Hi everyone!

The Belgian participants all enjoyed the Belgium Opening Doors Festival. So they're all very excited to tell you about their experiences. No time to waste, here are the reactions from the Belgian participants:


I loved it that you were in Belgium! I really hope to see you all again as real artists!
Marleen


Hi everyone from Malta
I loved it very much that you were in Belgium. We had a lot of fun with you. I thought your play from Malta was very beautiful. I was very glad to see you all again. You are very nice people who have a lot of fun with us.

Hi everyone from England
You were always bright and happy. I was so happy that you came from England to see us again. Your play was also very nice and I had a lot of fun on the little train.

kind regards,
An from Belgium


Hi Isabel,
I'm so happy that I saw you again. I hope we'll never forget eachother and that maybe I can see you again one time. These 3 days we did some lovely things together, like sitting on the train trough Leopoldsburg.
I hope that you enjoyed being with us.

Love,
Mariano


Dear people from Malta & England,
It was great to have you over here in Leopoldsburg.
I got to know a lot of nice people.
Bowling together was lots of fun and so was the little train ride.
The workshops to get to know eachother were also very nice.
Kris from England, I'm happy to have met you. You made funny jokes at the airport.
Also greetings to Ally, thanks for comforting me.
And lots of greets to Paula. It was great meeting you! You became a good friend of mine. Thanks for your comfort at the airport.
And also kind regards to Steve and the rest!

Annick


A very big hi to everyone, especially "the Kris"!
Jean-Marie the bus driver


I loved the play about the sea. They danced very nice and the mermaid was beautiful!
I had a lot of fun posing for the picture on the stage with everyone together.

Best Wishes,
Jessica


Hi everyone from England and Malta. Both of you played very good! The English were very funny, especially when Steve fell.
It was so nice that both the Maltese and the English were visiting us and that we know them all very good now.
It was also a lot of fun to participate in the workshops from Steve and Louise.

Ibrahim


Hi Ann from Malta,
The whole group from Malta was very sweet, especially Ann. They danced with us at the party. I had a good time at the "frietkot" and in Brussels. It was fun to eat and drink.
I miss you, Ann.
The group from Malta and sweet Ann, thank you!

Love,
Dirk
miss you...


I really enjoyed you guys being here.
I had a great time in Brussels.
Steve is funny.

Wim


I loved your visit to Belgium.
lots of greetings
Ivo


Steve, I think you're a little rascal. :-)
We'll miss every one of you!
I liked it that you were here.
I don't really know what else to say, so I drew a big heart.

Love,

Johnny

It was great to see you again. I still often think about the time when we visited Malta.
Kristof


Malta, your play was very beautiful!
Your dancing was so nice, you did a very good job!
Christel


The English were so funny! Especially in the beginning!
Steve makes me laugh!
See ya!
Tessa


We miss you!
We all enjoyed it.
I had a good time!
We had lots of fun.

lots of love,
Shana


Dear Sara,

When will I see you again? Because I really miss you!
You were my friend!
You did a very good job on stage, I loved it!
When are you going to write me a letter?

Regards,
Christine


My stay in England was super!
I'm glad that I got the opportunity to play there!
I was so happy to see you again, I will never forget that.

David


We loved the trip to Brussels, especially Manneke & Jeanneke Pis.
Our time in Malta was too short, everyone was so nice to us!
Last week it was great to meet everyone again.
We wish we'll see you all again one day.

Frieda & Marcel


LOTS OF LOVE FROM BELGIUM!

Malta prepares for Belgium

Hello all of you fellow door openers!

The Malta team is in full blast preparation for the Belgium trip in 2 weeks time. The group travelling is really excited about this new journey, and those participants who travelled to England and who will therefore not be joining us to Belgium are being very supportive and sharing in the excitement.

We had some extra sessions this fortnight to really increase the input to the work and this morning we finalised the narrative structure and the mime that will 'tell' the story. It is a magical journey with many twists, surprises and emotions. You will also recognise some elements from our starting point! THE BAG! We are very much looking forward to sharing this with you all and to experiencing your work in workshops and in performance.

see you all soon!
Maltesers

Opening doors at Headway's 'Come On Down' Festival UK

Hello Friends & Happy New Year!

Firstly let me thank 'Team Malta' for our amazing trip there. We will all remember it for the rest of our lives. It was great to see our group experience travelling and soaking up the sunny experiences of Malta and the grand atomosphere of Valetta of an evening. Some had never flown before or been away anywhere for that long, nor stayed anywhere so lovely. The festival itself was wonderful, St James is a beautiful venue echoing with culture and history and we felt priviledged to appear there in the lovley millenium theatre auditorium.

Back here at Headway HQ we are only just recovering from a very busy few weeks hard work with Christmas projects and shows. It was absolutely fabulous to see everyone at our 'Come On Down Festival' in December. We run this festival every year, the groups who perform are all groups who Headway work with regularly and this year it had an exciting extra dimention with our visitors from Malta and Belgium. All were delighted & surprised to meet 'the europeans'. 'The Seven Stars Northumberland's Learning Disabled Theatre Co' supported by Headway, were finally to meet the mysterious guests everyone had been talking about for months!

The festival audience loved the Opening Doors Groups performances. Language was never a barrier (although this is mainly due to the excellent English spoken by our partners - we have been trying to learn a bit of each others languages - I promise!).

I could really see that the Opening Doors Groups had made loads of progress with their performance work. The acting and the devised stories were very good with lots of energy and enjoyment coming from the actors. Congratulations everyone!!

All looked very confident and comfortable on stage - particularly when you remember that people had done little or no drama work before this project - wonderful progress and rewarding to see. When I look back at how far the project has come since the seed of the idea was formed by Fran, Toni, Roger & myself (Allie) at the Grudvig Seminar about 3 years ago in Malta - I think it truely has 'Opened Doors' for everyone involved.

I think we are all learning a great deal from everyone who has jumped on board for this unknown journey and having a fantastic time along the way. We are learning amazing ways to work together whilst learning to understanding each others cultural differences and ways of being. We have also learned how deep down we are really all the same too.

Next Stop Belgium!

I'm really looking forward to the next festival in Belgium and I know that the rest of TEAM UK are really excited too!

Here is yet another language for you all - 'Geordie' (Geordies are the local people of Newcastle) 'Gan Canny' (or 'take it easy' in English). See you in Leopoldsburg!


Allie

AlisonWalton-Robson
Creative Director

Headway
Arts*People*Inclusion
HeadwayT@aol.com

Happy New Year from Team Belgium!

Hi everybody!

A happy new year from Belgium ! After our wonderful England trip we are looking forward to seeing all of you again in April at the festival here in Leopoldsburg. Before the holidays we showed the photos and shared the stories of our time in Newcastle and Blyth to the parents and the rest of the group. We even toasted with a glass of champagne to our success as actors in the Seven Stars festival. At our first meeting of 2009 last week we listened to a sound clip that was broadcasted on the local radio here at the day we left for England . Anniek was interviewed by a journalist and she did a great job talking about the purposes of our trip and the Opening Doors project. We hope to put some of the many photos we made online soon. And thanks again for Seven Stars for that four days in December we will never forget!

the England travellers
Marcel, Ibrahim, Dirk, Anniek, Frida, David, Tessa, Johnny, Christel, Tanja, Anny, Wim & Peter

EU project opens doors for theatre performers

EU project opens doors for theatre performers

Post Malta festival

Hello all!

Malta's back in action after a much needed break after your visit even though we were all so hyped up after you left! When we met again two weeks after Belgiun and UK had left here we were all still talking about all the tiny details of the memories we now carry. The full group is still meeting weekly; but on Fridays the participants who are coming to the UK meet up in order to develop a twist from our september peformance specifically to perform for you in December.

But before we get there... Sara would like to post her comments about your presence in Malta at the festival!

Sara:
'I enjoyed the festival mostly to meet the foreigners. It was good to hear their accent. They learnt some Maltese words! I felt good when I took part in the workshops with the foreigners because it was good to learn new things: how they act, and how they used their words to translate. During the performance I felt excited and happy. The dance I made was good and it really worked out. When the other Maltese were doing their act for the first time it was good to see. We worked hard for the performances. Even the foreigners liked it. The festival events were:


On Monday 29th September

Met the foreign guest at St. James
and we had ice-breaking games
at around 4.00pm we started the opening social events
around 18.00 dinner at the hard rock cafe' at baystreet
and then after when't to joeker to play some games and to have fun
and then we went home at around 21.00

on tuesday 30th September

9.45 meet at St james for morning workshops
at around 13 we had lunch all together
2/3 maltese had rehearsal
3 maltese went home to rest
at around 18.15 we met back stage
and a 7 performace on all the three countrys


last day(party)

9.30 meet at St James
Went to razzett tal hbiberija
at around 12 we had farewell lunch
and then we said good-bye to the foreign guests.'

A little update from Belgium

Hi everbody,

It’s been more than a month now, but we are still talking about the good times we had in Malta. You can take a look at the pictures and we have just put a movie clip online on http://www.ccleopoldsburg.be/pages/subpages/fotos_filmpjes/opening_doors.html. Here you see our live appearance on local television where we tell about our Malta adventures. Even if you don’t understand Flemish, you can see how enthusiastic we are. And we are sure you will recognise our famous ‘Kabas Song’ (or ‘Basket Song’ in Maltese ;-)) at the end. Take care & see you all in England!

Best regards from Leopoldsburg!

Hello from Headway and Seven Stars

Hello to you all and we hope you are all well. We have finally reached a kind of normality here after our fantastic adventure in Malta.

Seven stars had such a wonderful time and have talked about little else since they got back, so they each have a message to you all.

Hi hope everyone is ok. I really enjoyed it in Malta, and it was an experience as i have never been abroad before, we are currently working on the second part of our trilogy. It is called "Land of the Lost Cuckoo" See you all in December, Best wishes Kris.

Hello, Andy here. Iam writing to say thank you for inviting us over to put on our show. We had a good time and hope you can see our new show. i look forward to meeting new people and seeing old friends. i enjoyed the trip to Malta, the weather was very hot. I enjoyed all the tasty food. and the beer was nice and wet. My favourite bit was at the activity centre when we saw the monkey's. We liked going out places with you all and i enjoyed the workshops. We look forward to seeing you all again. Best wishes

Hello from Jean. I was so pleased when i went to Malta. I have never travelled abroad before but got used to it very quickly and Chris, Steve and Allie looked after me. I got a new watch from Malta's lovely shops. Malta was very hot. I had a nice time and enjoyed the food and enjoyed the amusement arcade where i won a purse. I am looking forward to playing "Skye the Rainbow girl" again for you all in December and then again when we come to Belgium next year. lots of love Jean.

Hello, its Tim here. First of all i would like to say how much i really enjoyed meeting both the Belgium and Maltese groups. We are currently working on part 2 of THE EVERWORLD TRILOGY, which you will see when you come to England in December. looking forward to seeing you all then. Best Wishes.

Hello from Paula. I would like to tell you all what a nice time i had in Malta. I loved performing to you all and watching your performances too. I loved our hotel. I liked all the food and even got to enjoy a glass of wine. I thought all the people were very nice, especially Peter from Belgium and Alison from the Malta group. I look forward to you coming over to us soon and we will have a nice time.

Well we hope everyone had as good a time as we did and we are very excited about seeing and working with you all again in December

Best Wishes, HEADWAY