Keeping Calm and Carrying On-line

Photo: Keeping Calm and Carrying On-line

The Covid-19 Crisis

Here at Proud and Loud Arts we’re very proud that we meet twice a week, in person, to work creatively together. Now, during this dilemma, that is no longer possible.

Of course this could mean a halt to the projects we’re creating. It could mean a halt to seeing each other. It could mean a halt to communal tea and biscuits. OR, it could mean a new opportunity to get creative! Which is why we here at Proud and Loud Arts refuse to let it stop us.

So, like many organisations we’re exploring digital ways to Keep Calm and Carry On!

Shall we have a cup of tea? 

Whilst we may not be able to meet in person, we can meet online which is why we will be continuing our Tuesday sessions all together using Zoom – a remote conferencing tool that allows us to all see & hear each other at the same time. 

For our first experiment into this new way of working we decided to host a Proud and Loud Arts technology tea & biscuits morning. Granted the first 20 minutes involved a few teething problems, (various tangents, showing each other our pets, arguing over the best video games to play, getting disconnected or loosing our sound) but, we were soon all online and comparing our beverages! 

Getting Creative

Whilst we all love our social time together, we mustn’t forget that we still have a job to do, and that’s making incredible new art & performance work. With that in mind we began to look through our projects and create creative solutions. We’ve come up with a couple of new ways we’re going to work together, which include;

Toby’s Office Chair Warm-ups

Each week our Toby will kick off the session with a quick warm-up work-out… we’ve got to work-off those biscuits some how! These workouts can be done from a sitting position and are helping us get energised.

Counting to ten as a group

This classic drama game works just as well online, and is just as difficult! The aim of the game is for the group to count to ten, with only one person saying a new number at a time. If two or more people speak together then we all have to start again! And when that happens it’s a disaster! We can only succeed if we’re very focused. 

Script Doctor with Danielle 

As many of you will know our member Danielle has been focusing on her writing, with a very successful sharing of her new work Christmas With the Cratchits last December.

The feedback from this was amazing and Danielle’s eager to continue developing both this script and some others up her sleeve. So each week Danielle will share new script extracts with the group who perform an online read-through. This gives Danielle excellent insight into what is working and what needs work!

We’re excited to see what Danielle creates! 

Feminist Story-time with Kelly 

Those of you who remember Kelly’s Christmas Stories from a couple of years back will know just how good Kelly is at telling a tale, so we’re really glad to be treated to a new one each week!

Sometimes Kelly will create a new story based on her own experiences, but Kelly is also in Research and Development with a brand new project which we’ll be telling you more about soon. For this new work Kelly is keen to explore feminist literature and will be reading extracts from great books written by women.

For Kelly’s first feminist story time with the group Kelly reads an extract from “The Yellow Wallpaper” – a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892.

Kelly then leads a discussion about the work with the group, which feeds back into her creative process. 

How can you connect with us? 

It’s all very well us meeting up, but how are we going to share our exciting work with you? Don’t panic we’re not going silent just yet!

We’re going to be sharing snippets of work-in-progress and we’ll keep you updated – if you haven’t already, follow us on our social channels and sign up to our newsletter for exclusive content. 

Help us to adapt and combat social isolation by getting in touch and/or donating what you can via our

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