2008 and beyond

Pass the Baton - our 2008 project as part of Newham Welcomes the World

'Pass the Baton' is a musical theatre project in association with the Theatre Royal Straford East, one of the best known performing arts organisations in East London.

The project will take the form of a summer school for 16-22 year olds interested in musical theatre, and will culminate in performances at the Theatre Royal on 29 & 30 August 2008.

Our participants will work with a professioanl theatre director (Omar Okai), writer (Hope Massiah), composer & DJ (Excalibah) and with the New London Orchestra and director Ronald Corp to create, rehearse and perform a new piece of music theatre which is rooted in memories and life experiences of older people in the community. The project will grow from interviews with older people which the participants and director etc will conduct at the start of the project.

This will be a cross-generational project, whereby the memories of older residents of Newham are re-interpreted through the eyes of today’s 16-22 year olds, hence “pass the baton” between the generations.

The theatre-piece will need to speak to all generations: the older people who provide the content, and the younger people who re-interpret these memories from their own perspective and work them into a new piece of music theatre.

The project will fuse generations and cultures, and the music created will reflect this through fusing nostalgic music played by the New London Orchestra as well as new contemporary hip hop tracks. To bridge the gap in musical styles, the contemporary songs will use the orchestral musicians and some may be created using samples of the old tunes.

IF YOU ARE AGED 16-22 YEARS AND LIVE IN NEWHAM, AND IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TAKE PART IN THIS PROJECT, PLEASE CONTACT JULIAN FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Project Dates:

The project will be a summer school for 4 weeks in August:

•Mondays-Fridays, weeks of 4, 11, 18 August in venues in Newham/Stratford

•Week of 26 August at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

Performances: 29, 30 August (2.30pm & 7.30pm both days), Theatre Royal Stratford East

Deadline for applicants: 20 June 2008

IF YOU ARE AGED 50 OR OVER AND HAVE LIVED/WORKED IN NEWHAM FOR MUCH OF YOUR LIFE, AND IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TELL US ABOUT HOW THE AREA HAS CHANGED OR YOUR PARTICULAR LIFE STORY FOR POSSIBLE INCLUSION IN THIS PROJECT, PLEASE CONTACT JULIAN .

New London Orchestra

4 Lower Belgrave St London SWIW 0LJ

Tel: 020 7823 5523

Fax: 020 7823 6373