THIRTY young people between 15-25 years old met at Orion Community in Russia in Spring 2012, to create a theatrical performance together! They came from England, Moscow and Kitezh Children’s Community in Russia. Together they created the story, the songs, the music, and after only one week they performed their show to an audience in Moscow!
Thanks to Youth In Action! Most of the funds were provided by the
European Union through the British Council.
Mind the Gap Theatre Co.
We’ve taken off our slippers, unpacked our ukuleles, slept for many hours, regained our voices, vowed to never eat dill soup again, and are finally starting to recover from the life-changing experience of Mind the Gap 2012.
I think you’ll be happy to know that the experience was a fantastic success. The two-act musical, ‘Gold Rush’, set in Arabia and involving Spaniards, Englishmen, camels, powdered lizards, crystal balls, treasure maps, smuggling, disguise and intrigue, a happy ending and a really big bucket, was directed, composed, choreographed, set and costumed over a period of eight days. It was performed twice, first to an audience of about eight members of the Orion community, and second to around 200 people, a Russian TV crew, and British Council representatives in a Moscow Theatre.
During the process bonds were formed which surpassed geography, culture and language, and which will last a lifetime. Young people from the Kitezh-Orion Children’s Community, from schools in Moscow, and from around the UK, lived, ate, worked and played together. The experience was intense and deeply affecting, and many said it was one of the best weeks of their life.
The success of the ‘spectacle’ was due to the incredible hard work of the participants and team, who optimistically took on the challenge of several long, 12 hour-plus days, and an attitude of absolute team work, cooperation, patience and friendship which smashed through any language or cultural barriers. But the success was also due to the help of many other individuals: the kind and welcoming citizens of Orion who supported us through the provision of food, tea and splendid accommodation; the efforts of the staff at Ecologia; the Youth in Action funding team; Barnstorm Youth Theatre for their energy and inspiration; and the many, extremely generous individual donors from around the world who enabled this venture to go ahead by giving up their time, money, support, love and the occasional cajon box drum.
We’d like to say an enormous THANK YOU to every one of you for your kindness, for believing in us, and for allowing us to undertake this huge adventure together.
We have a filmed copy of the show performed in Moscow, and will be hosting viewings of the show here in the UK, and making copies of the DVD available for participants – please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to hear more about the show or obtain a copy of the DVD. Again, an incalculably huge thank you for everything.
Tessa Bolton, Rebecca Gosling, Georgina Brown, and the rest of the Russian and English team and participants of Mind the Gap 2012
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