Speed Bonny Bridge

1 Nov 2006 in Dance & Drama, Highland, Visual Arts & Crafts, Writing

Skye Through Their Eyes

The participants in the Health & Happiness Projects of Skye & Lochalsh report on their current activities.

OVER THE BRIDGE Theatre Company and An Tuireann’s “Skye Through Our Eyes” arts project present the coming season of drama, dance & film, plus a major exhibition which will showcase the work of the Arts project – visual arts, creative writing and film.

As usual the Graphics team will produce all our posters and programmes for the events. A big thanks to Morven, Calum, Laura & Steve Mollison, who leads the team, for all their hard work.

After the success of the first production, ‘Out of The Box’, Helen Scott Danter, the artistic director for drama, and Chris Maginn, the director of film, have been working together with members of the Kyleakin day centre on two pieces of work.

A dance group has been formed, and performed outdoors on the Kyleakin Ferry and at the Kylereah Otter Sanctuary. Portree Day Centre members who are part of the Drama project have been developing a short sketch based on a Selkie story, which comes from Glendale.

They recently visited the site of the story at Loch Pooltiel. The weather was hot and they had a chance to rehearse scenes’ from the story outdoors, using prawn creels as props. They had a look at some crabs that had been caught.

Afterwards they went back to the new hall in Glendale to test the acoustics. Marc Yeats has been making all sorts of objects with participants and running a drawing group. These workshops started again in August.

Lots of work has been done out of doors with Kyleakin members heading down to the beach collecting interesting bits and pieces to take back and create exciting objects which will play an important part in the exhibition, which opens at An Tuireann on 18 November.

The Portree group will embark on a series of sessions, which will take them further afield, and give them the opportunity to explore their creativity outdoors as well. ‘Ice cream – I scream’, a short film, will premier on the opening night of the Exhibition. The dance group will also be performing on that night.

Over the Bridge Theatre Company

The company will spend the next six months developing their skills even further with workshops in make- up, costume and set design. There will also be a visit from a circus artist. They will perform “The Selkie” story, with the Dance Group in February/March 2007.

It’s been challenging for everyone involved. It’s been creative, it’s been hard work, and its still happening. Workshops in art, creative writing, graphic design, editing and drama rehearsals are ongoing. Keep your eyes open and you may just stumble upon the dance group practising on the front in Kyleakin and wherever they feel like going, so they can enjoy the process and the sunshine.

Over the Bridge Theatre Company’s first production was called “Out of the Box”, which we performed for 2 nights at Aros in February. Everybody enjoyed it and it made us feel special. Chris and Helen are making a DVD of the performance. Now we are making a film in Kyleakin about ice cream, wasps, midges and surprises.

Lachie John is going to be “hairy and funny” in the film… we won’t give anything else away. We have also been exploring Skye through our different senses. We looked and listened closely at things and saw things differently.

Jamie feels “it is good to listen – good for the drama”. We felt shells and seaweed. We have also been doing warm ups, like dancing with bamboos. Ewen likes the stretching as it makes him feel better. We have also been doing other stories about the Vikings and Dr Who which we may use later for a different play.

Skye Through Our Eyes Visual Art

The Portree group is working on a play about Selkies from Poolteil in Glendale, North West Skye. We went down to the shore side at Balmacara, collecting all sorts of different things – shells, wood and coloured things like greens and bluesand reds. We made a ladder-shaped flag out of drift wood, yellow plastic and wire flag, orange with lots of gloves flag – a big paper + wire flag and all brown and hairy are made from dried grassy stuff with a wee bit of orange. They are put up and hung with a bit of wire. We made 9 flags. We collected wood and rubbish and turned it into a nice shape; an abstract sculpture.

Skye Through Our Eyes Creative Writing

Creative writing has been happening in the north and south, and Jane Yeats uses some intriguing methods to explore words and help get those ideas down on paper or into sound. You will be able to see some of this work at the exhibition. Joan McClure has even had one of her poems published in the Community Care forum Newsletter.

Skye Through Our Eyes Graphics

On Fridays we go to An Tuireann for the graphics project. Using the programmes we enjoy designing posters and taking our photo’s and have fun placing them into pages to print out on the printer. We designed the posters, programme and invitations for the Drama project “Out of the Box”. By choosing the text, style and agreeing a layout, we brought everything together that the Drama wanted us to include on their work.

The latest work we have carried out was for An Tuirean’s annual open exhibition, for artists in the Skye and Lochalsh area. They required large posters to be designed to attract not only people to attend the event but inviting artists to submit their work. All three of us contributed, designing several posters each. If you keep your eyes open in Portree you will see one of them.

Speed Bonny Boat

During the session to create the Newsletter, Calum came up with the memory of “The speed bonny boat/over the sea to Skye”. This link to the past and what it meant to him inspired the blending of the old with the new, a natural progression: “Speed Bonny Bridge” was born! If you think about the title, ideas, comments and memories flood the mind – how often does someone obey the speed limit on the bridge! – just one of the many comments inspired buy such a title.

(This article is taken from ‘Speed Bonny Boat’, the Newsletter of the health & Happiness Projects of Skye & Lochalsh, and is used here with permission)