Creativity, Arts and Older People
A blog by David Slater
Almost on a regular basis on Tuesdays, for Meet Me at the Albany, the piano in the café gets wheeled out into the centre of the room and the music begins. It’s an old, slightly out of tune instrument, perhaps one of the survivors of the1960’s piano smashing competitions. The older Bermondsey women that I… Continue reading Pioneers
Guest bloggers Rosie Wheatland, Rona Lewis, Nelly Andoh, Gwen Sewell, Thelma Hunte, Madeleine Keckwick, Sybil Reid, Shelia Powell and Lillian Bartholomew write about their experiences of working together in Entelechy Arts elders company. We speak about the past and the present. Both. We are old but not cold. We’ve all had experiences that have taught… Continue reading Laughter and silences
Guest blogger Lillian Bartholomew is a member of Entelechy’s Elders Company. In addition to working with the company devising and performing theatre, she volunteers her time as a peer mentor working alongside Entelechy Artists in a local care home in Deptford. Here she describes how listening and sharing stories can support and invigorate people moving… Continue reading Mick and Molly
It’s only week four and it feels like it has been going on forever; this gentle hum of strangers turning into acquaintances; civic space being re-colonised by its oldest citizens. A café in a local arts venue with a piano dragged out into the centre of the room. There are people straining to read the… Continue reading Meet Me at the Albany
In the former mill owner’s house, now home to the Ukrainian Centre in Bradford the Ukrainian women, in their beautifully embroidered blouses, are singing the once prohibited songs of their childhood. They are all clutching song sheets but they don’t need them, the words seep from their souls. They sing of love and loss. They… Continue reading Bradford (part 2)
I’m having supper with the eleven members of Entelechy’s elders company in the elegant surroundings of the restaurant in the Midland Hotel in Bradford, Yorkshire. We have all travelled north to participate in the next stages of the ‘Home Sweet Home’ project with Freedom Studios. It's a two year theatrical exploration into the art of… Continue reading Bradford
I can hear the laughter from the other end of the building. They’re meant to be working on some nuanced point of the script but the energy has clearly broken out and rampaged down the stairs. There is under a week to go before we take the raw new show for a first outing to… Continue reading In rehearsal
After the performance, sitting in the empty theatre I watch the packing of the set, the folding and careful placing of materials and objects into large black suitcases on wheels. I imagine them tomorrow walking through an anonymous airport concourse, perhaps two men and their elderly relative and an extraordinary number of travelling bags. But… Continue reading Casa das Fases at Odin Theatre Denmark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkEftYBANwI&feature=player_embedded Looking forward to seeing the work of the amazing Casa das Fases in a couple of weeks time when they travel from Brazil to Odin Theatre, Denmark. Sadly they can't make it to London but, fingers crossed, we may be able to live stream a performance later in the year.
Friday lunch time and I'm having one of those snatched 'paths crossing' conversations with Charlene:- ‘Every week when I see James he doesn’t remember that we’ve danced together. He remembers me but he has no recollection of us dancing. He says: ‘But I can’t get up out of my chair’, and I say “but you… Continue reading Reasons to get out of bed in the morning (No1 of an occasional series)
Creativity, Arts and Older People 