- Run in association with SightSonic Festival 2004 Year-Round Programme
- Accessible Arts, Cube Media, AMICUS York and the City of York Arts Service, York College and the Manor School Community Programme have joined forces to bring you a unique, devised and interactive piece, which explores Greek stories of human transformation or ‘change’. Four ancient Greek myths are transformed through theatre and digital technology into a kaleidoscope of sound, music, video, drama and dance to create a powerful sound and visual collage, which aims to transform all who experience it.
- Written and performed by members of the Hands and Voices Choir and students from Manor School
- 4th December 2004 at National Centre for Early Music York
- Price £1.00
The Story…
“Changes” has been devised over the past ten weeks by actors from the Hands and Voices Choir and yr 8 students from Manor School. We started with four well-known Greek myths and then used different drama improvisation activities to develop our stories. It has been challenging at times and also great fun!
Our performance this year is called “Changes”, because the tales we have chosen to tell explore different ideas about change.
Several kinds of change take place during our performance. Firstly, each of our main characters is changed by the gods. Narcissus is changed to a flower, Arachne into a spider, Syrinx into a bunch of reeds. Echo is changed forever by having her voice taken away. Midas is given the power of changing everything he touches into gold.
At the second level every story changes in mood. Each begins with a light, comic, pantomime style, but becomes more serious as the story unfolds.
Next, there are also regular changes between two acting groups. The Greek myths are presented by actors from Hands and Voices. Although our aim has not been to re-create Ancient Greece, these versions of the stories are presented in a traditional way, which suggests they are “old” stories. However, at certain points in each tale the action stops, and actors from Manor School show us similar moments of change for people living in the present time, so that the stories and their ideas change backwards and forwards between the past and the present.
Strangely, the result of all these changes shows us that some things don’t ever seem to change! Whatever the period or setting, humans have to deal with boasting, teasing, deceit, vanity and greed…
The Music…
The music also changes throughout the production. First there are the songs, composed by Hands and Voices and sung to pre-recorded backing tracks. Each song was created by collecting ideas for words, turning them into finished lyrics and then improvising tunes on the words until we found what we wanted to sing.
The songs alternate with atmospheric music and dance music, composed by the Soundweavers, Cube Medias Creative sound group and students from Applefields School. These weekly workshops have created samples and sonic textures to fit with the key moments of the four Greek legends; magic, gold, the elements and creatures to name but a few. Soundweavers have edited and mastered these ideas to create a stimulating sound track which is original and exciting. The music is pre-sampled and pre-recorded, and will be triggered live during the show by the Soundweavers.
Acknowledgements
Accessible Arts, Cube Media, Amicus City of York Arts Service, York College and the Manor School Community Programme would like to thank the following for their invaluable support, without which this production would not have been made possible:
All the actors, singers, signers and musicians for their hard work, creativity and determination as always you have been a delight to work with
All staff, carers, parents and volunteers have given so many hours of their time
Yorkshire TV
CHANGES HAS BEEN SUPPORTED BY:
City of York Council, SightSonic Festival 2004, Screen Yorkshire, Manor School Community Programme, York College, The Foyle Foundation Mencap City Foundation and Baily Thomas Fund, York Common Good Fund, Donald and Patricia Shepherd Charitable Trust, Nestle Trust, York Friends Central Adult School, Community foundation (Challenge fund), TSB foundation, Harwood Estate, Norwich Union Life Charities, Norman Collinson Charitable Trust, The Foyle Foundation and Manor School Community Programme, Sessions of York