The Gospel of Othello will be playing in Zimbabwe this November/December.
For venues and dates, please visit our calendar on Facebook. To download an information pack, please click here.

This project brings participants together with professional artists and theatre makers to develop and stage their own version of Othello. The play-building process engages with movement, improvisation, song, dance, and ensemble acting, melding Shakespearean verse with the vernacular of communities in order to interrogate Shakespeare’s play. We focus on key themes such as gender relations, exile, racism/tribalism, and ‘othering’. The rehearsal method encourages participants to voice their understanding of the themes, and to exchange ideas on social change. The second phase of the project supports the group to produce performances of the version of The Gospel of Othello they have created, opening up this conversation to the broader community.

This project builds on established community theatre and development work by offering an African diaspora/global perspective. Our artists are steeped in diaspora life experience and have the advantage of being able to observe and create from multiple cultural perspectives. The project is not merely an opportunity for skilled members of the diaspora to use their training and experience gained outside of Africa to assist in local capacity building; it also serves as a conduit for valuing and repositioning Southern local knowledges and sensibilities within the global North.

OUTCOMES

1. Participants learn valuable skills in the performing arts, management, theatre production, workshop facilitation, and education
2. Participants work together with highly-skilled and experienced international professionals, providing the opportunity to tap into creative networks in their home country and abroad
3. Aspiring and professional artists/producers may be provided with creative entrepreneurial and apprenticeship opportunities, and continued skills development
4. Participants are empowered to mount their own version of The Gospel of Othello, and given the necessary training and support to function autonomously once the project has concluded
5. Performances of The Gospel of Othello will be used as a starting point to encourage community dialogue about key issues such as gender relations, racism and migration. Discussions take place through forms such as post-show discussions, debates, and participatory workshops

PROJECT HISTORY

The Gospel of Othello has been facilitated in the UK, South Africa, Canada and Zimbabwe with professional and emerging artists, as well as school children and community participants.

We devote the core principles of professionalism, discipline and creativity to any group of participants irrespective of artistic experience. These are the same principles required for any enterprise or community cohesion endeavor.

2011

Intwasa Festival: Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
British Council Supported

Canadian Stage’s Festival of Ideas and Creation: Toronto, Canada

Harare, Zimbabwe

2010

Intwasa Festival: Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
British Council Supported

2008

Port St John Junior School: South Africa

Chapeltown, Leeds, UK
Co-produced by The People’s Arts Council in Association with The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Leeds Bi-Centenary Transformation Project

FACILITATORS

Patrice Naiambana
Harold George
Juwon Ogungbe

Working with Young People and Families

Shakespeare’s Soul Train is a fun programme for young people and early years with a wide range of learning requirements. This work focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to developing ‘learning muscles’ through creativity. We use visual aids, rhythm, movement and stories from Shakespeare’s plays to stimulate young minds to engage with the world around them. The programme often includes arts and crafts; Anwa Essien, an experienced artist with a special focus on local communities, facilitates practical silver making workshops where participants design and produce their own pure silver jewellery.

We are happy to work together with organisers to design a workshop plan compatible with any special interests and needs.

This programme has run in diverse environments that include:

Hackney College of Performing Arts, London
Borders Busters — South West Birmingham Local Authority School Cluster
Home education group for early years in Birmingham
The Leone Preparatory School in Sierra Leone, West Africa
Secondary schools in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

FACILITATORS

Patrice Naiambana
Anwa Essien

Elizabethan Verse, Drumming and Song at NHS North Essex Mental Health Trust

In 2008, Tribal Soul initiated pilot sessions in mental health environments in Essex at three locations. Both staff and services users participated in the workshops.

Many services users found the sessions helped to alleviate certain symptoms, such as hearing voices. Staff observed that the ensemble activity and collective focus required for engaging with Shakespeare stimulated interactions between participants who did not habitually interact with each other. They also noted several marked examples of improved concentration and awareness and were excited at the prospect of sustained work with services users.

We are currently engaged in setting up more sessions in Essex with the intention to roll out similar programmes throughout the country.

Shakespeare as a Lingua Franca was a hothausing pilot project initiated by Patrice Naiambana in 2006, while he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Histories Ensemble. It took place over two years, and provided the basis for The Gospel of Othello.

The project was facilitated, produced and funded by Tribal Soul as a pilot scheme with three imperatives:

1. To provide impetus for social transformation through creative ensemble work and dialogue
2. To provide insights for developing workshops and performances relevant to multi-ethnic societies
3. To sustain research and create innovative and original work

The project began with a one-day performance seminar in Chapletown, Leeds. The participants were experienced multi-disciplinary diaspora artists strongly engaged with their communities in the UK and ancestral communities in Africa and the Caribbean.

Shakespeare was proposed as a prism for engaging with cross-cultural and shared history. The group took Othello as their point of departure, storytelling Othello’s childhood and speaking verse. The play acted as a catalyst to release personal histories and invoke wide ranging discourses. So fertile was this day’s work that Tribal Soul proposed an extended residency with professional, non-professional and emerging young artists, mainly from Chapeltown.

The Lingua Franca project took place in 24 ethnically-diverse environments in South Africa, Sierra Leone and Britain: after-school clubs, community centres, museums, schools, universities, mental health service units, libraries, theatres, and bars. This approach produced a wide range of outcomes depending on the needs of the participants, from literacy engagement, performance training, community cohesion to intercultural understanding and diversity discourse.

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