Taking Flight Theatre fast approaches its' rehearsal period for A Midsummer Night's Dream to be performed, first off, at its' "spiritual home" at The Stackpole Estate near Pembroke in West Wales.

As well as running residential drama workshops with physically disabled participants, Taking Flight also creat integrated, accessible performances in rural spaces. The National Trust have supported us, amazingly, and are again providing us with accommodation and, more importantly, access to the beautiful woodlands that surround the estate and lakes.

So, what do our performances involve? This time, we have taken a classic text (A Midsummer Night's Dream)- because Taking Flight experiment in a number of ways, it is important for us, because we are still learning so much, to use a strong, solid popular text - to "cut our teeth on" if you like.

We work with professional actors from different backgrounds- physically disabled, non disabled, sensory impaired actors- and work in ways which challenges everyones physical limits!

Our projects are supported with BSL (British Sign Language) and we can arrange touch tours for audiences who require this service.
The idea is that we make a theatre event which might traditionally seen as challenging to some audiences, accessible through supporting artists and audiences alike.
We ran a pilot project last year, with only a weeks' rehearsal (!), which was artistically,very successful. Audiences were not still for longer than about 4 minutes and actors had to chase around the (accessible) pathways throught the woods so that they could be ready to surprise the audience as they made their way past the honeysuckle growing over the gnarly old tree stump, the wild garlic and the old ruined summerhouse.
This year, the performance may end up moving around less as we are performing in 5 very different venues, and we realise now how spoilt we were with the accessibility that the amazing staff at The Stackpole maintain.

So, we perform at The Stackpole on July 18th and 19th (afternoon and evening shows) call 01646 661425
Blaenavon Ironworks on 1 and 2 August at 1pm and 5pm (email takingflighttheatre@yahoo.co.uk)
National Botanical Gdns on 8th Aug at 2pm call 01668 668768
Afan Forest on 15th Aug at 2 and 7 and 16th Aug at 7pm call 01639 850564
Neath Abbey on 29th adn 30th Aug at 1pm and 5pm email as above
PLeas ejoin us to find out more about Taking Flight Theatre.