We thought that you might wish to find out more about the origins of the International Mask Festival, the festival theme of Who?, the Festival Director's thoughts, masks or history of the Glasshouse Arts Centre or Ruskin Mill Educational Trust. |
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Background to the Festival The first ever festival of its kind in the UK, the International Mask Festival promises to be a riot of colour, spectacle, entrancement and mystery, masterminded by the UK's leading mask practitioner, Michael Chase. The Glasshouse Arts Centre has built up a reputation for incorporating high quality mask making and performing at the heart of its cultural programme, and the International Mask Festival will showcase some of the most brilliant artists and actors working within this genre. The festival will only take place every four years, so make sure you book your tickets now for this rare and fabulous celebration of creative mask work at its best.
For 27 years I have been exploring the phenomena of masks as a maker, actor, director and teacher; seeking the truth of being on stage; exploring the pedagogical masks of neutral; pushing the extremes of the four temperaments and the seven planets to create tools for actors to learn the craft of acting; facilitating the Hero's Journey with young people on the painful threshold of adolescence; and working in business with managers, defining management styles and presentations skills with masks. I have lived with masks day in, day out, year in, year out, and now I am left with the question: Who is there when the mask goes on? Who am I anyway? The mask is like a lens to focus on what is going on beneath the surface. Different styles of masks reveal different keys to the art of theatre. Each practitioner will highlight different essentials - Click to read about some of mine Stourbridge's premier centre for the performing arts has a full programme of cultural activity, encompassing a wide range of artforms and superb small scale touring productions. Most performances take place in the small intimate setting of the red brick Lehr Studio Theatre, whilst the atmospheric cavernous Lower Glasshouse is used for larger scale exhibitions and productions. The coffee shop hosts occasional exhibitions of painting and craft. An in-house production company commissions and performs new work, providing opportunities for special needs students to work alongside professional actors and directors. Ruskin Mill Educational Trust Ruskin Mill Educational Trust is a charitable educational Trust which operates three colleges; Ruskin Mill in Nailsworth, Glasshouse College in Stourbridge and Freeman College in Sheffield. The colleges provide an innovative and experiential education for 16 to 25 year olds with special learning needs. The RMET experience ensures that students follow an individualised programme of learning, based around crafts, land work and performing arts. Therapeutic activities and a diet rich in organic whole foods complement the educational programmes, providing a unique model of care and development. Since the first college was set up in 1986, hundreds of students have experienced the unique learning opportunities. All the colleges are set within commercial craft and arts centres where members of the public visit the craft workshops and attend the concerts, lectures and exhibitions that regularly take place.
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