Cardboard Citizens’ interactive theatre work is informed by, and reflects, the experiences of homeless people. The work is wide-ranging and includes professional productions, participatory projects, and professional training in forum theatre. Our funding supports core costs.
A short film about Cardboard Citizens, a theatre company that works with homeless people. This was premiered at Cardboard Citizens' Fundraising Dinner at Christ Church Spitalfields on the 19th of March.
Life Ain't No Musical: the Remix
24 June 2012
Words by Tony McBride & the ACT NOW Company
Music by Arun Ghosh
Arcola Tent, 2 Ashwin St, Dalston
When emotion is too strong for speech we sing, when emotion is too strong for song, we dance.
The remix of this original ensemble show devised by Cardboard Citizens' youth theatre programme (ACT NOW) featuring live music by acclaimed musician Arun Ghosh. A presentation of lessons in life, all told through music and song.
This show is part of a double-bill including Under the Skin, a performance by the Poets Platform from the Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Cardboard Citizens has been changing the lives of homeless and displaced people through theatre and the performing arts for over 20 years. ACT NOW is Cardboard Citizens' youth theatre programme. This year-long series of workshops is combined with individual support and guidance to help young people move away from homelessness. Working with our partner organisations ACT NOW supports young people to make positive changes in their lives: this can go from securing a qualification to joining a training course or getting into volunteering and employment. Life Ain't No Musical: The Remix is this year's end-of-term show.
"...a performance that was stellar on every level. The beats will be in our heads for weeks!" (audience member)
"Theatre can have a transformational effect. Often as an actor/director this occurs during the process of getting the play/production together. Also as an audience member sometimes a theatrical piece can just blow you away and cause a paradigm shift in consciousness to occur. When it happens to both the cast and audience it's a very special event. I was privileged to be part of such an event on Friday night." (Theatre Thoughts Blog on the original 'Life Ain't No Musical' production).
http://www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/p2s70.html
http://www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/p2s57.html
Life Ain't No Musical
28 July 2011
Thu 28th & Fri 29th July
Fri 29th July
When emotion is too strong for speech we sing, when emotion is too strong for song, we dance.
Join us for the premiere of this original ensemble show devised by the ACT NOW company featuring live music by acclaimed Jazz musician Arun Ghosh.
ACT NOW is Cardboard Citizens' youth theatre programme. This year-long series of weekly workshops leading to performances is combined with individual support and guidance to help young people move out of homelessness. Working with our partner organisations, we support young people to make positive changes in their lives: this can go from securing a qualification to joining a training course or getting into volunteering and employment. Life Ain't No Musical is this year's final show.
Some post-performance comments:
"The performance last night was just brilliant. It's so rare to see an arts project balance personal emotional benefits for the participants with real artistic value, and this project has really achieved the best in both fields. And the participants had clearly risen to the challenge: it was clear how well-rehearsed the perfomance was and how much dedicated work had gone into it, and what very very great talent the participants have.
It was great, too, to see a play around the issues faced by young people at risk that actually said something new about them. The participants had come at the subject from a whole new angle and with a very mature approach, and I think everyone watching will have learned a lot about how and why young people come to be homeless, and about the emotions behind those events." (audience member)
"...a performance that was stellar on every level. The beats will be in our heads for weeks!" (audience member)
"These young people (and the hundreds of others who are helped by this project each year), have been given a chance to impact their own lives and ours too. The whole group deserves the biggest round of applause." (Dominick, www.theatrethoughts.com)
Cardboard Citizens presents A Few Man Fridays
Written & Directed by Adrian Jackson
10 February - 10 March 2012
Book online here: http://www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/p2s59.html#overview
Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, London W6 9RL
Previews 10, 11, 13, 14 Feb
Times: Mon - Sat 7.45pm. Sat mats 2.30pm (not Sat 11 Feb)
Prices: Previews (10-14 February) £10 From 15 February: £20
Box office: 020 8237 1111
Prosper is an ex-Rasta lost in London, trying to make sense of his dog-filled dreams. Madame Talate remembers her island as a paradise and Teddy Hibbert loves turtles but has trouble remembering people. Their stories collide in a dream turned nightmare of one Stu Barber.
In the late 1960s the Chagos islanders were evicted from their Indian Ocean home to make way for a US military base. Set against the actual events of their displacement and fight for justice, A Few Man Fridays, begins in the age of Cold War secrets and ends in the era of global warming.
Cardboard Citizens stages this compelling story in its trademark style where personal testimony and historical narrative meet to forge epic, mesmerising theatre, fusing music, video, and YouTube footage.
Moving, gripping and funny, A Few Man Fridays unearths an inglorious episode of British history, and explores the fantasies of the powerful, set against the dreams of the powerless.
This project is supported by Arts Council England through their Grants for the Arts fund.
PLEASE HELP US RAISE £1000 TO HOST A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION FOR OUR MEMBERS
This Christmas we want to offer something extra for the homeless people we work with. We would like to host a Christmas celebration for our
Members, a day of fun just before Christmas to bring everyone together and celebrate all of their fantastic achievements over the year.
Please Text "CITZ11" to 70070 with the amount that you want to donate: £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10.
You can also donate online here:
https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/cardboardcitizens-1
Cardboard Citizens changes the lives of homeless and at-risk people through theatre and the performing arts.
Cardboard Citizens is a theatre company that works with homeless and marginalized people using Augusto Boal's forum theatre. Every year they tour London's hostels, day centres empowering homeless people to rehearse changes in their lives.
www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk
A documentary about the creation of an original Forum Theatre performance devised over the summer of 2010 by Cardboard Citizens' youth group ACT NOW with script by Tony McBride and direction by Terry O'Leary.
For more information visit www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk
A documentary about the creation of An Open Book, a show by homeless young people part of Cardboard Citizens's youth programme ACT NOW.
Follow a rather unconventional librarian on a journey into the hidden worlds of young people. An anthology fusing theatre with original poetry, music, film and images ... An Open Book is an honest and intimate meditation on the nature of transformation.
For more information visit www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk
Cardboard Citizens - Be Part of the Story
Cardboard Citizens 'Life Ain't No Musical' The Remix
Cardboard Citizens' 'Life Ain't No Musical' feat. Jason Barton
A Few Man Fridays Trailer by Cardboard Citizens
Cardboard Citizens Christmas Party
Untold stories: Cardboard Citizens' forum theatre at homeless hostels
Cardboard Citizens Samba Band at Mayor's Thames Festival 2011
Cardboard Citizens Samba Band at Thames Festival
Up On The Roof by ACT NOW, Cardboard Citizens
An Open Book by ACT NOW, Cardboard Citizens
Down & Out London 2 Paris - Cardboard Citizens Charity Bike Ride
