Photography, playwriting and more with OPEN Ealing’s new season’s activities

OPEN Events, Classes and Lectures for 2015
For all enquiries, please email info@openealing.com. Or visit our website www.openealing.com for more information.

All classes and events listed will be hosted at: Green Man Lane Cafe, West Ealing, Singapore Road W13 0EP.

“OPEN Music” workshops for you and your child…
Acclaimed local musician Keith Waithe is running a series of musical workshops for you and your child, culminating in a special one-off concert. Come along and enjoy a truly family activity.
It is a 10 week course; ideal for your children aged between 7 and 11 years old; and starts on Thursday 15 January 2015.
Make Thursday afternoons between 3.45 and 5.15pm in the Green Man Lane Café a date with your child.
Each session costs parents £10, children are FREE! (Green Man Lane residents pay £5 and other concessions £6). If you pay for the whole course in advance, one session is free of charge.
Places are limited to 15 so please book early.
For enquiries and to book please email OPEN. We’ll take a break for half term (16 – 20 Feb). The Café is situated opposite the mosque and next to the surface car park in Singapore Road
Keith is an award winning flautist, composer, teacher and expert proponent of a vocal ‘gymnastics’ system. He is the founder and leader of the Macusi Players – a world music jazz band that blends rhythms from the Caribbean, South America, Asia and Africa.

Playwriting Workshops
Do you want to know how to create a play and write your own script?
Wally Sewell, OPEN’s Playwright in Residence, leads this course which is open to anyone interested in writing plays, at any stage in their creative development, including beginners.
When: Tuesday 3 February 2015
Where: Green Man Lane Café
7-9 pm
£10 per session (discounted prices for signing up for the whole course in advance). Special concessions for Green Man Lane residents (£5). Other concessions for unemployed/OAPs/students (£6).
(Please bring some proof of identity and address when you come to the class.)
Workshops will consist of exercises and discussions, writers being encouraged to bring in ongoing work (if you have any) to be read and discussed by the group.
Participants will work towards writing a short play to be staged by professional actors (script in hand) in a showcase evening.
Wally Sewell is an independent artist-programmer, as well as a writer. He is a member of Actors & Writers London and has been working with OPEN since 2011.
Digital Photography Workshop
Rod Morris – Award winning Photographer and Film maker has devised a course for you to gain a practical understanding of the workings of your DSLR camera so you have the confidence to work creatively and fluently.
When: Thursday 5 February 2015 for 10 weeks
Where: Green Man Lane Café
7-9 pm
£10 per session (discounted prices for signing up for the whole course in advance). Special concessions for Green Man Lane residents (£5). Other concessions for unemployed/OAPs/students (£6).
(Please bring some proof of identity and address when you come to the class.)
Course topics include Shooting in RAW V JPGS Colour temperature and white balance Noise: Low light photography ISO settings Metering modes Aperture and shutter speed functions Depth of Field Exposure – Exposure compensation
The course culminates in an exhibition showing your work taken during the course.
Rod Morris is an award winning photographer and film maker currently engaged in projects at home and abroad including ‘Faces’; ‘City of Ghosts’ and ‘Runaway’. He is based in London and is represented by Millenium images and Getty. www.rodmorris.co.uk

History of Modern Art Lectures
Are you interested in modern art and want to have a better understanding of it?
Nick Pearson, contemporary artist and art college lecturer, returns to OPEN with his entertaining and informative series of History of Modern Art Lectures
When: Wednesday 11 February 2015
Where: Green Man Lane Café
7-9 pm
£10 per session (discounted prices for signing up for the whole course in advance). Special concessions for Green Man Lane residents (£5). Other concessions for unemployed/OAPs/students (£6).
(Please bring some proof of identity and address when you come to the class.)
An introduction to the historical development of modern art in the western world. The course begins with Romanticism and Realism in the late 1800s and continues through the major movements of western 20th-century art up to the ‘Young British Artists’ of re-cent years. This is a full module of the kind you would do at art college, but is jargon-free, accessible and applicable to anyone with an interest in modern art, at any level of knowledge or experience. There are notes (but no homework!) and the level at which you learn is entirely up to you.

OPEN Events
Playwriting Finale – Tuesday 20 January 2015
The Autumn term of playwriting workshops culminates in a short play created by the course participants on Tuesday 20 January 2015 at 7pm. The short play will be performed by professional actors as a ‘performed reading’.
To get further details and book your seat please email OPEN – info@openealing.com

“6×10” Short Plays
Celebrate the new year in style – an evening at OPEN theatre with the first 6 x 10 performed reading on Saturday 24 January 2015.
You won’t have time for the winter blues with these short plays performed by professional actors and steered by Wally Sewell, OPEN’s Playwright in Residence and Anthony Shrubsall, Artistic Director.
The 6 x 10 format of short plays are per-formed with script in hand creating a fresh, immediate, instinctive theatrical audience experience.
The performance starts at 7.30pm and tickets cost £8. (Tickets for Concessions cost £6 and tickets for Green Man Lane residents cost £4.)
Want to ensure you have a seat? Email OPEN and reserve your place.
For the first time we are delighted to offer pre-performance dinner at the newly opened Green Man Lane café. Coco Labelle is a delightful fusion of Mauritian, Caribbean and European food with a menu designed to tickle your taste buds. Doors open at 6pm.
Places for dining are limited so you must email OPEN to reserve your place and avoid disappointment.
For more information and to reserve your seats please email OPEN – info@openealing.com

The Green Man Lane Café is part of the recent housing development, It is on the corner of Singapore Road nearest the surface car park – opposite Brownlow Road.

Full details on OPEN’s website

‘Vivid and imaginative theatre’ – Sarah Kane’s powerful 4.48 Pyschosis at Questors Theatre in January

The Sunday Times has picked out the Sarah Kane season at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre as one of its ‘ hottest picks’ for 2015.  However, you don’t need to go to Sheffield to experience Sarah Kane’s talent and reflect on the loss to the theatre of her suicide at just 28.  Ealing’s Questors Theatre has Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis on later this month.  It describes the play as follows:

A rhythm of raw beauty – vivid and imaginative theatre

“Here am I
and there is my body
dancing on glass”

With its powerful use of the most beautiful and poetic language we are drawn into the pained world of Kane herself at one moment in time: 4.48am. Sarah Kane’s masterpiece is theatre as a text for performance rather than a play. It is about love and about survival and about hope.

Several weeks after completing the play, at the age of 28, Sarah Kane committed suicide leaving this her masterwork – an affirmation to live rather than a suicide note.

This production will be an unforgettable experience – an evening of vivid visual theatre, raw and beautiful.

Suitable for ages 16+
Contains disturbing adult themes and smoke

Details of tickets etc here

Wednesday 28th January 2015

I saw this play last night and was very impressed with what is an extremely difficult play to stage. There are no named characters, no specific voices given to any character and no indication of how many performers or of any gender.  Having said that I thought Questors put on a powerful and inspiring performance. An abiding memory of the play is the stark staging and dissonant music which caught the fractured mood of the mind of what I take to be the central character.  It’s interesting that the music changed to something much more melodic right at the very end.

For me, the play gave great insight in to the mind of someone with serious depression and the mood swings, the darkness, anger and humour that flickers like a faulty light never knowing what is coming next.  Questors staged Sarah Kane’s play with an all female cast with some strong performances and is well worth seeing.