*** Another local  course you might be interested in! ***

The course

This course is fun – lots of fun! Acting skills are also life skills. Through games, activities and exercises you will learn how to unlock your creative side andimprove your communication skills, while at the same time gaining an insight into world of an actor. This course will offer you tools to improve your personal and professional relationships, study skills and self-confidence. Whether you want to take the first step to becoming a professional actor, join the local am-dram society, improve your public speaking or just want to have fun – this course is for you!

No previous experience required.

Surpluses from this course will be used to fund self-confidence and self-esteem workshops for marginalised adults.

Dates

Six Saturdays (11am-1pm)

17th and 24th October 2015
Break for half-term
7th, 14th, 21st, 28th November 2015

Location

Cocoon Healing Arts Centre
20-22 Gloucester Place, Brighton BN1 4AA.

Price

Twelve hours over six Saturdays: £55: Pay online before 30th September 2015 and you can sign up for only £49!

The tutor

Guy Wah is the founder of ZLS Theatre and BrightonActors.co.uk. Having worked in a variety of ‘real-life’ jobs ranging from the repetitive to the ridiculous before training as an actor, he is passionate about using acting skills to help people unlock both their creativity and their self-confidence. Guy is a proud champion of social enterprise in Brighton & Hove.

Further info available here: http://www.zlstheatre.org.uk/workshops/acting-skills-for-life-a-holistic-approach/

*** Local Theatre Production About Mental Health, free entry ***

On 13th October at the Brighton Dome, Social Enterprise Theatre, in collaboration with Brighton Housing Trust, will be presenting One in Four – a rehearsed reading devised by people with a lived history of mental health. Three groups of women will be presenting short ten-minute plays about their experiences of mental health, before Des McClean presents a funny and enlightening take on some difficult experiences as a black man in the mental health system in England.

ZLS Theatre founder Guy Wah has been directing Des in his monologue, and is excited by the upcoming performance.

“Des has written a very funny and engaging script detailing some of his very difficult experiences within the mental health system in England. I’m honoured to be able to direct this part of what promises to be an entertaining and enlightening evening of entertainment.”

The performance takes place on Tuesday 13th October in the Founders Room at the Brighton Dome and entry is free, with donations accepted later in the evening.

http://www.socialenterprisetheatre.com/

http://www.zlstheatre.org.uk/

*** Thought this might be of interested to some Magnetic Ideals followers and members!

Since its description by Hans Asperger in 1944, it has often been suggested that individuals on the autistic spectrum lack, or have an impaired, sense of humour.  This alleged humourlessness has been challenged in recent decades within the academic literature (e.g. Lyons & Fitzgerald 2004, Samson 2013) but it is still a pervasive myth.  Moreover, the work of people such as the U.S. comedy troupe Aspergers Are Us and the UK based performer Cian Binchy suggests a strong and distinctive comic voice within the autistic/aspie community. Importantly, these performers use comedy as a mode of self-representation, and thus contrast strikingly with other representations of autism in popular comedy. Both The Big Bang Theory and Derek have been criticised by some for their representation of autistic characters (Sheldon and Derek, respectively) despite the writers’ firm assertions that those characters do not have the condition. In this way, such representations are implicated in questions of authorial intention and the ethics of, to use Kaite O’Reilly’s term, ‘cripping up’.  Further questions arise when looking at the use of humour in applied theatre contexts – many drama interventions for autistic children use humour, but there is little research on how much this component contributes to the positive effect of the work.

The organisers of this conference welcome papers on any of the symposium themes with possible topics including, but not limited to, the following:

• Autism and humour comprehension/appreciation/production
• The ethics of the representation of autistic people in comedy (e.g. The Big Bang Theory, Derek, Community)
• Relaxed performances as a method of opening up comic theatre
• Disabling humour vs. disability humour and autism
• The use of humour in interventions for autistic children
• Political humour and the claims of the neurodiversity movement

Please send an abstract of around 300 words, along with a short biography, to Shaun May ats.r.may@kent.ac.uk by Tuesday 1st November 2015

Confirmed invited speakers include Prof. Michael Fitzgerald (TCD), Kelly Hunter (Author of Shakespeare’s Heartbeat: Drama Games for Children with Autism) and Cian Binchy (performer and writer of The Misfit Analysis) with more to be announced.

This symposium is part of BA/Leverhulme funded project, Comedy on the Spectrum: Exploring Humour Production with Adolescents with Autism. For more information about the project visit www.autismandcomedy.com.

We are extending our deadline to the 13^th October for submissions to the (in)Visibility Issue of ‘Critical Studies’.

Critical Studies is an interdisciplinary journal of the humanities, dedicated to critical studies broadly construed. It is an annual, open access, peer-reviewed print and digital publication, and functions both as a traditional academic journal and as an annual report of the activity of the Critical Studies Research Group, a postgraduate community based in University of Brighton’s School of Humanities.

Access all articles and the full journal online here: http://www.criticalstudies.org.uk/journal.html

Call for Papers Issue 2: (in)Visibility

Politics has been diversely theorised as the making visible what is invisible, as the uncovering what is covered up, as the giving voice to the mute, as the inclusion of those excluded into the regime of the perceptible. Secrecy is typically connected to the state and its agencies operating in the shadows, or to the police order and its suppression of the voices of the marginalised and abjected. Valuable, powerful, and potent though such theorisation may be, it leaves unanswered the question of the value that may lie in remaining, precisely, invisible, of keeping off the radar, of staying underground, for radical activism, artistic performance, and alternative politics.

Critical Studies welcomes papers on these and related topics from a broad range of disciplines, both research papers and non-conventional forms of presentation related to the issue topic. We encourage transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary contributions.

Deadline for submission 13^th October 2015

Full Call for Papers, style and submission guides available here: http://www.criticalstudies.org.uk/call-for-papers.html

All enquiries to: CriticalStudiesResearch@brighton.ac.uk

Kind regards,

Heather McKnight

Critical Studies Research Group

University of Brighton

https://uk.linedin.com/in/hmcknight

Grub ‘n’ Mushroom Tandem Talk @ Onca, September 9, 6pm. Free admission, donations welcome.

As part of Lost & Found, two artists and freecyclists are cycling around the Sussex Downs to discuss neonicitinoids with farmers and local food producers. Hear about their journey!

Pollination, Pesticides and Politics: a public debate with Professor Dave Goulson and PAN-UK @ The Brighthelm Centre, September 11, 7-9pm. Book your place here.

Join Onca and Pale Blue Dot for a controversial and lively discussion on the agro-chemical industry, farming and the changing landscape.

Lost & Found Printmaking Workshop with Primitive Print artist Stephen Fowler @ Onca, September 12. Book your place here.

Fancy making cool bee-themed fast art? Onca is hosting 2 printmaking workshops with Stephen Fowler and scientists from The Buzz Club, Sussex University. Morning session (10am) for families and children; afternoon session (2pm) for adults. Don’t miss out!

Digi-Fears Part II: Help! Evil Digital Forces Are Trying To Control My Messy Body! @ Onca, September 26, 2-4.30pm. Free admission, limited places. Book here.

Join artists Lorenza Ippolito and CiCi Blumstein plus guest speakers and artists to explore gaming, SeriousPlay, binary thinking, performative embodiment, 3-D printing, the digitisation of nature and the body, and whatever else might spill out of the OH-ONE box…

For more information visit www.onca.org.uk or call 01273607101