Well, it is certainly a busy time in the world of Kara Jane Spencer at the moment.

This week sees the premier of, ‘Me, Myself and Eliot’ at Edge Hill University. It is this Friday at 2pm. Things are coming together and are really taking shape now and it will step up yet another gear when we get in the space with all of the set this Wednesday! 

Things are pretty much set for the audio description and subtitles, which have been rather experimental! I have had great feedback so far on the audio description and can’t wait to see how it works in performance. The feedback will be so important in terms of my research and how I improve the quality of my productions in the future!

The trip to Chile to work with the IFTR is also confirmed and WILL be going ahead. Thanks to the success of the benefit, people’s donations and continuous fundraising, Kara IS going to Chile!!! It will be fantastic to be working with some of the world’s leading academics in the field of performance and disability. I cannot wait to learn, to offer my own opinions and to really get stuck in! The work I do there, will directly influence my practice back home as I prepare projects and transitional schemes for the learning disabled here in the local community: pilot schemes hopefully happening during the summer.  

So - yes! There is a LOT going on in the world of Kara Spencer right now!

Keep an eye out for more posts regarding my production, my visit to Chile and my project plans! There will of course be more - with me, there always is!!! 

Until then,

Kara 

Hello all! I write to you to bring you updates regarding fundraising for my trip to Chile!

I am currently organising a benefit to be held on the 19th of April in The Studio Theatre at Edge Hill University, at 7.30pm. This benefit will be a variety evening containing some great acts and some bands, one of whom has played at the Albert Hall! :D We have dancers, singers, actors and the like! 

We also have some fantastic raffle prizes on offer including free meals for 2 at great restaurants, free facial vouchers, massage vouchers, free hair do vouchers, sweet treats from Lucy CoCo Events, £50 voucher for hyro-pool at the Sensory Zones and there is PLENTY more where that came from!!!

The support to put on the event from staff and students at Edge Hill, friends and colleagues has been fantastic. Not to mention to astounding generosity of local businesses! 

All that we need now is for the event to be well attended. That is where you lovely people come in :) The bar will be open, there will be great entertainment - so please, come along and HELP GET KARA TO CHILE!!!!

Hello readers!

Many of you have read my blog posts before, but for the benefit of those who haven’t, here is a bit about me and my work before my juicy post regarding my trip to Chile! Apologies for this bit being underlined, being a techno-phobe, I could not work out how to not underline it! It was doing it automatically, anyway apologies and read on!

Who I am:

My name is Kara Spencer; I am now nearing the completion of my undergraduate degree in Drama and will be entering onto an MA in Making Performance at Edge Hill University in January 2013. Throughout my degree and beforehand, I have been working across disciplines as a performer and a teacher and have demonstrated a great commitment to inclusive and integrated work with Disabled and Non-disabled performers, practitioners and community members in that time. I am constantly developing my engagement as a facilitator and a performer in both mainstream and Disability Arts settings. I am researching the current conditions of inclusivity and integration in the Performing Arts and the implications for contemporary future practice for both performers and audiences. 

About the invitation to Chile and whom I will be working with:

I have recently been invited by to join the panel of the newly formed working group on Theatre and Disability convened by the International Federation of Theatre Research, the inaugural meeting will be at the Federation’s conference this July in Santiago, Chile. I will be working with a prestigious panel of researchers towards an agenda for Disability Arts in the 21^st Century as well as networking with practitioners and academics from around the world. 

Mark Swetz is the co-convener of the working research group. Mark is a director, producer and educator who carries out practice based research at the Central School of Speech and Drama and is researching Blind Spectatorship. He is also the co-director of Compania Y in Madrid and in London. Mark has taught in Universities across the world and facilitates classes throughout Europe and has directed over 50 original works.

Similarly to myself, his research and practical interests include integrating the arts for people with mixed physical and sensorial abilities and making performance accessible to the broadest audience possible. I hope to have my work challenged by this experience developing a more sophisticated and critical approach, informing and developing my own research and practice. 

How it will benefit my work and the wider community:

I am currently devising project plans and developing funding applications for a transitional scheme for learning disabled adults in the West Lancashire area.  During my work throughout Skelmersdale, I have noticed a serious lack of provision and opportunity for a massive learning disabled community. I want to make a difference to that. I am devising a project whereby a number of disabled participants are offered opportunities to be challenged and trained professionally in the arts, whereby they can create high artistic value performances, tour and then move on to further arts opportunities and hopefully even employment. I will be collaborating with other practitioners in the field to deliver this project.

This is a big step for me, and the research I will be involved in throughout the conference in Santiago will directly impact and influence this project. The more I develop my research interests, gain more knowledge and develop my professional skills, the better a facilitator and director I will be and the more inclusive the project will become. This is just one example of how my trip to Chile will impact and benefit the wider community. I am also working with many other arts organisations and practitioners in the field who will eventually benefit from my research. 

How it will impact and inform my future studies:

The research I will be involved with in Chile will also be a firm building block for my future studies at Masters Level. It will stimulate sophisticated thinking preparing me for the research and practice at that level. It will also help me to identify my specific research interests to pursue in further academic study. As I network and develop areas of expertise, it will hopefully benefit the institution with the sharing of ideas and creation of further debate.

Yesterday I held my performance workshop which I had been advertising for a while in various ways. I utilised social media, blogging, posters in university, connections in university and the university email and radio system. However no one came to the workshop.

I don’t know why but I was partly expecting this response, or lack thereof. I decided that I would wait no longer for a cast, and that I would do a solo performance piece. My original idea was to tackle the ups and downs in human relationships looking at the themes of inclusion and exclusion with a cast of 4. I have decided to tweak that theme slightly and develop a dance theatre piece tackling the theme of loneliness. It seemed apt as there was only one performer, but also because of my own experiences of loneliness. I think it is a vast social issue that little is known about. I would like to bring this to light through my piece. I will also be drawing upon autobiographical material and expanding on that.

I want to create a piece where drama, voice and dance are all utilised. It will be very difficult to make the transitions between the three I feel, especially as there is no one else to hide behind: though with lots of work and careful planning I feel it can be pulled off.

I still want to include the theme of relationship, by highlighting the lack of one with a human being. However I want to look at how people combat loneliness by developing ‘relationship’ with other objects; such as Eliot, my soft toy. To some this may seem very silly and frivolous, but Eliot became a companion to me who had thoughts and feelings. I think if this can be explored in a theatrically compelling way it could be quite a powerful piece making bold statements.

So therefore, I will start by looking back into my past and doing research with other people regarding loneliness and things they did or do to try and combat it. From this, I will devise a script with both comic light-hearted and very serious deep moments in order provoke emotional reaction from an audience and raise awareness of this social issue affecting so many.

My working title for the piece is, ‘Me, myself and Eliot.’ 

So, as predicted it was me and the cd player at the workshop tonight. Well - that has decided it. It will be a solo movement and gesture performance tackling the ups and downs of loneliness instead of relationships. https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=183031274583 This piece will strongly feature Eliot. It will be his debut performance, he will be so pleased.

Eliot’s Fanclub

A facebook group to celebrate all that is Eliot the great.

My research into theatre accessibility for actors and performers is revealing some very interesting things.

Small theatres with small budgets and doing more to make facilities accessible for performers than large theatres with equally large budgets.

It shouldn’t shock me really. My findings however highlight that changes in attitude are definitely as important if not more than changes in the architecture. 

Hi All,