Casting Long Shadows - Community Arts Event Template

Community Project Template

The Casting Long Shadows Project consists of the creation of a script and performance template for community shadow theatre. A story will be chosen, researched, a template script written and puppets constructed using traditional and contemporary materials. The fundamental storyline is then used as a framework for workshops and subsequent performances.

5 days Creative Development
5 days Puppet/Theatre Construction
5 days Rehearsals

One such story is the Greek Play Lysistrata. We have chosen Lysistrata because of its relevance in today's political climate and as an introduction to the works of Aristophanes. Although written in 411 AD, it is a timeless piece with a universal theme. It deals with a community in crisis, exploring the all-too-familiar feeling of powerlessness experienced by minority groups.

Lysistrata is a humorous and powerful tale of how the 'women' in a community, faced with impending war, deploy an unusual tactic in order to be heard. This ancient anti-war comedy offers an amusing entrée and fosters a healthy dialogue about current affairs.

So ... if we press fast forward roughly 1600 years, where the 'swords' have been replaced by 'weapons of mass destruction', we have a contemporary performance which relates to one's own experience.

We have selected the medium of shadow theatre to express this story. Shadow theatre enables participants to voice a controversial opinion (almost anonymously if desired) to a wider audience in a non-confrontational manner and setting. In our world of passive high-tech aesthetics arising from intelligent 3D virtual environments and special effects, the need for an artistic performance forum that leaves gaps for our imagination, searching and learning is needed more than ever before.

The Casting Long Shadows Project builds on the energy created by the Lysistrata Project - dozens of simulaneous readings of the Greek play across the world on March 3, 2003. The Lysistrata Project was a protest against the impending war in Iraq. Considering the public reaction to the events of the last few months, we have come to realise that in our so-called democratic society it appears we still have to struggle to be heard!

We believe our project offers a positive avenue for a social voice, creating a safe forum for inspiring impassioned and insightful debate. One of the main aims in developing our framework is that it be easily adaptable to any community. It ensures the community are able, in collaboration with the artists, to superimpose their own views, issues and cultural identity into the developed framework. The subsequent performances will encourage a forum for a diverse range of views in the community to be expressed. This freedom of expression is often difficult in a cloistered or isolated environment. The Project fills the zone between experimental contemporary performance and people's popular culture.

By leaving the community with the following, our Project will contribute to the longer term arts and cultural development of a community.

An Introduction to Contemporary Shadow Theatre
Practical Theatre Skills
Image Construction Skills
Manipulation of Puppets
Creative Development Skills
Collaboration/Team Building & Social Skills
Research Skills
A recipe to examine and solve conflict and community distress
Documentation and inclusion on this website

We will also be leaving individuals and communities with a creative resource and connection between the East coast of Queensland, regional and remote areas... in other words, "Casting Long Shadows"