20052021

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Thursday, May 20, 2021

Newbury Weekly News

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT 2 n

Maestros commits to music inclusion

Par ty for Reading Abbey’s 900th Burghfield theatre group has share of £10k for digital commission leading to Water Fest

BURGHFIELD-BASED Berzerk Productions, together with Reading’s StrikeUp theatre group and blues and jazz singer Ma Bessie, have been commissioned by Reading Borough Council to create digital art pieces in celebration of Reading Abbey’s 900th anniversary. The events will be released in the lead-up to Water Fest, the flagship celebration event to mark the 900th anniversary of Reading Abbey on Saturday, June 19. The commissioned artists will have a share of the £10,000 funding pot, provided by the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage, distributed by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, in partnership with

Historic England, on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.. 2021 marks 900 years since the foundation of Reading Abbey, once one of Europe’s largest royal monasteries, by King Henry I. Applications were invited from creatives of all ages across Reading to produce digital artistic content to celebrate the Abbey from 1121 to present day. Berzerk Productions’ digital content will involve over 20 young people, layering performance spaces by using smartphones or tablets to create an immersive experience. Influenced by the history of the pilgrimage that monks would have taken to the Abbey, spectators will be taken on a journey, led by their smart devices. Readipop will be working with young people to create the soundtrack for this journey. At the weekend the group tweeted: “We are super excited to be filming our digital commission to celebrate 900 years of Reading Abbey this weekend! Keep your eyes peeled for updates and sneak peeks across all of our socials.” StrikeUp plan to collaborate with Reading Culture Live to engage intergenerational community participants to take part in a 10- week performance poetry course, celebrating the rich history and diverse present of the town, through the eyes of the Abbey. Ma Bessie – who many will remember for her performance

BERKSHIRE Maestros, lead organisation of the Berkshire Music Education Hub, has published its music inclusion strategy, which details how it intends to build a more inclusive offer by providing a range of diverse musical opportunities for all children and young people across the county. Maestros offers support and education in the majority of schools across the county and also teaches more than 4,000 children in lessons and music groups in its local music centres. The charity intends to expand its inclusive offering, embracing a wide range of styles such as South Asian music, hip-hop and drill and offering a music education programme that addresses social and personal outcomes as well as music outcomes. This will be particularly important in a post-Covid world, where disadvantaged children have fallen even further behind their peers in

Water Fest

song to commemorate its 900th anniversary. Reading is Ma Bessie’s hometown, it’s great opportunity to give something back to a place that helped us flourish as a band.” You can book your free ticket at www.whatsonreading.com/ waterfest900 and visit www. reading.gov.uk/waterfest900 if you’d like to take part as a volunteer, performer or by running a stall. TRISH LEE

at the Newbury Jazz and Blues Festival – proposes to create an original song that follows Henry I, his progression to the throne, the establishment of the Abbey and his death. The song will be recorded in their Reading studio, with a video being filmed at the abbey. Ma Bessie said: “We’re so excited to be part of such a historic project.

Ma Bessie The Abbey is such an important Reading landmark and we are honoured to be asked to write a Dance theatre explores climate change

Dance theatre

Anthropocene: the Human Era – Gymjam In front rooms everywhere April 22-May 17 Review by JON LEWIS

education. The aim of Berkshire Maestros’ inclusion strategy is to improve the lives of children in challenging circumstances, such as Ben, who is a student in a special needs school. Through his music lessons with Berkshire Maestros, Ben has been able to perform in school concerts and join an open orchestra as a pianist, where he has thrived and grown in confidence. Ben’s violin teacher says: “I feel privileged to have witnessed Ben’s progress. I am humbled by the enormity of this gift, and grateful of the opportunities we can offer to develop his life skills alongside his exceptional music abilities.” Berkshire Maestros CEO Dawn Wren explains why this project is at the heart of Berkshire Maestros’ plans for the next four years: “There has never been a more pressing time to seriously tackle inclusion, than now as we come out of a global pandemic that has adversely affected so many people. Disadvantages have become greater and issues have become more complex affecting the health and wellbeing of many young people. It has become the number one priority therefore for Berkshire Maestros to focus on inclusion in its ceaseless aim to support all children and young people.” There has never been a more important time to expand the offer of relevant, inclusive music education to address the educational, social and emotional needs of these children, and Berkshire Maestros intends to lead the way.

COMMISSIONED by the Oxford Playhouse and supported by TORCH, Oxford University’s research centre that funds arts projects that concern other areas of academic study, Anthropocene: the Human Era is an online film that uses dance theatre to explore how our everyday activities affect climate change. The audience is encouraged to make its own journey through the film, touching the screen to make choices that are initially about consumer purchases, eg juice/coffee or wine/ magazine/chocolate and later, moral or ethical decisions, eg good/ bad present. Press the word juice, for example, and a deftly-edited collage of images follows – oranges being picked in an orchard, then transported by train, container ship and lorry. The message is clear; transportation fuels emissions. Our breakfasts will kill the planet. We hear the memorable warnings of David Attenborough urging populations to take better care of their planet. Jointly directed jointly by William Townsend and Gavin Maxwell, this is a ravishing production that shows, rather than tells, in the mainly wordless style of Gecko. The fluid dance movements to an excellent techno soundtrack by Townsend and Micheal Lynch is reminiscent of Frantic Assembly,

Flood

This is a ravishing production that shows, rather then tells, in the mainly wordless style of Gecko

a company Maxwell has worked with. The central figure is Megan (Megan Noakes), a woman taking a pregnancy test in her bathroom, waiting for her partner to return home. She daydreams what the future could be like for her hoped- for child. In the journey I clicked, her daughter has a daughter of her own, the planet full of man-made disasters, landfill-stricken.

the world portending disaster. More traditionally, there are more abstract ensemble dance scenes in a studio, lit by suspended LED lights, creating vibrant tableaux suggesting the womb as a globe. A baby bundle is passed around the dancers. Megan has decisions to make, as do the

Megan and her partner are middle- class, living in a cottage with wooden beams, whitewash, tiled floors, natural wooden doors, and heavy wooden furniture. The home should be a lovely nest for a baby. They have breakfast; he leaves for work. A friend of Megan’s visits. There are scenes on a beach, intercut with images from around

viewers. Superb.