Working Parts

I really enjoyed my first promotion, I was a bit nervous at first. It was a great night, and people said it was, “Fantastic, Funny and Brilliant. Over 75 people came, so there was plenty to do. I had a job of doing the box office as well as announcing John Smith to the audience. I thank Rob for helping, but next time I will get more people involved. I would of liked to of made the comedian a cup of tea and have time to find out how they were feeling. Afterwards, everyone was asking, when was the next show and are you putting John Smith on again. I am thinking that my next show will be sometime in April. I will use Brook Street in Tipton because it has a bar. To help decide what show would be next, I used forms to ask people what they wanted. I gave them a choice of Comedy, BSL theatre and Mime; 18 people wanted BSL theatre, unsurprisingly 25 thought Comedy would be best and a few liked the idea of Mime. Black Country Touring have helped us to get the club back together again, more people are coming each week. It’s great that deaf people and their friends and family are enjoying themselves and that the club is attracting younger people.

9th November at 8pm
It’s my first time as a promotor. I have booked John Smith. He is a comedian from the Mansfield.  He is a deaf comedian who started in 2005. He has been all over the country. It’s a great experience to bring the comedian to the Deaf Club, and create a night when people will enjoy themselves.  I know this is going to happen because people have been calling me all the time to buy tickets. I have sold 85, Its been exciting to promote the event and speak to people who want tickets.

I will be there on the night, giving out tickets and I am really looking forward to introducing John Smith and thanking everyone for coming, and showing that there is an audience for “Beautiful BSL” which is the title of John Smith’s Show.

I am already looking forward to the next promotion and asking other deaf clubs about dates in April 2011. I have been to see five Black Country Touring shows so hope to pick a show from their menu of professional dance and theatre.

Dudley Deaf Club are promoting Comedian John Smith with the help of Black Country Touring. Eighty Five tickets are sold, so the evening promises to have a great atmosphere. Its on Tuesday 9 th November 2010, doors open at 7 for an 8 o’clock start. Tickets are £5 in advance and £7 on the door. It’s at Queens Cross Centre, Wellington Road, Dudley. For further info about date click here. Have a look at John smiths new sketches on You tube Or watch a video about the deaf comedian John Smith on his act and what inspired him to take up stand-up comedy. John Smith’s Visual Comedy on the Guardian’s website.

Catch the No Limits show at the bonded warehouse, Stourbridge on Friday October 1st. They have made Syd Rivers play “Sherlock Holmes and the case of the Aquilla Diamond” their own, mixing improvisations with scripted scenes. Working Parts supported No Limits in 2009 to gain funding from Awards for All for a year long drama project. Have a look at their Facebook fanpage to catch their latest video’s and get a sense of  what to expect, it will be far from elementary! Working Parts are currently supporting the young people who were involved in the drama group to plan for next year.

http://www.vimeo.com/15385036
The Deafintely theatre workshops have identified Deaf people in the Black Country who are interested in the Arts. Working Parts hope to offer support, to increase opportunities and realise ambitions. We met Bob who use to part of 3D in Derby and now lives in Stourbridge, He wrote a play called “Harry from Dollywood” Dollywood is a Deaf Hollywood, it’s a play I wish I could of seen, with lots of visual jokes it must of been hilarious. He is also an actor.

http://www.vimeo.com/14464363
Our recent residency in Birmingham culminated in two test performances in front of audiences made up of deaf and hearing people.
Their feedback really helped reinforce my beliefs about what artistic captions should be like. More on that later, but first a bit of background on the build up to the tests.
It was crucial to get deaf people’s feedback about our captioning experiment. Much of our efforts in the first week were about going out into Birmingham’s deaf community, introducing ourselves and marketing the test shows.  We also asked people to fill in questionnaires, the results of which we will publish soon.
But we couldn’t just march into deaf clubs and hand out questionnaires, (as a deaf person myself I know how annoying it can be to be ‘researched’) we had to make friends and offer something in return. And so we gave talks, ran drama workshops, and hung out in deaf clubs chatting to people. The legwork paid off and we even had deaf people traveling from Wolverhampton to see the tests. Big up to Brummies Ruth, OJ, and Alison who very generously helped to spread the word about our test shows. Read the rest of this entry →

Have a look at the video asking people what they thought about the workshops. Deafinately theatre are working with Black Country Touring and Deaf Cultural Centre to create a new play. To expose Deaf and hard of hearing people to this artistic process they are running a series of workshops with community groups in the Black Country and Birmingham. The purpose of the workshops is for Deafinitely’s writer to gather a wide range of opinions from community groups, including young people, about a given subject, such as deafness in the past and future. It is not our intention that the community groups “write” a play, but their reactions to, and discussions about the given topic will provide a broader background of material from which the writer and director draw when creating the script. The groups participating will have had an influence upon the creative process of Deafinitely Theatre Company and because of their participation in this process, we hope a greater interest in the show that is finally produced.

No limits for Autism welcomes new people for drama workshops in summer. At the end of July the No limits drama group will meet from 10:30 AM in the morning until 4:00 PM in the afternoon.   Each Friday from the 30 July through to the 3 September will be a workshop at the Coach house in Stourbridge, please contact Chris Morgan if you are interested in attending or would like to find out more.
Read the rest of this entry →

WORKING pARTS were invited to Dudley independent living partnership meeting; we were joined by the Regional Disability Network, Joanna Matthews and Lisa Wiggins. The conversation was about setting their targets following December’s successful independent living event. Marketing and reaching disabled people in the borough of Dudley was a priority. To profile the partnership was top of the list of things to do, as was communicating the message about independent living, which was what the partnership stood for.

Working parts suggested that Black Country Touring could subsidise the cost of disabled artists for the cabaret, however costs for the venue and marketing would need to be paid for. The solution is that WORKING pARTS have agreed to support Dudley independent living partnership t0 apply for funding to arts Council England, on the basis that a bid is from more than one disability group in the Black Country or beyond such as Council of disabled people Coventry and Warwickshire. The aim is that cabaret of new material will be created about independent living and personalisation that can be shown and promoted by disability groups. Read the rest of this entry →

Black Country Touring coordinator Alan McLean and arts officer Alison Breadon from the deaf cultural centre in Birmingham visited Dudley deaf club to experience the bingo night. They were invited by the committee of the deaf club to get an idea of the number of people who visit the club for the bingo. Over 75 people attended, we were told more came at Easter. We also met the secretary of the club, who could see the potential of this audience. Jeff was keen on promoting events at the deaf club and creating some great night outs for people who use deaf club, but also people in Dudley as well. Black Country Touring hope to help the club by assisting the Secretary. Jeff was thinking of starting with a Deaf comedian or Barbara Nice bringing her participatory comedy to the club and working closely with a BSL signer. If you go to a deaf club and are interested in getting support to put on events and shows get in touch with Black Country Touring.