Hybrid Festival Carousel of Performances
Doors open at 6 PM for work-in-progress sharing of ‘Oriente Plus’ by Signdance Collective, Under Gomms Wood by Roundabout Creative Theatre and “Time” commission by Caylia Wallace.
‘Under Gomms Wood’ by Roundabout Creative Theatre
It is summer, early evening in the market town, and down the valley from the woods, canopied in beech leaves, lies the rustic brown church, gulling birds perched on the roof as faint reminders of the far away sea….’
What might Dylan Thomas have written if he’d lived in High Wycombe rather than South Wales? Taking inspiration from Dylan’s ‘Under Milkwood’, Roundabout Creative Theatre presents its own reimagined tale of a town and its fictional inhabitants. With some modern twists, true testimony and vintage travelogue references, we invite you to ‘see the voices’ of the ‘Gomm’s Wood’ islanders.
Accessibility note: This show is a mixture of live and captioned video performances. A full transcript will be available to read.
Roundabout Creative Theatre was founded in 2021 on Zoom and now meets every Wednesday evening at Wycombe Arts Centre. Our aim is to create inclusive creative opportunities for people aged 17 plus who live, work or study in High Wycombe and we’re always keen to have new members. Contact roundabout@wycombeartscentre.com for more details.
About Oriente Plus
Oriente Plus/Power Cut is a brand new Signdance Theatre show written by Pedro de Senna with additional material from Tarik Ross Cameron and Lionel M. Macauley. It fuses Cuban Free Hop music from David Omni with Signdance Collective’s unique style and 3D visual settings by artist Viviana Fernandez Molinares.
This is the first Signdance theatre outdoor touring piece created specifically for the “new state of being”. It’s a story of the things that keep us together, even when the world tears us apart. A story about music, poetry and culture. A story that moves in its own way: sinuous , snake-like, circling like a vulture, gliding and drifting through the air. A story about family losing themselves and finding themselves in the memories of all the mothers and children that came before them and made them who they are.
Please note that this a work in progress rather than a full performance. Signdance Collective would like to invite people to come along and get involved with the development of the work.
“This is a Caribbean Story of power cuts and generators, of crossroads and ocean crossings, of haunted bodies and dancing souls.“ – Pedro de Senna
About Time and Caylia Wallace
What does Time mean to you? In this piece, Caylia Wallace explores the measuring of time and how we all have the possibility to experience eternity where there is no measure of time.
Caylia Wallace is a growing international creative director, choreographer and performer, as well as a dance studio teacher at Lachaney’s Dance and Music Academy and an elementary and middle school dance teacher at Thirteenth Avenue School in Newark, NJ.
She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Montclair State University in May 2018 and her Master of Arts from Fordham University in August 2019. Caylia Wallace has performed works by Jessie Dimauro, Kim Whittam, Kathleen Kelley, Christian von Howard, Lori Katterhenry, Earl Mosley and Camille A. Brown. She’s performed with various New York City-based companies such as Lakai Dance Theatre and WellBeing Dance. She has also performed behind the international singer, Simona Rodano.
In 2017, Caylia premiered her first professional work, Elements of 92‘. In December 2018, she formally started her Visual and Performing Arts Company, throughtheyes.
Artist Statement:
Dance became a passion of mine because I admired the discipline and emotional connection I’m allowed to have. The way dance training needs to be consistent and accurate for improvement drew me to expand in this art form. Dance plays a role in exploring new values, cultures, and people. I’ve personally observed how dance can travel around the world. While in Stockholm, Sweden, I was able to learn about the different societal dynamics, how they interact, how they eat, and how they live on a daily basis. As I prepare to travel to Europe again four years later, I’ve learned that embracing my background is the key to my artistic success.
This event takes place as part of wider Hybrid Festival programming from 6th – 21st August 2021 by Signdance Collective in association with Wycombe Arts Centre.
The Hybrid Festival public engagement project is an in-person/post-lockdown event promoting creativity, confidence, unity and a sense of belonging. Highlights include Signdance Collective’s work-in-progress Oriente Plus, in-person and remote creative engagement opportunities at Islands workshops, “The Land of I” exhibition curated by Tabitha Gunstone-Pollock and MACA Nights in memory of Lionel Macauley.
