wolf + water arts company

Semat is a youth theatre company based in Jakarta who, supported by search for common ground, came together to work on issues of communal and inter-communal conflict. We were asked to provide training in developing and devising theatre intervention work to empower semat to work within their own communities in developing peace building activities.

This 3 month residency brought together young people from 3 ethnic groups living in and around bujanovac (albanian, roma & serbian) in order to provide regular creative sessions and to eventually present to a mixed audience a quality piece of theatre addressing issues of ethnic divides. The process was made difficult by conflicting school schedules (along ethnic lines) local municipal elections (which was fought along ethic lines) and a general lack of activity for and attention to young people which do not follow traditional ethnic partitions.

Fredskorpset is a norwegian organisation that promotes international development through professional exchange programmes in which “south” participants from south america, africa & south east asia do an extended “job swap” with a norwegian from a partner organisation.

When Wolf + Water were commissioned by the Devon Domestic Violence Joint Services Taskforce to create a video & education pack on domestic violence & healthy relationships for 8 – 10 year olds, we knew exactly who we wanted to work with. Back in 2002 we ran the “Romeo & Juliet Project” looking at issues of inter personal conflict with young people from Bradley Rowe School on the Burnt House Lane estate in Exeter…& we wanted to go back & do some more…!

A hip hop collective based in Exeter

A weekly group that does what it says on the tin.

Click here to read about the performance Girl Power?

Weekly drama sessions with the LINK students from South Devon college.

Initially this project spent time with the cpcd (Centre for Peacebuilding and Community Development) counsellors who were delivering psycho social programmes for young people in 3 schools in north ossetia. The region has seen tensions for a long while, many predating the ingush ossetian conflicts of the early 90s, but especially so in the post beslan context.

This was a community peace building conference for young people from both sides of the Irish Border.

A project that culminated in two sell out performances which were a culmination of a project started the previous September bringing together local young “disaffected” people & members of the local refugee community. These two groups met together to explore their common experience of being “other” & from this challenging & intense work devised a hard hitting piece of theatre which gained standing ovations at the end of both performances.