Dark Matter has been selected to be part of the biennial British Council Edinburgh Showcase (19-24 August) http://dramaanddance.britishcouncil.org where the British Council promotes the best of the UK’s performing arts to an international delegation of programmers.

Dark Matter will take place in a garden (especially selected by our Artistic Director) in the Leith area. The audience meets at the Victoria Bar, 265 Leith Walk, Edinburgh, EH6 8PD, from where they will be taken to the secret location for the performance.

More details, including how to buy tickets for the show, to follow soon.

Your chance to experience the production which delighted and unnerved audiences in the north of Scotland.

Performances 

Thursday 28 February          7.30 & 8.30pm
Friday 1 March                         7.30 & 8.30pm
Saturday 2 March                    7.30 & 8.30pm

Audience meet at the Otterstone Bar, Victoria Park Hotel, at least 10 minutes before the performance begins, from where you will be lead to a secret garden location..

Otterstone Bar, Victoria Park Hotel, 221 Ferry Road, Edinburgh, EH6 4NN

Tickets £10

Each performance has limited capacity and we strongly recommend buying your tickets in advance online.

This is an outdoor performance, lasting 40 minutes.  Wrap up warm!

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Taking the Big Man to Glasgow at such a high profile time provides a unique opportunity to showcase this feat of Scottish craftsmanship and engineering.

We need £17,500 to stage the event and have already secured £15,000. By sponsoring Big Man Walking you will enable Vision Mechanics to update the Big Man’s costume, reweave his hair, refurbish and oil his body and repair his puppeteers’ costumes.

You will be able to proudly watch him walking through Glasgow knowing you have made a meaningful contribution to one of this year’s most exciting street events, which will draw massive audiences.

You can help by texting :-  BMWG12£1 to 70070

OR

be an Angel

www.angelsharesscotland.com/projects

In the meantime, spring gets closer and the heads are near completion. In each area our local project partners: Kilmartin House Museum – Argyll , An Tobar – Mull, Catstrand – New Galloway, The Eastgate theatre – Peebles , and  Bowhill Estate Selkirk are preparing a range of exciting activities to celebrate the arrival of the Giants in the Forest.

It is growing already!

- Symon Macintyre

Giants in the Forest combines art, technology and the natural environment, to  inspire creative activity. Giant organic masks will be constructed, seeded and  suspended in forests across Scotland, where they will hang from April to  November 2012, growing and changing with the seasons.

The Project wants to encourage people from underparticipating groups to communicate their personal response  to the Giant Heads and their woodland environment, from selecting seeds and seedlings to plant in the Heads to taking part in a wide range of arts activities, leading up to a final event in each area in  November 2012, which will celebrate the life cycle of the Heads.

The Project will take place simultaneously in four Scottish rural areas, including Dumfries & Galloway,  Mull and Argyll Bute.  Areas will be able to share their responses with other areas via an interactive Giants in the Forest web site – to be launched soon, watch this space!

“The Project aims to connect people and their communities and invites them to  reflect on their relationship with the environment, the seasons, life cycles” says  Director, Symon Macintyre, who tested smaller prototype heads in 2011 in a forest in Argyll.

* These workshops are for aged 18+ and are not suitable for children

* Courses need a minimum of 6 people.  The maximum number on each course will be 10.

* The core hours for courses are 10am-5pm but extra hours may be available to work on the puppets.

* The fee does not include accommodation and food though tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.

For further information or to book please contact anne@visionmechanics.org or tel  0131 554 8923

Making a Giant Willow Puppet

Monday  5 – Saturday 10 September, 10am – 5pm

Course Leader: Kim Bergsagel
Aim: For you to design, construct and use a Giant Willow Puppet
Level: Suitable for beginners and more experienced makers

This course will cover – the design of the puppet, safe handling of tools, construction techniques, working with willow and bamboo, covering and painting the puppet, the use of the puppet in terms of performance potential.

All tools and materials will be provided.

Cost: £400

A new project will premiere in October 2011

Funded by the North of Scotland Touring Fund and The Davidson trust.

In an ordinary garden something extraordinary is about to happen. Shadows lengthen; the contrast between dark and light intensifies. Suddenly you sense movement.

Enveloped in a soundscape and sheltered by black umbrellas, our small audience will be immersed in fantastical story that rises from the dark earth; a tale about the shadows creeping up from our subconscious.

The audience will be aware of the flickering images conjured by our storyteller. Projected onto plants and trees, shapes appear and disappear as the Dark Matter rises up from below.