Schools jump over the Half Moon The recently revamped Half Moon, on White Horse Road in E1, regularly welcomes local school trips to take part in projects as well as visits to its performance spaces and workshops. www.halfmoon.org.uk House origins Oxford House was founded in 1884 by Keeble College and Oxford University. Out & About News in brief Docklands Singers’ Summer Concert THE London Docklands Singers’ 2014 Summer Concert, A Night at the Proms, takes place this Saturday, June 28 in Poplar. During the show, at All Saints Church, Newby Place, the choir will perform several Prom favourites as well as Haydn’s Te Deum and Vivaldi’s Magnificat. LDS musical director Andrew Campling will be conducting the performance, by the choir and the players of the Marcel Sinfonia, while the orchestra will also perform Vivaldi’s Concerto in C for 2 trumpets. Campling said: “Our summer concert is always a fun one and this year will be no exception, with a varied programme of patriotic favourites, folk songs and choral classics.” Tickets for the show, which starts at 7.30pm, cost £12 (£9 concessions). They can be booked online at www.ldsnightattheproms2014 .bpt.meor be bought on the door. Half Moon set for Edinburgh debut A THEATRE group for young people is about to make its first trip to play the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Half Moon, which is based in Stepney, will work on two productions during the August cultural get together in what will be the company’s first visit to the Scottish city in its 24-year history. The first play, Our Teacher’s a Troll, is written by Dennis Kelly – the writer behind Matilda the Musical – and is co-produced with Paines Plough. Our Teacher’s a Troll will run from August 2-23 at Paines Plough’s portable Roundabout Theatre at Summerhall. Big Red Bath is the second production and comes off the back of two sell-out runs at Half Moon Theatre and a recently completed national tour. The story, adapted by Half Moon’s Chris Elwell from the picture book by Julia Jarman and Adrian Reynolds, plays at Pleasance Courtyard from July 31 until August 24. What we saw this month An occasional column about arts events taking place across Tower Hamlets Field Day BY JAMES MARTIN GLORIOUS sunshine met revellers in Victoria Park at the start of this year’s Field Day. The conditions were matched by a bright and varied line-up of new and alternative acts. That was the case from the sax-backed Finn Jaakko Eino Kalevi through local rapper Ghostpoet, Jamie XX and Denge who all played on Saturday ahead of a tremendous headline slot from Metronomy. A mix of artists seemed to stretch the crowds across the park and, while bustling, felt laidback and rarely overcrowded. On Sunday there was even time for a visit to the Village Mentality area where sack races amid hay bales were amusing visitors, while our mob’s trip to a timed cow milking challenge made up for the slightly slimmer musical pickings. Where there lacked quantity on the second day, there was plenty of quality in the line-up, especially Changing seasons are a theme of the exhibition All change BY JAMES MARTIN A COLLECTIVE of artists will deliver a month-long exhibition at Oxford House in July, using past experiences of mental health problems as their inspiration. Change, in its various forms, is the broad concept being explored in the project that is the brainchild of ThinkArts! The group, led by mental health service users, participates in art-related activities, including drawing and painting, in order to contribute to the wellbeing of its members. In its new exhibition, the topic of Change – from political and life changes through the differing seasons – is expected to afford contributors a more free interpretation from which they can express themselves. An opening event on Friday, July 4 will feature a theatrical performance of Normal?, a play written by Ann Akin that centres on themes of mental health through the prism of a sibling relationship. The free afternoon programme, which starts at 5pm, also includes a film screening and discussion about mental health. Change exhibition runs from July 3-31 at Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green. The community and arts centre that was established in 1884 now houses numerous organisations and spaces for artistic development. For more information, see www.oxfordhouse.org.uk and you can follow @ThinkArts1 on Twitter. AN EXPERIMENTAL dance and physical theatre performance is set to explore the relationship between women and nature using themes influenced by environmental destruction. Women of Mass Destruction 2, which is led by Lydia Fraser-Ward, returns to Rich Mix on July 11 after a sell-out first event ran at the Shoreditch venue in 2012. The evening’s programme, which features performances from four emerging and established female dance artists and choreographers, will include shorts based around the topic of Destroying Mother Earth. Established choreographer and producer Fraser-Ward – who is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has a reputation for curating radical and challenging new dance pieces – presents her next work That Which Grows, which uses secrets and lies as its roots. “I’m always trying to find opportunities to deliver dance activities in east London,” Fraser-Ward said, while crediting Rich Mix for helping to provide a professional development package of support for the night that includes professional lighting design by Leo Woolcock. Organisers added that they hoped to stage WMD events more frequently in the through the anti-cool and synth-heavy Future Islands who were a huge hit during their hour-long sunset performance. This review can’t say much about the food and drink on offer, as the sight of £5 printed next to a can of Red Stripe lager was enough to deter this punter from even considering joining a queue. Still, there was far more important business in the form of the Pixies’ only London show of the year to look forward to. While the ’90s American hard-pop pioneers may not have had the amps turned up to 11 (fair enough, given Vicky Park’s residential location), early airings to classic tracks like Nimrod’s Son and Bone Machine meant they, as with this two-day festival, certainly didn’t disappoint. Field Day tours to Paris on Saturday, July 5. Early Bird tickets for next year’s festival, which runs June 6 and 7, are already on sale. A weekend ticket costs £59.50. www.fielddayfestivals.com future following the past success of their first event, WMD 1: Destroying the Female Body. Next month’s show includes a solo performance by Heidi Seppälä, titled #Flashbacklash# in which the Finnish dancer, performer and choreographer probes the idea that technology has replaced true connections between people and their relationship with nature. Beauty-fool by Konstantina Skalionta is a performance piece that reflects on ideas of beauty and body image, particularly through the ‘beauty myth’. In We’re Headed For A Drought – But Aren’t They Lovely?, Nina von der Werth presents a politicallycharged trio about the waste of freshwater on Earth. Women of Mass Destruction 2 is an 80-minute show suitable for ages 12 and above at 7.30pm on Friday, July 11 in Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1. Tickets are £8/6 – call 7613 7498 or visit www.richmix. org.uk 23 – 29 JUNE 2014 N E W S F R OM TOWER HAMLETS COUNCIL AND YOUR COMMUNITY 21
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