Graeae's story continues...
The turn of the century saw an incredibly busy year for the company with launches of a new training course, and three new productions.
Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe was presented by the company in February 2000.
Perhaps most notably, The Missing Piece Project, which was launched in 1999 continued into March of 2000. The project provided twelve early career actors with a six- month intensive training course. This course resulted in two touring productions, Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, and Message in a Bottle, a T.I.E. production targeting years four through six. The project would continue to be repeated for many years to come and trained many of Graeae’s key company members over the years.
September 1999- March 2000:
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The Missing Piece Project launched in September 1999 and provided twelve early career actors with a six-month intensive training course resulting in two productions, Message in a Bottle and Woyzeck.
Graeae’s words: “The Missing Piece is the new Arts for Everyone, Lottery funded training course for aspiring actors with physical or sensory disabilities. The course is designed for people who have had some experience of acting, but have not had long term training or appropriate employment to establish their status as professional actors. It is an intensive six month training and work initiative for twelve individuals and is based at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. The training course is followed by the employment of all twelve participants as actors.”
January- February:
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Woyzeck premiered and toured around London. The production starred members of the first class of The Missing Piece.
Woyzeck in Graeae’s words: “Buchner’s last and most brilliant play focuses on a series of incidents in the life of an ordinary soldier Woyzeck. These incidents, at times violent and reflective, lead inexorably to an explosive and calamitous conclusion. Hailed as the first tragedy with a proletarian hero and the first killer who is portrayed as a victim, we are flung headlong into a world that is poetic, sensuous and ultimately brutal.”
February:
- Message in a Bottle was a T.I.E. production created by the Missing Piece Project for students in Year 4, 5, and 6 which went on to tour schools.Graeae’s words: “Seven strangers find themselves marooned in an unfamiliar world. Feeling unsure of their environment and their companions, they start telling stories. Each has a different tale of hopes, dreams, fears and longing but when the Message in a Bottle arrives they have to weave a collective story of their time together. A new story of conflict, friendship and trust. Message in a Bottle does not seek answers but confirms the need to be listened to and to feel valued.”
Summer- Autumn:
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Fall of the House of Usher
Reviewer’s words: “Poe’s tale of physical and spiritual decay is a vivid enough read, but its gothic mode is as rare in contemporary theatre as it is in architecture. Graeae grasps the nettle by using three actors with mild to extreme physical disabilities. Their bodies entwine and collide to onjure a lurid sensuality that is true to the heart of the story.” – Time Out, 16-23 February 2000.
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