Forum Theatre, SA, May 20-23 2011

CHALLENGE: Change Media worked with acclaimed director, actor, filmmaker and social animateur,  Shahin Shafaei, and 18 young migrants, to create new work as part of a long term project. The forum theater workshop ran over 4 days, and mixed theater and acting techniques with digital media skills, to prepare for a 3-year multi-arts project , The Perfect Refugee.

PARTNERS: The Australia Council for the Arts Creative Communities Partnership Initiative; Arts SA Partnerships for Healthy  Communities; Australian Refugee Association; Bell Shakespeare Company; Victorian College for the Arts Centre for Cultural Partnerships; Tallstoreez Productionz

OUTCOMES:
This Change Media project aims to build the creative foundations for an exciting and innovative collaboration with young migrants and Bell Shakespeare in South Australia. The training covered forum theater, image creation and screen narratives, storytelling, interview and reenactment techniques and documentary shooting. The team also recorded some of the behind-the-scenes documentations.

We were excited to work with Shahin Shafaei [Through the Wires; From Bagdad to the Burbs] to kick start our newest creative challenge for the community arts and cultural development sector – to create high profile work that bring mainstream art and marginalized communities together to explore the ruptures of our society and our mythologies around refugees, racism and integration through a classical lens: Shakespeare In Times Of Crisis – The Perfect Refugee…

SCREENINGS & AWARDS: The training videos are now live and will also be included into our prototype community media training tool kit.

IMPACT & FEEDBACK: Stay tuned for updates.