National Theatre of Scotland Learn

Sponsored by ScottishPower, supported by Determined to Succeed, in partnership with Aberdeen City Council’s Arts Education Team, presents

TRANSFORM ABERDEEN: The Cabaret of Impossible Dreams

A Major Theatre Education Project

The National Theatre of Scotland is delighted to be returning to Aberdeen in January 2010 with Transform Aberdeen – a major theatre education project developed in partnership with Aberdeen City Council’s Arts Education Team and created with students from Dyce Academy and members of the local community. Following an exciting programme of workshops at Dyce Academy in September 2009, the National Theatre of Scotland team is looking forward to returning to Dyce to work on the project from 25th January 2010.

Transform Aberdeen is directed by Paddy Cunneen, the award-winning theatre director, playwright and composer. Paddy Cunneen is leading the project with a team of professional theatre artists from the National Theatre of Scotland including Jen Edgar as Movement Specialist, Ailie Cohen as Puppetry Specialist, Lewis Hetherington as Creative Writing Specialist, Kenny Miller as Designer and Kate Bonney as Lighting Designer.

Transform Aberdeen is due to culminate in an exciting public theatre event entitled The Cabaret of Impossible Dreams at the Forum in Aberdeen, with performances from 17th to 19th March 2010. The Cabaret of Impossible Dreams will explore the fascinating world of dreams, as experienced through the lives and imaginations of young people. The cabaret style show will involve a combination of puppetry, live animation, music, dance and performance. Tickets for the event are free but advance booking is required. Tickets will be available from 15th February 2010 from Aberdeen Box Office, telephone: 01224 641122.

Annette Murray, Arts Education Co-ordinator, Aberdeen City Council, said:

"Aberdeen City Council is thrilled to be hosting Transform. The learning opportunities afforded by the creation of a brand new piece of work and all the mechanics of its production, epitomises everything we look to achieve in arts education. The skills and experience gained (performance-based or otherwise) will remain with participants for years to come."

Heather McDonald, Group Sponsorship’s Manager, ScottishPower, said:

“ScottishPower is delighted to be involved with Transform. Our community programmes are focused on helping young people make the transition from school or unemployment into work and we recognise that theatre is a wonderful tool for re-engaging young people, helping improve their motivation and developing skills that are important in the world of work.”

Determined to Succeed is delighted to support Transform. Transform works by engaging, inspiring and empowering the whole community by creating memorable and innovative theatre which exposes the participants to all aspects of theatre-making and event management. Working with a team of enterprising, real-world, theatre professionals, participants demonstrate a can-do, will-do attitude, allowing them to further develop their skills for learning, life and work and deliver a successful performance.

Listings: The Cabaret of Impossible Dreams

Venue: The Forum, 3 Skene Terrace, Aberdeen, AB10 1RN

Dates: 17th – 19th March 2010

Times: Evenings: 7.30pm

Matinee: Friday 19th March, 2pm

Signed performance: Thursday 18th March, 7.30pm

Tickets: Free but advance booking required. Tickets available from 15th February 2010 from Aberdeen Box Office, Tel: 01224 641122

Transform is a major collaborative education project between National Theatre of Scotland Learn, ScottishPower Learning and the Scottish Government’s Determined to Succeed programme that allows schools and communities to transform their approaches to learning. By bringing schools together with theatre professionals, communities and audiences, the partnerships produce high impact theatre events that use the local environment as a backdrop to tell compelling stories. Transform aims to enthuse and motivate participants and enable them to develop key skills they can adopt in life and the world of work.

Ten major education projects will have been produced by the National Theatre of Scotland’s Learn team from March 2008 to March 2010. Teams of leading artists have been taking up residency in communities across Scotland, working with secondary schools and community groups to produce ten full-scale site-specific productions. Projects in 2008 took place in Inverclyde and East Ayrshire and 2009 projects took place in Fife, Dumfries, East Renfrewshire, Moray, Orkney, Caithness and Glasgow. Transform Aberdeen is the final of the Company’s ten Transform projects.

National Theatre of Scotland Learn opens up great theatre experiences to as many people as possible across Scotland. Since the launch of the National Theatre of Scotland in February 2006, National Theatre of Scotland Learn has created many educational and outreach theatre projects, involving over 104,000 participants and audience members, over 4,900 workshops and over 90 schools in 26 Scottish local authority areas.

ONLINE INFORMATION: www.nationaltheatrescotland.com

For further information please contact: Toni O’Neill, Marketing & Press Officer on 0141 2279231.

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