Lit Rap and Drama at the Library
This year in the Library we present the internationally famed lit-rap The Rap Canterbury Tales, plus a host of drama presentations and dancing.
 |
|
| 27/28 May 2007 |
2007 has been funded by:
2007 has been funded by:
| 12pm | Newbury Dramatics Society | 1pm | The Rap Canterbury Tales |
| 2pm | Interakt Theatre Community Group - Morpheus Theatre | 2:30 | Newbury YoungStars |
| 3pm | Trinity School | 3:30 | THRIFT Theatre |
| all day | Children’s Information Centre | 12pm -4pm |
Newbury College Tasters |
The Rap Canterbury Tales
"Ready to kill with
their jagged-edged
daggers drawn;
The three aggravated
braggarts staggered
up the lawn;
And without dragging on while the story is told;
Beneath the tree they found a bag filled with glorious gold."
Baba Brinkman updates 14th century Chaucer with his 'Lit-Hop' presentation - The Rap Canterbury Tales. A full 60 minutes of the pilgrim's stories told as never before, in hip-hop rappin' style.
College students have clapped and laughed as they have seen the stories, most have only read, come to life on stage in clear modern language.
Baba Brinkman, a young literary scholar who studied Chaucer for his master's degree in the late 90's, translated the tales to make them more accessible. He feels that "all the themes of rap music are there in the tales; jealousy, anger, greed, lust."
A surprise hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with The Rap Canterbury Tales, Baba was invited to take part in a Cambridge University project to encourage school children to love literature. As a result he has toured schools presenting classes of 15 and 16 year olds with his 'Tales' having toned down some of the bawdier language and sexual connotations of the originals to make it more suitable to his audience.
Every element of the plot closely follows Chaucer's original text, but in this contemporary setting. Brinkman plays Chaucer as narrator and participant - a hip-hop fan who stows away on a tour bus and witnesses a rap storytelling battle. Each rap being an exact retelling of one of the pilgrim's stories.
"Baba is fantastic at conveying the sense of poetry and storytelling."BBC News
"It was so funny it made me cry and made my stomach muscles ache from continuous giggling!" BBC West Yorkshire
Newbury Dramatics Society
Newbury Dramatics Society will be performing their one act comedy A Fishy Business by Margaret Wood. Set in the 1970s, Mary (a wife and mother living in the south of England) is keen for her family to climb the social ladder and escape their lower middle class status.
Enlisting the help of keen fisherman Uncle Richard to provide the feast Mary is all set for her dinner party guests. However anything that can go wrong does go wrong as the story unfolds in this comedy with a twist.
The society is the oldest established amateur theatre group in the Newbury area. Currently their membership is around 45, and they stage a variety of shows each year in local venues, and also enter regional drama festivals.
Interakt Theatre Community Group - Morpheus Theatre
Get ready to see the Newbury races and all its life in ways you have never seen before! Masked and ready performers from Morpheus Theatre will introduce you to a world of character, accompanied by the live music on offer at the Bandstand. This piece is a great celebration of the integrated theatre in existence in Newbury.
We are an Integrated community theatre group and we meet in the Morpheus theatre to devise and rehearse our work. This masked piece developed from a workshop we did with Strange Face back in Jan. 2007. The piece is based on a day at the races. Our Interakt players are, Tracy Stephens, Karen Winter, Peter Willcock, Reuben Coe and Noreen Sopp.
Interakt is a small Theatre Community Group made up of people with and without learning and physical disabilities. Interakt are passionate about drama being made available for everyone and hope to continue performing and sharing this passion.
Morpheus Theatre specialise in offering and promoting performance opportunities for people with Learning and Physical Disabilities within the performing arts. They are pleased to present a joint integrated project between Newbury College’s B-tech Performing Arts Course, Interakt Theatre Company and Morpheus Theatre at the Newbury Fringe Festival this year.
Newbury College now offers the change for people with special needs to audition for places on the B-Tech Performing Arts Course and Morpheus Theatre are very excited to have them working with them this year.
For further information on Morpheus Theatre please visit www.morpheustheatre.org
Newbury YoungStars
Newbury's favourite musical youth theatre company present a delightful performance featuring favourite moments from modern musicals including Les Miserables, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors and A Chorus Line.
"Newbury YoungStars [performed with] relish and enthusiasm" Newbury Weekly News [on Dracula Spectacular]
Trinity School
Memories. What triggers our memories? Sounds? Smells? Images? We all have them, but are they unique to us? Can we share memories? Do Memories die with us, or is there a way of them living beyond our life times?
A piece of Installation Theatre, which allows the audience and the Drama Sponsorship Students at Trinity a chance to share old memories and maybe even create some new ones. The performance will last 30 minutes and allows the audience to experience it from a range of different perspectives, using sound, image and a unique portable Theatre with space for one audience member.
Children's Information Centre
Children's Information Centre will be providing free activities for younger children. Come and join the fun in making colourful spinning tops!
The Children's Information Centre has been successful in providing a one-stop shop of free information to parents and carers of children in the West Berkshire borough for over 15 years. Their Family Information Service is open to all family members supporting children and young people from 0 to 19 years of age.
Eager to research any enquiry the Family Information Service provides personal advice on an infinite range of information, such as a tailored list of Ofsted registered childminders with vacancies in your area or "leisure packs" full of fun ideas for things to do. For those who require more specific help the Family Information Service can put you in touch with the right support organisation to help you.
For more information Tel 0800 328 9148 or visit their website www.childrensinfo.org
Newbury College Tasters
12 - 2pm Art
Mixing colours and inviting visitors to complete paintings.
Tutor will also do some fun portrait drawings on request.
13:00 - 14:00 Tapas Cookery
Variety of cold tapas dishes will be prepared for audience tasting between 1pm and 2pm. To include a short quiz on spanish cuisine.
14:15 - 16:00 Jewellery Making
Audience can make a small item of jewellery using a variety of beads and stones.
14:15 Hand Massage
There will also be an opportunity to enter a prize draw to win a course up to the value of £100 from the new 07/08 part-time leisure course programme
Powered by WebCAL
Newbury Fringe Festival: New Greenham Park, Newbury, Berkshire, RG19 6HN
