to collect all of the stories shared by the Veterans and create a mural backdrop for the piece. Every single Veteran helped paint their own elements of the backdrop, and a highlight was working with painting a pet toy seal right in the centre of the piece with an amazing woman who is legally blind.
This final piece was hung during all performances at both Perth Theatre and the Gardyne Theatre in Dundee. It really came to light - literally - with different coloured states places over it during different elements of the show.
I also held a creative vision over the whole show, and created props both illustrated and created by myself to join each story together as a whole piece.
A bunny rabbit racing car helmet, cardboard toy soldiers, an expanding and bouncy boxing ring, sock gloves, a family portrait, the uniform of a big bad sergeant, a duvee that became a dragon and glittered red and gold, a toy plane, splashes of water - these are just some of the visual elements and props that I created for Play.
One of the more intricate elements (of which I have no photos of!) is a magical cardboard box. This box was painted matte black, and was full of wonder. The actors that worked the box each had several actions to perform - bubbles blown in a blue glittery shower, a school of light fish swinging from above, shells and sparkles released from a compartment in the ceiling, a moving puppet, a trap door hiding a secret cave - these were all hidden within the box and made from paper tape, cardboard, string, and found objects. There was also a second scene in which a sponge, loofa and hand towel were cut and coloured to expand and become the layout of a wavy Cornwall beach.
To say thank you to all of the participants, I also created a series of personalised achievement trophies, and gave them out individually after our final performance on stage.
My time spent working with these Veterans and working on such a fast paced and intense project like this was fantastic, and I can’t wait for the next.
