Ruang Tai...

Kala Khun Nueng

2007-08-26T15:39:00.000+10:00

(once upon a time: tonight)

A final week of development and rehearsal and, still only two and a half weeks old, Kala Khun Nueng shone during performance to a very responsive audience at Makhampom Studio, Bangkok. It seems commonplace for Thai performance teams to have formal discussion with their audience after each show (at least this is the tradition at Makhampom), and this week’s audience feedback described delight at the interweaving of distinct stories, the surprising depth of characters that had been created, and the unexpected and provocative use of the theatre playing space.

We handed the show over to the performance team at Makhampom to develop further in whichever way they wish, and look forward to further developments both from Bangkok and from Melbourne. The performers commented that they found our devising process “sanook mark” (fun a lot), that they found our “persons” very warm and easy to work with, and that our working style was generous and precise – that we saw every detail and were concerned with the smallest moments. All very gratifying.

We left Bangkok without great love for the city, but with much love for our performance team at Makhampom. We are now on our way back to Chiang Dao where we will rejoin the community theatre team for the remainder of our residence (a quick visa run up to the border at Mae Sai aside). Sadly, the refugee program has been stalled again, this time quite possibly until 2008, so our work in the camps will unfortunately remain on the shelf. It seems there is always much to be left for a ‘next time’.

Thai Academia...

2007-08-26T15:30:00.000+10:00

...another thread in experiencing the fabric of Thai life.

Undergraduates at Thai Universities are required to wear uniforms! Can you imagine this in Australia? We arrived at Chulalongkorn University (the leading university in Thailand) to be confronted by a sea of elegant blue skirts on the young women, blue shorts/pants on the men, and an abundance of white shirts, many with silver buttons. The freshman students also have to wear white socks and shoes (f) and a blue tie (m), foot and neck freedom attained only after this first year.

An invitation from one of our Kala Khun Nueng ensemble, also a lecturer at Chulalongkorn, led us to taking a masterclass for the Masters students in the Performing Arts department. The students were very responsive to what for them was a series of very new performance making insights. Traditional Thai theatre media are very strong in their curriculum (yet a banner in the Performing Arts common room displays a quote from W. Shakespeare), and the opportunity for some perspective on western traditions clearly inspired.

Our friendly lecturer (and vibrant performer) Oh is relocating to Wellington NZ in 2008 to study for her PhD, and we hope very much to welcome her to Australia at sometime during her visit south.

Here...kitty, kitty.....

2007-08-16T16:51:00.001+10:00

And then there's the videos.....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2057542330133895450

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7487628445066966614

Performance Workshop - Makhampom Bangkok

2007-08-16T16:22:00.000+10:00

In a country so rich in Buddhism and spirit belief, there is a small surprise in stumbling upon the ubiquity of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. In the workshop we are running in Bangkok, we have requested performers to offer the group their favourite folktale. Delightful Buddhist parables abounded, some from Japan, and then… three familiar little pigs and That All Time Favourite – Cinderella.

We are loving working with this performance team in Bangkok. The necessity of translation demands that our provocations as facilitators are ever more succinct, but the group has also very quickly developed a shared language and dynamic beyond the spoken word. Our workshop group is a dynamic group from diverse backgrounds: some professional performers, some with strong backgrounds in traditional Thai theatre media, one performing arts lecturer, others with backgrounds in educational and community theatre. Their approach to the work is laden with an inspiring gusto, and the work they are creating is rich in cultural context.

We have just finished the first phase of what is now a two phase project, the richness of the working environment here prompting us to stay a further ten days to continue the development of a small piece which saw first light last night.

see http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=940275237001507568 for video.

The more we develop this piece, the more we explore this creative team, the more we are learning about Thai culture and society.

Siem Reap - small children, big temples

2007-08-01T21:02:00.000+10:00

Get Gecko’d

In Cambodia, we ran workshops with The Green Gecko Project (follow the link in our friends and partners). Green Gecko assists street kids in Siem Reap to access education by providing them and their families with alternatives to begging. Many of these extraordinarily beautiful kids come from horror story situations, including numerous forms of abuse. According to Tania Palmer, co-founder and director of Greek Gecko, the tolls of the Khmer Rouge are still being paid. The good men under Pol Pot’s command killed just about anyone who could read, leaving the country unfathomably short of educated thought. The squalour, violence, and abuse reign at least in part due to this vacuum of reason. Add to this the ever-present reminders of Cambodia’s littering with land-mines, and the picture of large, suffering and dysfunctional families starts to really sink in. This makes the work of Green Gecko all the more important, so expect to hear as talk about it more. Please check out their website, and also that of Collaborate Australia who are working hard to give them support from Melbourne. The workshops we ran with these effervescent kids were a great success, and many of the children were very sad to see us go. “You come back next year?” Maybe.

Angkor

Also in Siem Reap, the temples of Angkor Wat. Already perhaps one of the world’s most sought after travel destinations, you wonder whether the extra exposure of beautiful mossy sandstone jungle ruins to the excesses of Tomb Raider was an altogether positive thing. An overwhelming site, has to be seen to be understood.

The road to Mandalay

2007-08-01T20:49:00.000+10:00

The Moustache brothers are alive and well!

In a shop front house in Mandalay, Myanmar, the Moustache Brothers perform their own version of vaudeville/burlesque to foreigners. Two of the three Moustaches were incarcerated for five years for commenting unfavorably on (viz. making fun of) the Myanmar regime during a pro-democracy gathering in Yangon. Released following international pressure (including a concerted campaign from well-known international comedians), and after stints of hard labour, the Moustache Brothers now perform under quasi house arrest: nightly shows for tourists. The content’s still there, including a little fun-poking at the regime in Myanmar, but the steady line of western eyes that pass through into their living room seem to (so says Moustache number 2 Lu Maw) keep them safe. Also in Mandalay, Tam got sick. But she’s better now.

The Temples of Bagan

In Bagan we wandered undisturbed for hours through 45 kilometres of 8th – 11th Buddhist pagodas, discovering hidden stairways, and relics that arguably should have been in museums (or at the very least roped off from prying hands). There are some 2500-odd temples in this very small pocket of Myanmar (and the young postcard-seller we met named Selin seemed to know all the best spots – resourceful 12yo!). Our visit was thanks to the tip from intrepid traveler Marls, who, now that she’s been there herself, won’t mind if we let out the secret to all of you. Get there before the ropes and walkways do.

Pit-stop on the road to Elsinore

2007-08-01T20:29:00.000+10:00

The village of Paen Daeng in the hills of Chiang Dao is a hill tribe community of the Dara Aang people. The Dara Aang believe themselves descended from the Kinaree – a mythical species of half-bird, half-woman, depicted in the folktale Manora. The Dara Aang are not recognised as Thai citizens, greatly limiting their ability to travel, access to health care and other benefits. In mid-July, our team presented its rendition of the folktale Manora to the communities with whom we’ve been working: Tung Luk, Ban Patuengngam, and Paen Daeng. Performing Manora – a story of love, joy, persecution, and prejudice – for the people of Paen Daeng was an experience of immeasurable theatrical magic. We arrived as a band of traveling players in the back of four-pickups: costumed, made up, and sporting props, puppets and stages. Word spread like wildfire around the community “Makhampom are here! Lorng lakorn! Lorng lakorn!” Tarpaulins were laid on the dirt in between bamboo huts and children ran to sit near the front, dragging brothers and sisters by arm, ear and clothes. As Manora took flight, fleeing from her persecutors, we hummed the melody of a song composed by the Dara Aang about their men being taken away without explanation. The performance was an almost impossible meeting of the most low-tech environment with the most highly receptive audience. They surrounded us on all sides, talked, cheered, sang, laughed, screamed (frightened children ran away at one point, afeard of the villain), and lingered afterward as we packed up. Back into the pick-ups and into the night. Next stop Denmark? No, no repeats of this magic.

Performance at Tung Luk

Performance at Ban Patuengngam

Computer Free

2007-08-01T20:04:00.000+10:00

Travels through uncertain and varied territories made us reconsider the need for laptops these past couple of weeks, thus the long break from posting. We have been to Paen Daeng, Ban Patuengngam, Mandalay, Yangon, Inle Lake, Siem Reap and Chiang Mai, and our amends starts here. Shortly before we left, July Childrens Day (pictured...).

Puppet Making workshop at Children's Day

Dress Rehearsal of Mahajanok (on tour to Hong Kong)

A Weekend in Ban Patuengngam

2007-07-11T19:01:00.000+10:00

We spent this weekend support facilitating and running workshops in Ban Patuengngam, a Karen community in the hills. The Karen call themselves “Kyaw” and “Pakyaw” are those that live in the forest. Ban Patuengngam is the end of the road into the forest. The village has only had electricity for about three years, and the newly paved road extends only as far as the village entrance. All the kids though go to school, despite the incredible distance required to learn beyond primary school (many take part in a form of distance education).

Our weekend included being billeted with local families for a night. Split boys-to-boys and girls-to-girls, we ate and slept in family houses and had a brief but full introduction to household life. The community youth group shared some of their skills with us including walking on bamboo stilts, a local game of jacks/pick up sticks which was very difficult (at least for Tam). Our team facilitated workshops in circus, puppetry, and devised some short performances.

These two days were our strongest experience of being foreign so far. The community speaks some Thai, but their first language is their own – Pakyaw. So a three language mix. Body language was different too, such that even simple mime and gesturing often left us feeling a little freakish.

The community youth group (that MKP is fostering with theatre workshops) presented a devised performance about their community story to us and the rest of the community during the evening, along with a showcase of the skill-share and devising conducted during the day.

On Sunday, we led a time capsule activity with the youth group which was a great success. We asked the youth to write letters to themselves in five years time, describing their current experience, and their hopes for friends, the community and themselves over the next five years. The kids had immense fun writing the letters – many had not used an envelope before – and we sealed them in a capsule along with some memoirs from the weekend (like a juggling ball), and small tokens from Australia, Canada and Poland, our group’s representative countries. The capsule was buried amid great ceremony and silliness, and a sign will be placed on it next Saturday on our return visit, announcing the date that it is to be opened.

We are all different, yet we are all the same, and while the state of otherness we occupied this weekend was deep and confronting, it was a profound opening to that side of the equation we don’t often experience. Pakyaw. Thai. Australian. Canadian. Pole.

We Love Elephants! (Rak Chang!)

2007-07-11T18:40:00.001+10:00

Opening of Makhampom Studio

2007-06-24T14:11:00.000+10:00

From community programs in the humidity and humble villages of Chiang Dao, to the extended family of Makhampom (MKP), in the stifling metropolis that is Bangkok.

The opening of the Makhampom Studio in Bangkok provided another experience of the breadth of Makhampom’s operations. Officially a whole day affair, with local television and media coverage, a Buddhist ceremony and the premiere of a new work created for the event, we were thrust into a unique celebration. If you have seen the film Monsoon wedding, then you may be able to draw likenesses, as I did, between the colour and pulse of the event; it thrummed.

It began with a Buddhist ceremony. Back at the office of MKP, women had been preparing food since early in the morning. The monks would require a meal for their services – a feast, as it turned out. The team had spent considerable time preparing the Theatre for the ceremony: assembling a shrine to the hindu God of Perfomance ‘Por Gaa’; next to this, three placements complete with candles, cushions, water, bowls, and items of worship for the monks; a piece of string snaked around the studio, through toilets and coffee space, over the seating bank, between lighting rigs. This piece of string, the ‘Sai Sin” would be integral to the ritual.
Three monks entered, sat and a crowd gathered on the floor in front of them. Between them, the Monks held the piece of string and passed it between their fingers as they chanted, symbolising connection from the monks to the space and thus, the connection of spirituality to the space. A sequence of chants and call and answer mantras invoking the name of Por Gaa, continued for a half an hour. Water was shaken by a monk from a brush over the spectator/ participant/witnesses/ audience.

The monks then took wax and made finger prints at different points about the studio. This is the ‘Yagn’, a symbol to discourage evil from entering. Above each door, on the sign hanging above the street, auspiciously above the coffee machine! At each of the points the monk would say a mantra and shake some more water.

Then the feast. Three small tables were brought in, covered with bowls of many different kinds of food. Then more plates that did not fit on the small tables were brought in and placed around the monk’s feet. We sat and watched, others spoke in hushed tones as the monks ate. When the monk’s finished the food they left and lucky money was thrown and men, women and children scrambled to collect it. The lucky money is a tradition at Buddhist ceremonies to symbolise and promote the act of giving. It was then time for us to eat – eating from the monks substantial leftovers is considered auspicious (the stomach ache I had the next two days must have been from too much chilli or from some other fortune). The food for this feast was amazing.

The Buddhist ceremony spurned a long discussion later that night between Xan and I over the role and absence of spirituality and ritual in theatre.

In the afternoon, festivities continued with the media launch and performances. The new studio – a black box similar to La Mama - is in a district called Sapan Kwai, on the corner of Th Phaholythin and Th Pradiphat/Sutthisan, a busy intersection. Yes, every intersection is busy in Bangkok, but a sky train runs across this one making it particularly significant. It is also significant as one of the 07 NYE bombs went off in a bin metres from where the new MKP studio is (it’s ok Mum, why would they put a bomb in the same place twice?)
The performance that evening was the premiere of MKP’s new work “Sapan Kwai…my love”. From community research, four characters were developed and drawn into a drama around an unidentified object, presumably a…bomb. MKP use community research often as a tool to develop work. It was particularly relevant in this outcome. Opening the studio in a non arts precinct and offering a local story to the area began a dialogue and relationship across art, politics and local community.

Makhampom Theatre Group begins to look like a web, a network that operates with an extensive system of theatre makers, administrators and volunteers. It’s disorganized chaos somehow operates in a way that I cannot fathom and cannot conceive working in Australia. Nevertheless, here in Thailand it does work. Perhaps it is the nature of Thai’s that they can produce and be productive in this way. The sharing of food is an example. It is unusual, as far as we have seen, in the immediate MKP community and then in the wider community, for a meal to be eaten alone and not shared. And in this way the operation of MKP unfolds. Roles are held loosely and work is shared, everyone pitches in. We have been told that the wider Thai community has a strong hierarchy based on age. And yet this contradicts what we have seen of MKP. Labour is shared by all.

Richard (one of the MKP directors) is in some ways a political scientist working in community theatre. One of MKP’s future funded projects is to be a touring performance on democratic process, encouraging people to vote – very PC in the shadow of the Tai ruk tai, the previous Thai government who were overthrown by military coup and subsequently found guilty of electoral fraud.

We are back in Chiang Dao now with plans to return to work with the performance team in Bankok in August. For now, local community programs and shared practice with the team up here. From where I sit, I can count five mangos on our mango tree beside our bungalow. I cannot count how many Limes from here and the banana palms are barren.

Best from Thailand,
Tamara

A word from home...

2007-06-19T19:25:00.000+10:00

Simon Gorman, aka Soul Mirage, writes...

Hey Xan,

Man. I'm proud of you..

Take a moment to receive what that means.. I'll break it down for you.

This world is a new reality. Global warming, overpopulation, limited resources, the desperate need for disarmament... the 20th century was the development of the minds capabilities of manifesting - ecnomics, industrialism, ideologies, war, dazzling technology giving rise to a new global level of communication. So, the 21st century, to para quote his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, is about dialogue....

When I think about what this means, it is that we need to see the heart manifesting for the world now. But for that to happen we first need to really listen to everything and everyone in it. It hurts and the mind cant hold it all, so the need to want to quantify our experience arises and we get attached to a way of viewing things.. Our heart just knows. It changes even perhaps ahead of the collective unconcious..

I'm proud of you because you are encouraging true intercultural dialogue. So we can all just feel and know, a little more. And even as you change under your current circumstances, if it is in heart that you embrace your experiencec and surrendere to its message, that it is absorbed into the collective unconcious mind and the collective concious mind. It is a new pathway that we all feel. Just like when you speak one word with loving intention, that vibration expands infinitley loving everything it touches..

Peace to you and Tamara.

Where the familiar meets the extraordinary

2007-06-19T18:39:00.000+10:00

MKP Community Workshops

[The air is fresher today, though still a little sticky, and the intermittent clash of exhillarating thunder is oh so conducive to clarity of thought and the proper articulation of the truly wonderful...]

As posted earlier, we’ve been well ensconced in Makhampom’s community theatre program since arrival, attending and assisting in the facilitation of three workshops: one at the local village school in Tung Luk (some images already posted), a second here at the Living Theatre with youth from the broader municipality (11-15yo), from which Makhampom hope to grow the core of a new youth theatre group for the Chiang Dao community, and a third at a school up in a nearby hill-tribe area (Paen Daeng).

...

The bulk of Makhampom’s community theatre facilitation team up here are fairly new to the game, so it was into the deep end that they were diving with their first workshop at Tung Luk. Clearly well trained before taking the plunge, all the MKP facilitators seemed so well tuned to the outlooks and expectations of the kids in their community, Tam and I hadn’t the first clue that we weren’t the only ones confronting our first workshop. Splash. In we went.

I think we’ve mentioned already that several weeks at the CAE didn't quite turn us into mother-tongued Thai speakers prior to departure, but that basic advances were at least being made through the daily routine of finding food. Well one of the joys of the theatre workshop environment is of course that communication gets an extra boost by losing language. A theory I’ve been known to rabbit on about, but very reassuring to experience it working in a context where, if it didn’t work, I’d be the fish out of water. So, there the entry into the familiar. Most of the activities MKP use to facilitate the creative expression of the kids in the workshop are things we’ve seen or used before, in some twist or variation: breaking down inhibitions, building cooperative strategies, addressing expectations; all through the familiar modus of fun, laughter and play: exploring the body with extravagance, running and dancing, show and tell, and a little competitive spirit!

The most intriguing (and perhaps not as familiar to our practice as it could or should be) aspect of MKP’s facilitation is the engagement with community culture and, more particularly, engaging the kids in the process of creating from their own community culture, their own social language. Central to this aspect of the workshop are MKP’s mapping activities. One example: the kids are given a large empty space within which to vision the landscape of their local community and surrounds. With only the tools at their immediate disposal (sticks, rocks, dirt and grass from the school grounds, empty cans, shoes, bags, flowers…), the kids then transform the empty space into a living “map” of their community. As different “owners” move in to a particular parcel of land, we see its landscape change subtley – a wall comes down here, a road is extended there – and when their time is up, a discussion is led about the significance of various aspects of the structure, and what place this place has in the kids’ life experience. But one example.

The next key connector into the local community is a process of community interviews. The kids are broken into groups, given particular themes to explore (people; environment; significant places and events), and taken into the local community to interview relevant community figures and gather information. From here, the material is extracted into a performance through visual storyboarding, building into tableau representations, and finally adding movement and text.

Then, we perform (or the kids do, we offer support and document)! On the afternoon of the third day the kids assemble in the back of a pick-up truck and tour the local towns with megaphones announcing that a performance will begin shortly in the grounds of the temple. The gathering public of children, grandmothers, the occasional parent, and even the cool boys who just happened to be hanging out in the grounds trying to play Oasis covers on a tatty guitar, watch on amused as the bandwagon returns and the kids play out their drama (and music, and song, and dance) of the community with excitable vigour.

And you wonder what can be achieved in a few short days…

X

Tung Luk Workshop's Performance...

Workshop at Tung Luk school

2007-06-08T22:19:00.000+10:00

The past two days we have been with the Makhampom community theatre team in our first workshop - with children at the Tung Luk school. Tunk Luk is the local village just a bicycle stroll down the road, and a more engaged group of 8-12 year olds we're not sure we've seen ever. Still a 3rd day to go, with a performance in the Temple tomorrow afternoon, so they're working pretty darned hard. So, discussion from us on the workshop process later, for now some photographs...

Explore your bodies...

Group physical work...

Action and reaction...

The "mapping" of Tung Luk

Group discussions...

The gathering audience...

Makhampom Living Theatre and Training Centre

2007-06-08T21:43:00.000+10:00

Belatedly, but as promised, some pictures of our work environment in Chiang Dao...

Staff accomodations...

View of the mountain...

The theatre...

The rice fields...

Arrival in Chiang Dao

2007-06-04T23:34:00.000+10:00

Wat-di jao!

After a brief stop in Chiang Mai, We arrived in Chaing Dao on Saturday and already feel like we have been here for a month. Our welcome party on Sunday night at Makhampom Theatre was shared with the fourth birthday party of Luk Jan, daughter of Richard and Jon, Makhampom directors in Chiang Dao.

The grounds of Makhampom theatre are set in the middle of rice paddies at the foot of Doi Luang, the third highest mountain in Thailand, and the tail of the Himalayas. It is an amazing location hosting an abundance of insect and birdlife with the face of the mountain an ever changing visage. We are staying in Chiang Dao township. Image: street vendors and markets selling the oddest things (BBQ frog kebabs…), a shop that sells "everything" (the ‘Everything Shop'), and the ubiquitous 7/11. Not much else except rural charm and the localised industry of Thai agriculture.

We are getting by with the language we have and a smile (the smile seems to go further)… people are very happy to try and talk with us. We can purchase things and have a very basic conversation. The monsoonal rains are threatening but have not really yet arrived, sending most of the locals a little bit crazy. When it does rain, we (and indeed everyone else it would seem) love it because it cools things down a bit.

Today was our first official day at Makhampom; together with Richard we had a long discussion about our involvement in Makhampom program activities. Along with teaching English, planting rice, delivering skill share theatre practice with the local team and attending the opening of the Makhampom Studio in Bangkok, our first month will be preoccupied with programs in the local school and hill tribe communities. The refugee project is mooted to restart in July and run through August. So we sign off our arrival update with some favourites and funnies…

Favorite things:
1. lots and lots and lots of fireflies – right outside our house.
2. whole fresh mango and sticky rice for 20 baht (80 cents?).
3. Mangkoot (Mangosteen) – fabulous local fruit which tastes like a combination of mango and custard apple (Tamara changes her favourite fruit with each new one sampled).

Funniest things:
1. a man riding a motorbike with a chook perched on the handlebars.
2. beer with ice (soon to become one of favourite things).
3. that our closest sighting of the southern cross was in the mosquito bites on Xan’s legs.

X&T

Fantastic Fiesta on Anzac Day

2007-05-17T10:32:00.000+10:00

Thank you to all our wonderful friends and supporters who joined us on Anzac Day for our Rûang Tai Benefit Fiesta. We had a wonderful turnout across the day, and we couldn't be more inspired by our own community's desire to come together and celebrate our community-building activities in Thailand.

The fiesta raised over $750 towards our direct project and travel expenses. Beyond this the event also raised considerable awareness about the situation of refugees worldwide. Have a look at some of the notes and drawings made at the fiesta (and posted here), and you'll see that our community continues to care deeply about the lives of others out of their reach.

An extra special thank you to Floyd Thursby, Ennio Styles, Lawrence Leung and Mei-Lai Swan for entertaining the revellers, to Soul Mirage for making sure they were heard, to Mariko and the Lentil crew for hosting such a wonderful afternoon, and of course to Lonely Planet and King & Godfree for international references and Thai flavours.

The atmosphere of support that has surrounded our Rûang Tai endeavour has left us humbled and grateful to our wonderful friends and partners, and we are full of anticipation and excitement for our journey. Off now in 10 days - stay tuned in here to our latest developments!

Rûang Tai Fiesta Photos

Floyd Thursby .......sounds of Rûang Tai....... Ennio Styles

Chris & Winter .......Rûang Tai revelling....... John & Aleda

Rûang Tai Benefit Fiesta - TODAY at Abbotsford Convent

2007-04-25T10:19:00.000+10:00

We're joined today be surprise special guest and comedy festival hit Lawrence Leung, so be sure to come down early for the laughs. The fiesta fun starts at 3pm, and the entertainment lineup is as follows:

* LAWRENCE LEUNG (3.30)

* FLOYD THURSBY (4.30)

* MEI-LAI SWAN (6.00)

* ENNIO STYLES (7.15)

mûa-rài (when): Wednesday 25 April (Anzac Day)
tíi-nai (where): Lentil As Anything, Abbotsford Convent
wee-laa tâo-rài (what time): 3pm - 10pm

* Food available from Lentil as Anything (pay what you feel) - Lentil is a BYO establishiment so be sure to bring your Anzac Day wine if desired.

* Entry by donation

Soulful music, wholesome grooves, a laugh or many, giveaways, plus plenty of fun for the kids - a great day out with your community. We look forward to seeing you.

Xan and Tam invite you to their
Rûang Tai Benefit Fiesta*
a day of music, fun and celebration, in aid of their community cultural development adventure in Thailand.

Donate to our project

2007-04-06T12:58:00.000+10:00

Our community cultural development and performance making residency in Thailand has been made possible through the grant of an Asialink Performing Arts Residency – an Asialink Project funded by the Australia Council, the Federal Government’s arts funding and advisory body. Our project nonetheless necessitates the commitment of significant personal funds, and we are therefore seeking further support to assist us in funding the remainder of expenses not covered by the Asialink funding.

You can make a tax deductible donation to our project and performance work by posting a cheque to the address below. You will be issued with a tax receipt for your records. All cheques should be made payable to:
"The La Mama Trust"

All donations will go towards the costs associated with our residency, with any remainder given over to developing programs within the Makhampom Theatre Group.

Post cheques to:
Xan Colman & Tamara Searle
C/- A is for Atlas
PO Box 133
Abbotsford VIC 3067

Rûang Tai Benefit Fiesta - Anzac Day at the Abbotsford Convent

2007-04-06T12:34:00.000+10:00

Xan and Tam invite you to their
Rûang Tai Benefit Fiesta*
a day of music, fun and celebration, in aid of their community cultural development adventure in Thailand.

mûa-rài (when): Wednesday 25 April (Anzac Day)
tíi-nai (where): Lentil As Anything, Abbotsford Convent
wee-laa tâo-rài (what time): 3pm - 10pm

Featuring:

* ENNIO STYLES

* FLOYD THURSBY

* MEI-LAI SWAN

* Food available from Lentil as Anything (pay what you feel)

Entry by donation*

We are soon to leave for Thailand on our Asialink performing arts residency to work with Makhampom Theatre Group (Chiang Dao, northern Thailand). Makhampom work extensively in community cultural development – including in refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border – seeking to provide long term solutions to problems of violence against women, sexual health and social justice. We will also visit Cambodia, Burma and southern Thailand, with a view to skill sharing with local organisations.

For further information, and for regular updates on our residency, stay tuned to this blog.

*All funds raised will be put towards costs associated with our residency, and any remaining funds will be donated to projects at Makhampom.*

Please feel free to bring friends and families.

About Makhampom Theatre Group

2007-04-06T12:31:00.000+10:00

Makhampom began building its Living Theatre centre in Chiang Dao in 2005 after a long preparation. This centre is being prepared as the base for the Community Program and International Program as well as a home for several senior Makhampom members who are developing a long-term integrated community role. Makhampom’s current base in Bangkok is the home of the head office, the Education Program, Performance Program, and ASA (Thai volunteer) centre. In 2006, the Community Program worked on post-tsunami theatre for rehabilitation programs, a refugee support program, and community theatre activities in Chiang Dao. The International Program is working on the final stages of building the Living Theatre, Study Tour programs, performance touring in Australia, and co-facilitating the refugee program. Makhampom aims to apply Theatre for Community Cultural Development (TCCD) for the progressive transformation of Thai society and for collaboration and exchange beyond borders.

For more information on Makhampom, follow the link under "Friends and Partners" to their website.

Our Thai Story begins here...

2007-04-06T12:14:00.000+10:00

With the support of an Asialink residency, we have accepted an invitation to work as volunteer residents for three months at Makhampom Theatre Group in Chiang Dao (northern Thailand). Makhampom work extensively in community cultural development (CCD) practices in the arts,including notably in refugee camp communities on the Thai-Burma border.

Thailand has played host to Burmese refugees for nearly two decades. Gross human rights abuses in their homelands have prompted the outflows. The Thai government has pursued a humanitarian policy through which refugees fleeing conflict are afforded temporary asylum until the conflict in the area from which they fled ends. The refugee population in the camps has expanded from little more than 20,000 in the mid-1980s to nearly 120,000. The number continues to grow. Resettlement is a complex and lengthy process, and meanwhile the refugees live in poor conditions in border camps.

In consultation with Richard Barber, International Program Coordinator at Makhampom, we will be working within Makhampom’s refugee project team in the roles of support facilitator and documentor for educational theatre projects investigating problems of violence against women, public health and social justice. We will also work within Makhampom’s theatre-in-schools program which undertakes such educational theatre projects in school communities. These ongoing programs, which provide long term solutions to social and health issues through community cultural development activities, suffer from a continuing lack of resources. Through our participation in the program, we hope to provide practical facilitation and documentation support that will further the profile and long term outcomes of these programs.

In addition to our program-based support work, we will also devise a performance piece based on our experiences of working within these displaced and disadvantaged communities, to give voice to their stories and to some of the social issues identified as key contemporary concerns at the time of our visit. We propose to offer this performance piece, towards the end of our stay, to the communities within which we have worked, ideally including opportunities for members of those communities to participate in the performance, and then again to our home community upon return to Melbourne.

Further to the activities we undertake with Makhampom, we will also spend some part of our project visiting Cambodia, Burma and southern Thailand, to establish contact with local CCD organisations and share our accumulated skills and experiences. By engaging in a discourse with these organisations about their practices and objectives, and comparing them to those of Makhampom and elsewhere, we hope to generate healthy networking opportunities between CCD organisations in this region of South East Asia. One such organisation, The Green Gecko Project, is an initiative founded to benefit the lives of street children in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We will be documenting our project with a view to developing resource material that can assist us in broadening awareness both of the situations of these communities, and of the capacity for creative practice to provide meaningful improvements to the social fabric of communities in need.