zoewilliams3

For 20 years The Telegraph Hill community (New Cross Gate, London) puts on a festival in March. The opening event is a musical directed and produced by local people with a cast of 200 aged 6 - 70! Each year group gets one or two musical numbers with the adult cast (50+) leading the production. The directorial team meets in December to choose the musical and puts together a spectacular show with just 10 weeks of rehersals. Performed in the local church in the round with local musicians accompanying the cast it is a exceptional experience of intergenerational theatre making I have been participating as a performer since I was a young child and last year whilst in my final year of my degree I directed the Years 3 & 4 in our production of Oh What a Lovely War. Working part time as a graduate I had more time this year and followed the production process from start to finish. This year's production had some hiccups at the start as we struggled to get rights to our first chouce: Cabaret. So 2 weeks into the rehersal process we were able to secure rights to Annie Get Your Gun...

After taking a course on contemporary Middle Eastern Art I decided to focus a research essay on Lebanese artists. The history of Lebanon, particularly during the Lebanese Wars (1975-1991) and particularly the city of Beirut was a focus of many of the artists I looked at. After completing my research essay I applied for a travel grant to go and visit Beirut myself (September 2012). Here are some of my photographs that I took whilst on my trip.

'Seniorina Phillippa and Seniorita Penelope' are one of many guises created to be on stage. From a choice of dance, Cabaret, lip-synching and musical numbers, the show is never predictable.

Inspired by the wonderful world of Drag, from Party Monster to Paris is Burning, through to John Waters and Ru Paul... "if you have a hunch back just throw some glitter on it and go dancing!" When painting people's faces if they don't know already know what they want (often spider man or a "sexy" cat), I ask them "Choose three things..." Then it begins...

Art & Education