dab Arts is always looking towards the future with new initiatives for community projects both at home and further afield. There are always new projects on the horizon, so keep looking at our news page to find out what's happening.
Urgent!!!
dab Arts are casting for the roles of the 4 main characters of ROOFLESS this September. You will need to be able to play 18 - 24 yr age range, and be available for rehearsals in the 2 weeks prior to the performance dates of half term 2008 (27th, 29th, 30th, 31st October), and also for the week after when ROOFLESS will be going into schools. There is a fee.

Please phone Rebecca: 07886 943577. See more details in theatre section.
Jan Maloney 17th August 1952 - 7th July 2008
Jan was an internationally recognised writer and play-write who moved to the Hastings area in the late 1990s. She was responsible for setting up the dabArts Youth Theatre; she leaves a legacy of young people and artists who were touched by her huge personality - energetic, creative, entrepreneurial, generous and fun-loving ( often on the dancefloor of La Chambre Magique ). She researched and wrote the scripts for issue based dramas such as SHED (Self Harm and Eating Disorders) and Shh! that were shown locally and in London. She also wrote and produced 'Big Brother Backwards' and 'Aladin...........trouble' both featuring young people and Hastings, and both being seriously good entertainment while having a sound basis of life at the tough end.

Jan was the local representative for Cardboard Citizens, the national homeless charity that specialises in communication and confidence building through drama and forum theatre. Training with them strenghened her skills and commitment to working with people who's lives had taken a wrong turn.

Jan said the piece of work she was most proud of was the Minotaur, which had many productions and was taken out nationally by the National YouthTheatre. She also wrote for and worked with Gay Sweatshop early in her career, taking theatre pieces to the USA.

Jan's circle of friends was huge and varied; we all looked at each other in amazement at her funeral, realising that there were so many facets to her personality. Part of the reason was her very low boredom threshhold. A cup of coffee with mates, a couple of films at the cinema, the Weakest Link, a jigsaw or two, then on-line Scrabble - and this was during her illness when she had stopped working. She was difficult to keep up with and a hard act to follow.

Seriously missed. 		 
 
Young Minds
Young Minds, the adolescent arm of the mental health charity Mind, invited dab Arts Youth Theatre to work on two short staged interpretations of books to be performed at their Book Awards Ceremony at the Unicorn Theatre, London.

Julian, Judy and Grant worked with Liz, Amy, Christian, Craig and Flossie in rehearsal sessions at the Beacon to produce visual performance pieces of about 10 minutes each for the books 'Herman' by Lars Saabye Christensen and 'Just Like Tomorrow' by Faiza Guene. The aim of the award was to choose books that give insight into the experience of being a child under stress of one kind or another. The other theatre groups on stage were Immediate Theatre and Kids Company, both large nationally known organisations.

The experience of performing on a professional London stage, in front of a large audience, was brilliant for the young people and we felt very proud of them. Both dab Arts' pieces were mini plays with speakiing parts; Kids Company did a dance while Immediate Theatre gave some readings from the texts of their chosen books.

We hope to do further work with Young Minds.




Domestic Vioence Performance
Nunah Physical Theatre Company, formed in Brighton, has recently been working with 4 dab artists to produce a site specific piece to be performed at the opening and closing of the current SOCO exhibition on the subject of Domestic Violence.

There were devising sessions and rehearsals at the Beacon over 5 weeks during which Julian Humphries, Laura Dunton Clarke, Nikki Joy and Judy Dewsbery stepped completely outside their usual spheres of activity and responded to the choreographic instructions of Vicky Heath. The experience will influence future activities with the youth theatre, in the form of professional development.

The first performances, on 15th February, had positive reviews 'very moving', 'expressed the fear and emotions behind the sometimes closed doors' on a very difficult subject (but one that needs to come out into the open; training is currently being offered by Pulse, which is being taken up by dab). The final performance - afternoon 10th March.

Four members of the Youth Theatre attended the performance.


    The Incident      
    dab Arts has been invited to perform The Incident at the de La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill as part of the East Sussex Youth Arts Festival on 26th October 2006. This will be preceded by a workshop run by Peter Lloyd, now a workshop leader but formerly a participant at dab Arts.

The Incident, a script by Christine Harmar-Brown from devising sessions with the young people of the youth theatre. Dealing with issues of community bullying and exclusion, it tracks the fallout from 'the incident' on a group of young people in an urban environment.

We are trying 'theatre in the round', literally, with a roundabout at the centre of the arena. The time is now......with a few surprises. It is part musical with live and recorded accompaniment.

Directed by Laura Dunton Clarke

  
           
    Performances of SHED      
    Performed at the Young Minds Conference, See Beyond the Label, London, July 2006 with Julian Clary, and at venues in East and West Sussex. The drama has evolved with new members of the cast. We have found it particularly effective when shown alongside the DVD of Sh!!, conceived and directed by Jan Maloney (available via Pulse)