Cast-Off Drama

Cast-Off Drama Current info and forthcoming events

2011-02-25T14:16:00.000-08:00

Cast-Off Drama - A Theatre Company of Life-Models, Street-Performers and Itinerant Artists.

About us...
Registered office: Cast-Off Drama,Studio 3, Artspace, Bates Mill Queen Street South, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK. HD1 3DX
Tel: 01484 685948
E-mail: ninakane@btinternet.com
Artistic Director: Nina Kane

Formed in 2002 Cast-Off Drama is the recognised pioneer of 'life-modelling theatre' offering new roles to life-models as perfomers and to artists as 'notators' and audience members. In addition to life-modelling theatre, we work with street theatre and community theatre, creating powerful, people-centred productions.

Based in Huddersfield, England, under the artistic direction of Nina Kane, Cast-Off is a theatre company of life-models, artists and street-performers working with itinerant and community art in galleries, studio theatres, community centres and outdoor locations. We recognise life-modelling and life-drawing as interdependent art forms involving both model and artist in dynamic creative exchange. We see life-modelling as a theatre-based art form, and the life-drawing space as a space for theatre. We have an active commitment to arts reseach and offer a varied programme of education work in schools, colleges, universities and community spaces. Please note, we have no connection at all, past or present, to the Cast-Off Drama amateur dramatics group in Oldham.

About 'Life-Modelling Theatre'...
Centrally, our work develops the performance potential of the life-model offering high-quality theatre productions, workshops and events for a life-drawing and street-theatre audience. Drawing on fine art, old stories, music, literature and circus history, we explore the drama of the body in art through physical theatre, mask-work, singing and storytelling. We explore everyday clothing, masks, costume, nudity and non-nudity, working closely with artist-notators who act as 'mirror' and 'outside eye' to the process, but also through 'model-only' rehearsals and workshops. Concurrently, we investigate conventions of stillness, silence, nudity and heightened spectacle occuring in the life-drawing space. Using integrated theatre processes we seek emotionally-literate negotiation of such conventions to generate a theatre of the body which plays to the strengths of the individual model-performer. At heart is a desire to understand and engage practically with moments of spontaneity, instinct and ritual occuring in the life-modelling/life-drawing exchange. See below for details of our production method.

Education Work... Complementing our developments in life-modelling theatre, Cast-Off offers exciting and challenging workshops and projects in conventional theatre using physical theatre, improvisation, new writing and mask. Our workshops offer space to investigate 'the theatre of the body' using props, costume, 3-D making and percussion in addition to role-play, narrative and song. We have a strong track record of developing life-drawing and theatre projects within schools, colleges and universities.

Community Theatre... We have an active commitment to community arts and are experienced at working in groups in a variety of community settings. If you are a community organisation and want some drama for your group or local centre, please contact us and we will develop anything from a day-workshop or a programme of events that suits your needs and is affordable to you.

Sister Organisations - WILMA and Ocarina Nina:
Cast-Off Drama developed a number of small initiatives under its wing in the early years, and these have developed into strong projects in their own right, operating separately from the company since 2006. We nevertheless retain close working links with the following - WILMA (Women Into Life-Modelling Arts), a network and advocacy service for female life-models, and Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre & Singing, a street-theatre company providing singing walkabout characters for festivals. We wish them and their participants well, and will continue to update Cast-Off Drama
blog-watchers on their progress!

The Olympics
We look forward to some years of exciting grassroots sports activities in our communities and advocate the following:

- the development and regular maintenance of public sports facilities across Britain
- free swimming, gyms, spas, saunas, tennis courts and ice-skating for all
- continued action tackling racism on the football terraces
- the reversal of the sale of school playing fields
- a nationalised network of riding schools and the development of urban farms for horses; open provision for horses on common land
- the opening of all empty development land plots for tennis, hockey, shotput, javelin and other sporting events

and finally, we view the Olympics as an opportunity for Britain to up the status of women's professional sports on a par with men's in terms of public interest, viewing time, training opportunities and salaries.

As a very small arts company, we immediately noticed the effect of the Olympics on our work in 2006 - it has affected our direct applications for public funds for productions, and our indirect sources of income through workshops and partner-working (ie. commissions by other publicly funded venues, groups, festivals, etc). In the autumn of that year, therefore, we decided to take an 'in-breath' and focus our energies on performance writing and new script development building on our processes of life-modelling theatre techniques, audience dialogue, installation and site-specific engagement.

REPERTOIRE:
For full details of our repetoire and works-in-progress, please click on the side heading that says Repertoire of Audience Works. Repertoire pieces include:

Cleansed by Sarah Kane (2009 - 2012)

Devised / scripted works:

Faun - commissioned by York Art Gallery and put on as part of the William Etty Retrospective (2011)
Padre - based on the work of Francis Bacon (2012)
Panoptican (2009)
The Green Children of Wolfpit - community script (2009-)
Bride-Cake Bride-Bones (2008 -)
Wallpaper...Roses...Reposes (2008 -)
The Striped Dress (2008 -)
Pull My Daisy (2007 -)
Between Stars (2006 -)
Poisson D'Argent (2006 -)
Beads (2003 - 2006)
Proscenium Memorial (2004-5)
Chime Chimera (2003)
The Bath (2002)
Will you, Won't You...Join the Dance?! (2002)

For indepth details of our work and production processes, please click on the main company info link or scroll down to the bottom of the blog. In the meantime, enjoy reading our latest news and hear about our current work below!

Latest News / Current Projects:
Faun- commissioned by York Art Gallery for the William Etty Retrospective

Performance in the Gallery Space based on selected works from the exhibition Wednesday 16th November 2011

Composite Bodies - a life-model workshop open to members of the public, 23rd November 10am - 3pm, York Gallery Studio

All events are free of charge to the public. Many thanks to York Art Gallery for this commission. Faun will tour to other UK galleries in the Spring and Summer of 2012.

Summer 2011:

Modelworks at Leeds Art Gallery

There are three remaining dates for Modelworks this term.

Saturday 25th June - Family Day - Sounding Out Bacon - a vocal and movement response to works by Francis Bacon!
Saturday 9th July - Working from Jack B Yeats The Mystery Man - mask work with Christine Smith and Nina Kane
Saturday 23rd July - String Installations - Chris Hinchliffe and Nina Kane.

Sessions run from 1-4pm. Hope you can make it! Many thanks as ever to Leeds Art Gallery.

Sounding Out Bacon

The Sounding Out Bacon vocal and movement session went very well. Two distinct scripts have emerged from this process and will go towards a new work - Padre - to be developed for the Light Night event and the Exhibitions Group in October 2012.

Spikenard
Many thanks to those who attended the Spikenard sessions at Leeds Gallery this weekend and who donated perfumes. It seems smell can take us to whole new ways of seeing. Stories were told, memories exchanged, there was reading and nude performance from the Song of Songs, and the gendering of fragrances yielded interesting questions.

Some of the things we liked....Cedar Wood by Goya of Bond St - 'slapping it on the cheeks, strong rum and Christmas'....Hypnotic Poison - 'sugar spun candy sweet'...Miss Dior Cherie - 'old-fashioned Spangles and way too many Dolly Mixtures'...Indian Ginger and Orchid - 'fizzy, dizzy with a hint of school corridors, rubbery underside of old plimsolls' ...Aveda Chakra 1 - 'definitely date and walnut cake, a whiff of smoked leather...' We enjoyed the project so much, we are repeating it, starting with a Spikenard 2 Family Day in the Gallery space on the 25th June as partof Modelworks. Please keep sending us your old perfumes,colognes, aftershaves, etc. Watch this space for new dates.

An extra thank you from Artistic Director Nina to...Neil Chapman, our friend in Japan, whose near-lifetime passion for perfume, and copious facebook discussions on the subject, have inspired this performance project.

>Spikenard - at Leeds Art Gallery

On the weekend of the 11th and 12th June, there will be a Cast-Off Drama performance weekend - Spikenard - exploring perfume and smell in arts-making, and working from the gallery's collection. For this, we need lots of perfume - if you have any old bottles of scent lying around - whether this be sprays, oils, perfumes, etc - that you are willing to donate, please contact us (07800 861351), or just bring them along. Also, if there are any still in use that you are willing to lend a spray or dab of, that'd be lovely too. Any will do, male, female, androgynous, unisex, weird and wonderful or everyday! Just follow your nose.

Modelworks

Modelworks kicks off on Saturday 7th May with a mask performance - Keen - based on The Lady of Shalott. We will be intervening in the space of the Ziff Gallery (Leeds Art Gallery) weaving webs, playing with mirrors chanting loudly, singing and keening. All welcome to watch, draw, sing or weave. All welcome!

Following some wonderful workshops from Chris Hinchliffe and Liz Pollard last term, we are extending our project of opening up the Studio sessions for facilitation by others. If you have a model-related or drawing / making / art history idea that you would like to explore, and would like to have a go at running a session using the gallery's collection, please contact Nina to discuss it further and let us know your preferred date (22nd May, 9th July, 23rd July). She will happily model for your session, be a sounding-board or just be on hand to set up, make teas, etc! Nina - 07800 861351, and e-mail: ninakane@btinternet.com

In other sessions, we will continue to work on our collective project The Green Children of Wolfpit.

Saturday 7th May - 1-4pm: Family Day (Gallery space)
Sunday 22nd May - 1-4pm: Studio
Saturday 11th June - 10am - 4pm - Studio Spikenard - on perfume and art. All-day.
Sunday 12th June - 1-4pm Spikenard - on perfume and art (afternoon)
Saturday 25th June -1-4pm: Family day (Gallery space)
Saturday 9th July - 1-4pm: Studio
Saturday 23rd July: 1 - 4pm:Studio

All sessions are at Leeds Art Gallery, are drop-in and free of charge, materials provided, but please bring a donation to help towards costs.

The Modelworks Exhibitions Group, a DIY community of artists who have gathered around the project in recent years and host exhibitions from work created in the sessions have secured an exhibition space for the whole of October 2012, at Leeds Central Library First Floor. This exhibition will co-incide with Leeds Light Night, and we hope to form part of that year's programme. Work from these sessions can be submitted towards this exhibition. For further details, see Cast-Off Drama's blog in coming months.

Modelworks forms part of Cast-Off Drama's education and performance initiative at Leeds City Art Gallery. We have enjoyed a happy and creative relationship with the gallery and its collections for the past 9 years, and are grateful to them for their continuing support.

Recent:
'A Blank Slate?: Woman as Tabula Rasa in Art' - Liz Pollard
Saturday 26th March 2011, 1-4pm, Leeds City Art Gallery

Modelworks is happy to welcome artist Liz Pollard to the Leeds Gallery this weekend with a workshop on Woman as Tabula Rasa in Art. The session will explore this theme through contemplation of nude statues around Leeds city centre and within the gallery. In particular it will focus on those works that use the female form allegorically. The session will involve a talk from Liz on the subject and drawing from a life-model.

Biography:

Artist Liz Pollard works mostly in traditional print media. After a BA in Fine Art Printmaking and Photomedia at Norwich School of Art and Design (now Norwich University of the Creative Arts) she completed an M.A. in the Fine Art Department at Leeds University in 2000 in Feminism & the Visual Arts., then set up her studio space in Norwich and supplementing her art practice with part-time teaching at Norwich School of Art & Design.

Liz creates work using a wide range of printmaking techniques, from simple mono-printing and relief prints to multi-plate etchings, using photographic references, sketches and drawing to develop her ideas. Sources of inspiration include a lifelong fascination with the hidden world of domesticity and the rituals involved in our daily lives. Completing an M.A. dissertation on ‘Women, Madness and Cleaning’ left Liz depressed, with a large collection of J-Cloths and rubber gloves and a strong aversion to housework to show for her efforts.
Influences range from 17th-century Dutch genre painting, Chardin’s still-lives and interiors, Japanese wood-block prints, the Ealing Studios films, to contemporary video and performance artists and to memories of her mother – housekeeper par excellence!

A trip to Hong Kong in November 2002 was a rich and rewarding experience, and has led Liz to engage with ‘Eastern’ aesthetics from a ‘Western’ point of view. Creating collages of her own relief prints and mono-prints combined with Origami and Khadi papers, these works play with the concepts ‘Oriental’ and ‘Occidental’, and toy with abiding clichés about East and West. The fusion of colours and pattern is intended to reach beyond cultural and geographical borders.

In an Easterly Direction, an exhibition in Colchester Library’s Les Livres Gallery in March 2004, continued to explore Liz’s interest in oriental art and culture, the dynamic of line and space as well as printed textiles. Printmaking is often a delicate, complex process, juggling initial ideas with technique. Her works reflect this ongoing ‘battle’ - a balancing act between the colourful collages and the spare, linear works in which the white space of the paper (as in Japanese calligraphy) is just as positive as the marks upon it. Liz began creating her banners, backed with imitation rice paper, as a way of bringing print out from behind glass and frame, a chance for viewers to engage with the tactile qualities of handmade papers. Initially, it was a novel way of displaying prints produced by Braintree Community Art Group in the Dome Gallery, Braintree, as part of ARTfresh 2002, and grew from there.

Modelworks is run by Cast-Off Drama in partnership with Leeds Art Gallery.

Cleansed by Sarah Kane

Wok continues on our exploration of Sarah Kane's Cleansed at the Leeds Art Gallery. On Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th February, Nina Kane and Kerry Ely will be collaborating on aspects of the script with a specific focus on tights, stockings and stitching. Anyone with an interest in life-drawing, theatre, performance art or feminism is very welcome to come along and draw, watch, discuss the process. We will also explore Edward Bond's Saved. Kerry is a theatre performer, director and Burlesque artiste, and we are very excited to be working with her again.
(Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 1-4pm, Studio, Leeds Art Gallery).

The weekend with Kerry follows an excellent one earlier this month between Paul Ashton and Nina on Cleansed. We focused on gender and clothes-swapping and a wonderful time was had by all. Paul is a body and tattoo artist, a painter and a life-model but prefers the term 'Creative' to describe his art. We are very much looking forward to working with Paul again on this.

Work on Cleansed will continue until 2012.

Cast-Off Drama commissioned for the William Etty Exhibition, York Art Gallery, November 2011.

York Art Gallery will be holding a major exhibition of Etty's work from 24 June, 2011 to 22 January, 2012, which will be the first comprehensive reassessment of his art for more than 50 years. Cast-Off are delighted to have been invited to participate both in the exhibition programme and in the conference accompanying the events. We have been commissioned to create a performance piece from the works 'giving voice' to Etty's models in the gallery space. We will also be running a Contemporary Life-Model Studies workshop for students at York University through our Education Programme. Artistic Director Nina Kane will present a paper for the conference on 'Developing Performance in Response to Gallery Collections' - details on this to follow. We thank York Art Gallery for their commission, and are very much looking forward to being involved in this wonderful event.
Gallery Performance: 16th November
York University Student Workshop: 23rd November
Conference dates tbc.

Modelworks at Leeds Art Gallery

The Modelworks programme at Leeds Art Gallery is mid-way through its Spring term, but there are a couple of dates left for those interested in coming to work from the collection. (see archived news below for fuller details of this project).

We would like to thank Christine Hinchliffe for a fantastic workshop on Sound a couple of weeks back.

Remaining dates this term:

Saturday March 12th - International Women's Day Celebration: we will be joining with the Gallery to celebrate this important annual festival, and will be performing a response to the current Henry Moore exhibition, with a focus on his female forms. We will be working in the lower gallery spaces, and all are invited to come and draw / watch, etc. (1-4pm, Leeds Art Gallery).

Saturday 26th March - Modelworks with Liz Pollard. A big thank you to Liz Pollard who is our guest facilitator for this session. Liz will be exploring 'Woman as Allegory' and will focus on the C19th 'lamposts' of nude women around Leeds City Centre.

Modelworks is changing the way it works and is inviting participants who have attended regularly for the last 5 years to devise and facilitate their own guest session in collaboration with Nina who is happy to be model / sounding board / teamaker as required! If you would like to facilitate a gallery session, working from the collection and exploring an aspect of life-model / life-drawer practice or history, please contact Nina. Next term's dates will be available soon.

We will continue to develop our community script The Green Children of Wolfpit in collaboration with artists attending the Modelworks project.

Archived News (until Spring 2011)

2005-06-14T02:57:00.000-07:00

Archived News - what we have been doing...Spring 2011 - 2006

Happy New Year everyone! Modelworks is back at Leeds Art Gallery on the following dates, with yet more wonderful model-led working. Drop-in, free of charge but donations welcome! We will be focusing more on drama and the Gallery's collection this term.

Saturday 22nd January, 1-4pm
Saturday 12th February, 1-4pm
Saturday 12th March, 1-4pm - family afternoon in the Gallery space as part of International Women's Day
Saturday 26th March 1-4pm

Also at the Leeds Gallery, Nina Kane will be collaborating on performative and gender aspects of Sarah Kane's Cleansed with model and artist Paul Ashton. She will be working again on the same piece with a female model in March. Life-drawers and anyone with an interest in theatre, feminism or performance art are very welcome to participate - just drop-in.

Saturday 5th February, 10am - 4pm
Sunday 6th February, 1-4pm

Saturday 26th February, 10am - 4pm
Sunday 27th February, 1-4pm

A big thank you to Leeds Art Gallery Education for their support.

Autumn 2010

Art of the Life-Model - Modelworks at Leeds Art Gallery

Exciting news on the project - we are back, bigger and better than ever before at Leeds Art Gallery but this time with a new look and a new name! From Autumn 2010, The Art of the Life-Model will be known as Modelworks, and offers a vibrant new programme of fortnightly model-led life-drawing at Leeds Art Gallery.

The Art of the Life-Model has an excellent profile in the Leeds art scene and has brought over a 1,000 visitors into the gallery since its inception in October 2002. The work developed from the WILMA - Women Into Life-Modelling Arts pilot project 'Will You, Won't You...Join the Dance?', and was developed by Nina Kane of Cast-Off Drama in partnership with Leeds College of Art Community Education and Leeds Art Gallery Education until 2008. Since 2008, it has been run by Cast-Off Drama in partnership with the Gallery and supported almost entirely by volunteer donations and an active and committed group who have developed grassroots exhibitions in Leeds City Centre in response to the varied and experimental programme of model-led activities. The activities have fused drama, art history and life-drawing as a way of reading the collection and have effected many interventions in the life-drawing arena, and in the spaces of the Gallery.

Modelworks represents a new departure for the interventionist and experimental philosophy and practices of The Art of the Life-Model. Addressing more fundamentally the practice of life-drawing education we aim to programme a series of workshops on specific items from the collection exploring conventions of nudity, time, stillness, silence and fixed positions. Our work will examine the history of the life-model through interventions in the practice of the artform, and through exchanges with drawers in the space of the gallery and in the education studio. Our practice seeks new understandings of the formal elements, of colour, of perspective and anatomy and will be taught by models giving a different 'take' on ways into these practices. The workshops will offer sustained model-led drawing, challenging preconceptions and allowing new life into the space of image-making.

Also new to the project will be a number of Family Afternoons where visitors to the Gallery with children can come and draw from a costumed model working in the gallery space from selected pictures and sculptures.

The workshops are free of charge, but as we are still seeking funding, any voluntary donations will be gratefully received - materials provided. Workshops start Saturday 25th Sept, 1-4pm and will run on the following dates. For further info, contact us on 07800 861351 or contact Nina Kane: ninakane@btinternet.com

Modelworks -
Leeds Art Gallery

Saturday 25th September, 1-4pm - Life-Drawing
Saturday 9th October, 1-4pm - Life-Drawing
Saturday 23rd October, 1-4pm Family Afternoon - Costume Drawing in the Gallery Space
Saturday 6th November, 1-4pm - Life-Drawing
Saturday 20th November, 1-4pm - Life-Drawing
Saturday 27th November, 1-4pm - Life-Drawing
Saturday 11th December, 1-4pm Family Afternoon - Costume Drawing in the Gallery Space

Hope you can make it!

Work continues on Sarah Kane's 'Cleansed'...

Artistic Director Nina Kane will be collaborating with Paul Ashton on our ongoing exploration of Sarah Kane's 'Cleansed'. Life-drawers invited. Watch this space for details of date and time once confirmed soon (everyone's on holiday!).

We recommend.....
If you're heading up to Edinburgh this year check out The Paper Birds (www.thepaperbirds.com) who will premiere their visual, political exploration of women as Other and ‘Other’ women at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August. 'Others' 4th-29th August, Pleasance Courtyard. Box Office:0131 556 6550
"Based on a six month exchange of letters and emails with an Iranian artist, a prisoner and a celebrity, The Paper Birds deconstruct the stories and voices of women from east and west, from different sides of the television screen and different sides of the law. Through live music, movement, verbatim text and audience input, ‘Others’ questions if it is possible to better understand 3 absent women or indeed ourselves".
Massive respect to The Paper Birds for this work!

We also recommend Clean Break Theatre's 'This Wide Night' coming to the Soho Theatre London in November. Again, massive respect to this theatre company and the work it does!

Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre

The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk had a very rainy but wonderful time at the Larmer Tree Festival and sang to many friendly punters and the odd peacock! We then had an unforgettable weekend at Indie Tracks and had fun on the Steam Train! The Singing Secretary even appeared on the Winkball Indietracks film....we will be back at Indie Tracks next year! Such an amazing festival! Roll on Solfest!

The Collection Grows...

Cast-Off Drama's eclectic and highly subjective Gallery of collectable works for inspiration, exhibition, contemplation and project-working now includes:

'The Stain' - a chapbook by Tracey Emin, produced at the Venice Bienniale, 2007

Three hand-painted ceramic tiles by Paula Rego, including 'L'Escultora' - a particular favourite due to its connection to Leeds Art Gallery's 'The Artist in Her Studio' which we have worked from many-a-time in our projects (yes, we've already used this tile on a poster!), circa 1989-1993

An oil on board - Two Dogs by L.S Lowry

A watercolour sketch by L.S Lowry, 1953

Two large and cheeky signed posters of Gilbert and George's 'Dirty Words' retrospective at the Serpentine in 2002 - 'Are you angry or are you boring?' (such an excellent question!) and 'Fuck'. We love Gilbert and George!

A rare electronic piece of 9 frames which compose a Gilbert & George picture when printed from the internet...we like this, everytime you send it to someone they own an original art and its capitalist value thus slowly depreciates through mass production and circulation...beautiful!

A Marina Abramovic coffee set from the Illy Artist range, circa 2002 - unfortunately two of the saucers are the same - that's mass production for you!

A sculpture of a ballerina in resin by Andrea Carlo Lucchesi, circa early 1900s

'The Departure' - an oil on canvas by William Powell Frith (or circle), late C19th - we think we've found the inspiration for this in a letter written by a woman about a P&O ferry....we are creating from this already and will be taking a trip to the National Conservation Centre in Liverpool for their advice on looking after this soon.... (check them out at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/conservation)

A gouache on cartridge paper by Patrick Heron, 1966 - lots of beautiful reds, oranges and the odd pink with white space around it....but could it be a fake? We're not sure on the provenance of this but we like the colours and thought we'd take a risk!

A limited edition Christmas card by Tracey Emin called 'Robin Sez', 2002 - yes friends, you will be receiving a copy of this for the yuletide season (so predictable) - it's beautiful!

A hand-painted 'Harvest' jug designed by Frank Brangwyn

Soup bowl, plate and hand-painted dish by Brangywn

Two C19th woodblock prints by Utagawa Hiroshige - 'Ishiyama Temple on Lake Biwa, Omi Province, 7th Lunar Month 1853' and 'Takashi Beach, Izumi Province, 7th Lunar Month 1853' from his collection 'Views of the Sixty-Odd Provinces'.

Limited edition print of a Jacob Kramer portrait, 1935. We think this is one of his sister Sarah.

A rare, black-edged, brightly painted cup, saucer and bowl from Gray's pottery, 1929 - we believe this to be painted by Dorothy Tomes who was there between Susie Cooper and Clarice Cliff....we're interested in the missing history of this little-known designer and love the black creeping into the bright colour...we like the foreboding in it and its historical prescience (but then we are Smiths listeners....)The ceramics are visually stunning!

An eighteenth century portrait of a formidable unknown woman (whose husband got sold separately...we were tempted to keep them together, but couldn't afford it! Our thinking was - if they were happy together in life they will be reunited somewhere happily in spirit in the Great Beyond and won't need their pictures to stay a pair - if unhappy together in life, she might well be quite happy to go on her separate way and have new stories created from her image!)

A strange, C18th Italian oil of three ships with a Swiss flag....it looked a bit like the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria but it's not....

Four Henry Moore lithographs with drawings and hand-written notes on both sides of his designs for the UNESCO scuplture, circa mid-1950s

A Henry Moore lithograph of some sheep

Three beautiful lithographs by Marc Chagall

A wonderful oil painting of a horse and rider signed and attributed to Jack B Yeats - a sketch in oils of his later work 'The Whistle of the Jacket'. This is almost certainly a fake, but it's a very old and a very good one nonetheless!

Two coronation mugs painted a month apart by Dame Laura Knight - one celebrating Edward VIII's coronation and a swiftly reworked version for George V - both May 1937. We just loved the elephants on them and Knight's quirky design!

A small late oil painting on hard-board by L.S. Lowry, of a solitary man and dog, with an inscription on the back from him which says 'As promised', 1967. We believe this to be one of the many paintings Lowry did for friends, associates or maybe even creditors in his later years! Absolutely stunning!

A beautiful early oil painting of a little girl called Beatrice, painted by Ely de Vescovic (later known as Bettina Whitman) in 1926. De Vescovic collaborated with Diego Rivera on his murals and is famous for developing a new chemical process for fixing paint.

We are busy contemplating these wonderful works and writing, dreaming, performing short bursts of ideas and impulses in response to them. We will be writing a collection of scripts from these objects in forthcoming months and will begin working from them in 2011. We will also be printing postcards! Our art auction coffers are now firmly depleted and we won't be adding any more to the collection as we've no wall space!

The Art of the Life-Model, Summer Term

The Art of the Life-Model did some wonderful work in the Gallery and we very much enjoyed exploring Henry Moore's 'King and Queen', Sean Scully's exhibition, Mark Dean's The Byrds / THe Birds, Robert MacBride's 'Woman Seated at a Window', Francis Bacon's Untitled and the Hermann Obrist exhibition. The project has come a long way in 8 years and we will update you as to its future when news of funding is confirmed.

Collections....

We are building a collection of art from which to make theatre, and are excited to announce the purchase of three rather wonderful pieces.

The first is a Victorian oil painting called The Departure and is attributed to William Powell Frith. It is literally a picture of a ship about to 'cast-off' as throngs say goodbye to their loved ones or jump on board for a new life somewhere over the ocean. An appropriate start to the Cast-Off Collection! We'll be making a group theatre piece from this...watch this space!

The second and third purchases are limited edition ceramic tiles hand-painted by our favourite artist Paula Rego! Our production-goers and Art of the Life-Model regulars will know we often return to Paula Rego's amazing and powerful oeuvre, and we are passionate about her work! The tiles are painted in yellow-orange and blue on white. THe first shows a woman carrying a guitar with a peacock, a dog at her feet and a horse or cat creature hurrying towards her. The second shows a woman - possibly the same one - rowing a boat across the water with a peacock and a great dog / pig/bear figure sitting in the boat! We reckon they're painted in the early 90s! Nina will be making a solo piece from these for this year's Summer school...watch this space!

Friends of Cast-Off Drama will be receiving postcards of these in the not-too-distant future.....!

We love these works and are looking forward to making theatre from them and sharing them with you all!

The Roads
Cast-Off advises you all to check out the hot new sound of London-based band The Roads. This group of 5 sisters are excellent musicians and have launched some tasters of their forthcoming album on My Space - www.myspace.com/theroadslondon. Tour dates soon. Ones to watch! We love them!

Art of the Life-Model updates:
We want your postings! Art of the Life-Model is now featured on the Leeds Art Gallery wikipedia page - regulars: please add any useful observations of your experience and learning over the years, and its contributions to the Leeds art community, and any ongoing research generated from it to that, please!

The Art of the Life-Model is undergoing changes, and will be working in two forms from this point on. We are developing an education programme of taught courses in contemporary life-model studies at the Leeds Art Gallery, synthesising much of the theory and findings of recent years. These courses will be unaccredited, but we want to develop a continuous group who can commit to each session. A 6-week pilot course will run from the end of May - more details to follow.

Separate from this, we will be developing Art of the Life-Model Community which will involve Summer programmes of experimental, theatre-based modelling, exhibitions and continuation of the Green Children of Wolfpit work, subject to funding being obtained. Watch this space for this Summer's shindigs!

We are also setting up a Facebook page for Art of the Life-Model regulars to keep up with each other! Hope you'll join it!

The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk are now finalising their round of Summer bookings. We will be appearing at the Golcar Lily Festival in Huddersfield on Saturday 8th May, also:
Larmer Tree Festival, 15th - 18th July
Indie Tracks, 25th - 27th July
Solfest, 27th - 30th August.

Please note: we are not The Singing Secretary that appears on YOUtube in a bedroom - that's a different singer! We are the one outdoors, with a hat!

Apology:
To all who signed up for the recent Friends' scheme for the delay in receiving your packs - badges and postcards are being made as we speak and will be winging their way to you in due course.

Spring 2010
The Art of the Life-Model at Leeds Art Gallery -dates for this season are as follows:
30th & 31st January, 1-4pm
20th & 21st February, 1-4pm
13th & 14th March, 1-4pm
3rd & 4th April, 1-4pm

Summer dates to follow.

We are continuing with our work on The Green Children of Wolfpit...watch this space for news on this!

The Art of the Life-Model at Leeds Art Gallery- pedagogic and performative strategies in community arts education

Where: SEPD Conference, University of Huddersfield
When: 9th March 2010
The Art of the Life-Model has run as a community arts 'drop-in' at Leeds Art Gallery since 2002. It offers members of the public an opportunity to explore the gallery's collections and exhibitions through mixed-arts activity combining drama, life-drawing, art history, 3-D making, discussion and performance. The Art of the Life-Model is unique in its focus on the history, practice and politics of life-modelling and takes a theatre approach to the arena of life-drawing and also the space of the gallery. It offers learning space for people of all backgrounds, abilities and ages, and is unusual in its combination of theory and practice at community level. The session will present findings by Nina Kane from research undertaken whilst the course ran through the Leeds College of Art, and subsequently as a theatre and Gallery Education project under Cast-Off Drama.

I'm happy to provide a copy of the lecture notes to anyone interested after the event for connected research.

Autumn 2009

Administrator wanted...
Cast-Off Drama is looking for a part-time administrator to complete funding bids for our next major education project (The Art of the Life-Model - 'Green Children of Wolfpit'), and to further develop the administrative and marketing structure of the company. The role would suit somebody with good communication skills, able to be self-motivated, interested in small arts development and in gaining more experience in an innovative, established, public arts company. Location: Cast-Off Drama Studios, Bates Mill Artspace, Huddersfield. For expressions of interest or any further details, please contact Nina Kane (Artistic Director) on 07800 861351 or ninakane@btinternet.com

New Script Work - 'Panoptican'

Cast-Off's new youth script is now under way and looks at issues of motherhood.

In a world of watching and being watched, where random unpremeditated violence and vermin roam the streets, and 'Death by Disrespect' angels scour the empty buildings in the latest Life-Bored game, the Panoptican glistens as a Beacon of Hope to all who fall foul of the Acts of Gross Indecency. A group of young single mothers, committed to the Pan for wellbeing, guidance and tenderising, live out a life of virtual motherhood as their babies bloom amongst them in the nursery. All is as it should be until Rapunzel cuts her hair, and the glass in the baby room cracks...

Watch this space for more news on the Panoptican and emerging young peoples' projects.

The Art of the Life-Model at Leeds Art Gallery
Our regular programme of model-led mixed arts workshops is back for another fantastic session, and this year we are doing weekends! It's still a 'drop-in', and you can come either day of the weekend or both. Each session is based on a work in the Gallery's collection. They involve drama, drawing, 3-D making, performance, storytelling, movement, percussion and discussion! Work this term is towards a collaborative, devised, open-art production / showing of mixed work starting in January and due to happen next Summer. Its theme is the Green Children of Wolfpit (Woolpit)- a fantastic tale that could take us in any direction! More on this later. Dates for Autumn 2009 and Spring 2010 (yes, that's a decade since the Millenium!!!) are below, Summer dates later in the year, watch this space! Contact Cast-Off for further details (07800 861351 / ninakane@btinternet.com )

12th & 13th September, 1-4pm
3rd & 4th October, 1-4pm
24th & 25th October, 1-4pm
14th & 15th November, 1-4pm
5th & 6th December, 1-4pm
9th & 10th January, 1-4pm
30th & 31st January, 1-4pm
20th & 21st February, 1-4pm
13th & 14th March, 1-4pm
3rd & 4th April, 1-4pm

A big thank you to the hard-working staff at the Gallery!

Exhbition, Leeds Central Library, 7th - 27th September
A massive well done and thank you to Christine Hinchliffe and all the Art of the Life-Model participants who have created such a fantastic exhibition at Leeds Central Library Artspace (2nd floor). It is the second year such an exhibition has happened and is organised autonomously by Art of the Life-Model participants. The current exhibition features works by 12 artists showing works created from and inspired by 2008 and 2009 Gallery sessions. This year's exhbition also features works developed from Cast-Off's other projects - Bride-Cake Bride-Bones and I Love To You - and shows a real range of styles, thoughts, methods, techniques, responses and ideas. Beautiful, beautiful works! Catch it before it goes!

Cast-Off Drama Friends SchemeIntroduced by our Artistic Director Nina Kane
In a bid to wrestle with the current economic climate we find that public and community-funding is thin on the ground and we are as ever looking for creative ways to generate income to support our public-friendly and non profit-making arts events! Though penniless, we are, nonetheless popular! In light of this(and making a virtue of necessity) we are happy to announce our Friends Scheme! If you have benefitted from our work in the past and would like to see it continue, please, please join it! Details below. Thank you.

'Friends of Cast-Off Drama' costs £10 a year to join. Membership benefits include:
Your own exclusive Cast-Off Drama badge
Limited edition Cast-Off Drama postcards (beautiful designs)
Huge discounts on any paying workshops and events
Ongoing news and updates, including quarterly newsletter on Cast-Off Drama projects and other life-drawing groups and events in the region
Invitation to Cast-Off Drama social events and day-trips for 'Friends'
Entry to all free events, as now, but with the knowledge that your support is helping them to continue!
Your support is invaluable and at less than a £1 a month it's a real bargain (and is considerably cheaper than if we have to start charging per session!)

To join, please make out a cheque or postal order for £10 to Cast-Off Drama and send it to: Friends of Cast-Off Drama, 133 Leas Ave, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, HD9 3EW. If you would like to pledge to join and pay Nina in cash at a session or event, please e-mail us and we will prepare you a membership pack!

I Love To You
Our Summer programme is now complete, and what a wonderful time we had at Bates Mill! Wonderful discussions, exchanges, drawing, painting, photographs, contemplation, poetry, struggles, questions and the making of new friends...thank you to all who came! We will be back!

Summer 2009

I Love To You Cast-Off Drama Summer Sessions
We are offering a unique series of figurative sessions this Summer to life-drawers, models, thinkers and anyone with an interest in performance art and feminism. Working from our beautiful life-drawing studio at Bates Mill, Huddersfield, we will perform a series of life-drawing days taking inspiration from the writings of feminist and philosopher Luce Irigaray. The workshops offer readings and embodyings of Irigaray's work in an open and contemplative environment and are model-led. Readings will provoke sustained and gestural poses for an inspirational day of drawing, painting or 3-D making. Some materials provided, but feel free to bring your own. Refreshments also provided. We can offer wall-space and floor space to work on, and temporary storage of art produced for the Summer season. We offer a sliding scale of costs payable on the day, but it would be great if you could book in advance just to help us plan for numbers. Each session is self-contained, so come as and when you can, and choose the dates that work for you.

Dates & Times:
Tuesday 21st July, 10am - 4pm
Monday 27th July, 11am-5pm
Monday 3rd August, 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 5th August, 10am - 4pm
Saturday 8th August, 10am-4pm
Monday 10th August, 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 12th August, 11am - 5pm
Tuesday 18th August 10am-4pm
Wednesday 19th August, 10am - 4pm

Cost per day:
£6 - general ticket (average-earners)
£5 - concessions -students, unemployed, oaps, part-timers, etc.
£10 -'high-earners'- for anyone earning over £45,000pa

Money in the pot on entry please! We won't be asking to see any documents, but please claim concession if you need it or give more if you can afford it!

There is lift-access for wheelchair users or anyone with restricted mobility, with prior arrangement (please telephone 07800 861351 / 01484 685948 or e-mail: ninakane@btinternet.com with 48-hours' notice to let us know). There is a level-access toilet.

All ages welcome, but under-16s need to be accompanied by an adult.

To book, contact Nina Kane on 07800 861351 or at ninakane@btinternet.com. For details on the Artspace at Bates Mill visit www.batesmill.co.uk .

Cleansed by Sarah Kane
From July, Cast-Off will research staging options for Sarah Kane's 'Cleansed' using life-model, performance art and other theatre of the body methods in production. The performance will be developed at Bates Mill. Watch this space for cast and set-design opportunities.

Festival Appearances! Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre & Singing is very happy to announce that the Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk will be hitting the festival circuit this Summer. We had a year off last year to re-charge batteries and to learn some new songs, but the bookings are rolling in and we are excited to be back! Catch us at the following and check their websites for details!

May 22nd - 24th: Off the Tracks Spring Festival - www.offthetracks.co.uk
The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk will both be appearing here!

June 13th: Leamington Peace Festival - www.peacefestival.org.uk
Fiona Folk will be crooning peaceful tunes at this, the longest-running free festival in Britain

June 14th: Holmfirth Arts Festival - www.holmfirthartsfestival.co.uk
The Singing Secretary will be appearing at this. It is the second year of the festival, and promises to be an exciting line-up.

June 26th - 28th: Glastonbury 2009 - www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk
Our first Glastonbury appearance for The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk. It was amazing and we will be back next year!!!

July 24th - 26th: Indie Tracks Festival, Butterley, Derbyshire - www.indietracks.co.uk Indie-pop joy along the sides of a steam railway!

August 21st - 23rd: Beautiful Days Festival, St Mary's Ottery, Devon
www.beautifuldays.org - We are looking forward to another trip down the Sunny South -West to this festival organised by thye Levellers

August 28th-30th: Solfest 2009 - www.solwayfestival.co.uk
Bank Holiday sunshine on the banks of Silloth! Both The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk will be appearing here!

September dates being confirmed as we write including Lumb Farm and Barnsley Pride - watch this space!

'Making' Opportunity for Environmental Artist
Cast-Off have an opening for an environmental artist (or artists?) to develop a large-scale structure for outdoor performances and workshops next Summer. We can provide making space, all materials and endless tea and biscuits from September onwards. Contact us on 07800 861351 if interested.

Bride-Cake Bride-Bones

Bride-Cake Bride-Bones directed by Eluned Murphy, written by Nina Kane.

'Ev'ry step you take, Evr'y move you make, that’s right, you know how it goes . . . ' Dark and Bold, cold and present, Bride-Cake Bride-Bones is a sweeping whirlwind of a tale. Under the constant leer of the Poleeesze a recluse wonders whether she will ever find her son and a stale love affair returns to haunt its owners. Love, loss and jealousy haunt its bejewelled quarters. This is the place where drama, technology, lemons and a reincarnated Iguana collide.

Thursday 30th April 7:30pm
Sunday 3rd May 5:30pm
Milton Festival of Theatre, Milton Studio, University of Huddersfield.

Eluned Murphy's fantastic adaptation of the second act will be presented at the Milton Studio Theatre, University of Huddersfield.
Contact: miltonboxoffice@hud.ac.uk for info and bookings. See postings below for details of Cast-Off Drama's work on this play.

Textual Revolutions, University of Stirling, 8th & 9th May 2009

Nina Kane will discuss the script development of Bride-Cake Bride-Bones and Cast-Off Drama's scripting processes as a whole in a paper for the University of Stirling's Textual Revolutions conference this May. The paper will form part of a plenary on New Textualities and is entitled:
The Theatre of the Life-Model - an interdisciplinary arts approach to creating new scripts for performance. For further details of the conference, contact Steven Craig at the Dept. of English Studies, University of Stirling: steven.craig1@stir.ac.uk

The Art of the Life-Model Sculpture on a Saturday!

Henry Moore once said that sculpture is the most dramatic of all the fine arts due to the emotions evoked by its 3-dimensional form. Well, we will shall be elaborating on this idea in our own special way with another fantastic season of free public art workshops at Leeds City Art Gallery exploring the role of the model in the creation of figurative art. Workshops will investigate the sculptures of Nimptsch, Rodin, Canova,Gormley, Chadwick and others through drama, life-drawing and exploring the space and collections of Leeds City Art Gallery. And if the weather's sunny we will work outside in Victoria Gardens so there's still a chance to tan whilst you soak up the sculpture! (We need all the sunshine we can get in Leeds after all!). Sessions are on a 'drop-in' basis and are free of charge, but a small donation towards tea and biscuits is always appreciated! A big thank-you as ever to the hard-working staff at Gallery Education and on the gallery 'floor' for their support.

Work from these sessions can also go towards the Art of the Life-Model exhibition currently being organised by participants in the course. Contact Christine Hincliffe for further details on cdhinchliffe@hotmail.com (see posting below).

The 7 sessions are on Saturdays, 1-4pm on the following dates:
2nd, 16th, 30th May
13th, 20th June
11th, 25th July

Singing Lessons:

Cast-Off Drama offers one-to-one and group singing lessons at Bates Mill. The sessions are designed to build confidence and to develop your repertoire in a range of singing styles. Complete beginners and more advanced equally welcome!
Ring 07800 861351 for further details.

News from our friends...The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk on the Festival Circuit this Summer

Please note: We are not the Singing Secretary that appears on YouTube - That's a different singer!

News from elsewhere...
We have long wanted to take life-drawing to the world of festivals, but somehow never got round to it. We were very pleased therefore to see at our recent Glastonbury visit a woman doing life-modelling in a tent in the Healing Area! Perhaps we'll get roind to it and join her next year! The joys of mixing theatre and life-drawing seem to be in the air this Summer and we've spotted two new initiatives that seem well worth checking out and attending if you are in the area! The first is London Drawing who are running theatrical life-drawing days at Battersea Arts Centre in London, also the Drawing School in Brighton who are running life-drawing workshops working from an actor to create storyboards. Contacts:
Anne Noble-Partridge - www.londondrawing.com for The Drawing Theatre
Alice Mahtani - info@thedrawingschool.org.uk for Sara Easby workshop

We hope to make the London one at least!

Spring 2009

The Art of the Life-Model
Following our look at the Model as Performance Artist in the Autumn, we shift our focus to a more classical vein this Spring and investigate The Model as Patron with selected works from Leeds City Art Gallery's collection and its current touring exhibition 'Rank'. Sessions are free and on a 'drop-in' basis at Leeds City Art Gallery. They use drama, art history and life-drawing to reflect on themes relating to the role of the model in the making of figurative arts work. The Model as Patron is one aspect of the many histories of the life-model as uncovered by our work in this field, and relates to systems of patronage, portrait commission and 'sitting'in life-modellling history.

Saturday 14th February, 1-4pm
Pauline Buonaparte Borghese : 'Venus and the Bath of Milk'. A look at Antonio Canova's 'Hope Venus' and a reflection on his most famous 'Venus' model - Pauline Bonaparte Borgehese.

Saturday 14th March, 1-4pm
Dorothy Una Ratcliffe: ' Gypsylorism and the Capturing of Words'. A look at the model for Ivan Mestrovic's 'The Reader', and an investigation of Gypsylorism in early C20th Yorkshire.

Saturday 18th April, 10am-4pm
In Whose Image? A Dayschool on Patronage, Power and Class in Image-Making, taking inspiration from the 'Rank' exhibition and its featured works.

Contact us at 07800 861351 or at ninakane@btinternet.com for more info.

Following the success of last September's student exhibition at the Swarthmore Centre,Christine Hinchliffe is organising an open exhibition of works produced friom this term's Art of the Life-Model sessions and invites any participant to submit work for this. The exhibition will be held at Leeds Central Library Artspace in the month of September 2009. Contact Christine at cdhinchliffe@hotmail.com if you would like to participate.

Fine Art student and artist Matthew Pinder is covering these sessions amongst other activities in his blog. Visit this at: htpp:/automatton.wordpress.com

A big thank you to Leeds City Art Gallery Education, and its Supervisor / Gallery Floor staff for their support of these sessions.

Artistic Director Invited To Be RAM Rep!
The Register of Artists' Models (www.modelreg.co.uk)have invited Nina Kane to be their representative for the North East of England! The Register of Artists' Models camapigns tirelessly for better employment conditions for life-models and offers a fantastic agency service to models looking for work, and for life-drawing groups / tutors looking for models. RAM has a new Director - Rachel McCarthy - and we congratulate her on her new post! Cast-Off (and our sister organisation WILMA) have long supported RAM and its aims. Nina is proud to accept RAM's invitation and looks forward to representing its members and campaigns in the North East!

Crossing the Atlantic...and into the Heart of the Beast!
A long-time friend and collaborator is off to explore puppetry at acclaimed experimental company In the Heart of the Beast. We look forward to hearing all about it in the autumn! Check them out at www.hobt.org

Third-Year Degree Students work on 'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones'
Third-year drama students at Huddersfield University are currently developing Act 2 of 'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones' for their Final Year Directing Project. The script, written by Nina Kane, was developed from life-drawing performance days at Leeds Art Gallery in July 2008 (see below). The student cast have been brought together by exciting young director Eluned Murphy - an up-and-coming talent if ever there was one! - and we are very excited with what we see in rehearsals! Watch this space...!

Winter 2008
Support the Striking French Life-Models! Send a message of support to them by e-mailing your comments to ninakane@btinternet.com before Tuesday 13th January 2009!If you wish to add your name to our petition, please do so by e-mailing us your name and town.

On 15th December 2008, life-models from the College des Beaux Arts in Paris staged a nude protest supported by artists who drew them as they stood in freezing temperatures. The striking models were protesting over the French Government's ban on them accepting tips through the traditional 'cornet' - a cone of paper that is passed around after a life-drawing class for artists to place their tips in. The tips are essential in supporting the models' meagre earnings. Cast-Off Drama and WILMA recognise the seriousness of their position and whole-heartedly support their aims. We ask you to join with us in sending them a message of support from across the Channel. For further information visit The Guardian newspaper's website (see artice on 17th Dec '08), or search You Tube for images under 'French model's nude protest'. Thank you!

Wallpaper, Roses, Reposes...
We are investigating temporary art spaces in which to host our durational performance of Wallpaper. It is a play in three acts designed for an installation space, and the actors perform it in permanent cycles over the course of a day.

Between Stars
Plans are firming up for a site-specific production of our piece about the lives of Maria Callas and Dorothy Squires in the Autumn of 2009, followed by a Galleries production of Poisson D'Argent (funding-permitting) in the Spring of 2010. Between Stars was scripted with funding from the Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society. We are grateful to the society for their ongoing support. More details to follow...!

The Art of the Life-Model
The Autumn programme of wild performance art and modelling happenings at Leeds City Art Gallery was a resounding success! It was well-attended by regulars and brought a positive interest from members of the public passing through the Gallery. Working largely with improvised modelling and movement within the public spaces of the Gallery, it marked a departure from our usual practices, and brought a heady cocktail of foil, feathers, paper boxes, masks, nude clowning and the story of Cinderella to Saturday afternoon visitors! We envisage a slightly different format for it this Spring 2009, and will be announcing details towards the middle of January so watch this space...! Thank you to all those who attended and who continue to support the work through their presence and input.

We recommend...The Hounding of David Oluwale, 31st Jan - 21st Feb at West Yorkshire Playhouse
Check out the West Yorkshire Playhouse's production of 'The Hounding of David Oluwale', based on the award-winning book by Kester Aspden, and adapted by Oladipo Agboluaje for the stage. David Oluwale was a homeless Nigerian man with Mental Health difficulties who died in police custody after brutal hounding by Leeds officers in 1969. We are supporting the campaign to build a memorial to David Oluwale in the centre of Leeds. For details of this, contact Max Farrar, Community Engagement Officer at Leeds metropolitan University on : m.farrar@leedsmet.ac.uk

Autumn 2008

The Art of the Life-Model returns to Leeds Art Gallery in partnership with the company. We use drama, art history and life-drawing to explore the gallery's collection and touring exhibitions. The sessions are on a 'drop-in' basis and are free!
Saturday 13 September 1-4pm
Saturday 27 September 1- 4pm
Saturday 4, 18, 25 October 1- 4pm
Saturday 8, 15, 29 November 1- 4pm
Saturday 6 December 1- 4pm
Contact 07800 861351 for more info.

Exhibition at the Swarthmore Centre Leeds.
Art of the Life-Model students past and present have come together to organise a community exhibition of work inspired by sessions led by Nina Kane from 2002 - present. The initiative came directly from the students and Cast-Off Drama are very proud that the work of the course is being honoured in this way. The exhibited pieces are fantastic and a lot of hard work hasbeen put in to the organising. The exhibtion will run from 28th September - 18th October at the Swarthmore Centre cafe, Leeds. Opening 29th October, 7pm - all welcome.

Life-Drawing Workshops for 6th Formers at Temple Moor High School, Leeds
We are running a series of after-school workshops for 6th Formers in life-drawing in the Art department of Temple Moor through the Autumn Term. The sessions are model-led and cover a range of topics from analytical drawing to performance art, narrative figuration and the Body in Technology. The sessions are now up and running and very well-attended by a wonderfully creative and mature group of young people. We are very excited to be working with the school and say a big thanks to Claire Harris of the Art Department for initiating the programme.

Bride-Cake Bride-Bones
The script is now complete and has been developed as a play for technology. We are seeking funding to develop this further. Watch this space!

Bates Mill
We are now happily esconced at Bates Mill in Huddersfield and will shortly embark on an intensive 'making' process in the Artspace towards some sculptural pieces for Bride-Cake Bride-Bones.

Summer 2008 - new developments!:
On the Move again...!

Having enjoyed a year of administrative luxury at the Media Centre Huddersfield, Cast-Off Drama will be moving out of the F5 office on October 1st. We will still be leasing a 'Front Desk' service from the Media Centre, so for all postal enquiries, please continue to contact us there. Thank you to all the Media Centre staff for their friendliness in the last year.

We are very pleased to announce, however, that we have found a wonderful new 'making' space at Bates Mill in Huddersfield. It is a beautiful mill building on South Queen Street and we look forward to meeting lots of new people in the Artspace and embarking on some exciting collaborations with them. Artistic Director Nina Kane will be moving in to Studio 3, Floor 1 on September 26th.

The Art of the Life-Model returns...
Free-of-charge 'drop-in' workshops exploring the role of the life-model in the making of figurative art. These model-led workshops use drama, life-drawing, movement, art history and performance art to explore works in the gallery's collection, and touring exhibitions. Open to all - come as and when you can! Saturday afternoons, 1-4pm, Leeds City Art Gallery. Exact dates tbc.

We are very excited to announce that from Autumn 2008, The Art of the Life-Model will be run exclusively by Cast-Off Drama as part of our education programme. The Art of the Life-Model has brought over 900 participants into Leeds City Art Gallery since its inception in 2002. Originating from Cast-Off Drama and WILMA's 'Will You, Won't You' pilot project in July 2002, the course run through the Leeds College of Art & Design's Community Education department, until withdrawal of funding this Summer. We are grateful to the college's community education department for its support of the course over the years and wish them well in their new ventures. Due to massive support from its participants and requests for the course not to fold, Cast-Off Drama will continue to run this innovative and much-loved workshop programme and are seeking funding to develop it further in the future. The course has a strong track record in offering practical, experimental opportunities and access to creative, model-centred working within the Leeds community, and is open to anyone whatever their background, ability or level of experience. We are very grateful to Leeds City Art Gallery for their continued support, and look forward to announcing exact dates in due course - so watch this space!

Between Stars back on...
Negotiations are back on with Spacemaker Storage in Leeds to provide a performance venue for our installation-based production on the lives of Maria Callas and Dorothy Squires. Updates soon...!

Anyone for Doubles?
Nina will be collaborating with Michael Cleary to run a series of doubles workshops on alternate Sundays in Leeds. The sessions will run from 10am-4pm and will explore working from two models. The morning session will feature Michael and a visiting model (male or female), the afternoon session will feature Nina and Michael working to a particular 'doubles' theme. The sessions are 'drop-in' and will cost £6 for the day! A bargain! Venue details are being confirmed as we speak so watch this space!

The Body Religious - Nina and Michael are in negotiation with the Flesh Festival due to happen in Bradford this October. We hope to offer a day-long life-modelling performance investigating genedered images of the male and female body in religious art. The performance will be open for visitors to come and draw or watch. Fingers crossed this happens - updates soon!

'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones'

Friday 11th July 10am - 4pm
Saturday 12th July 10am-4pm
Sunday 13th July 1-4pm
Education Workshop

Three days of life-modelling performance at Leeds City Art Gallery on the figure of Miss Havisham in 'Great Expectations'(Dickens)and in response to
Helen Chadwick's 'Eat Me' currently exhibited in the Gallery's collection. The performance is open on a 'drop-in' basis to life-drawers, writers, performance artists, musicians, theatre-makers and anyone interested in attending.
Free of charge, materials provided but feel free to bring your own too.
'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones' forms part of ongoing research into the potential of
life-modelling theatre to create new writing and develops from 'Minotaur' as an invesitgation into female desire and rage. Contact us at 07800 861351 / 01484 685948 for more details.

Spring 2008:

'Minotaur'

You are invited to come and do some life-drawing and / or writing at Leeds
City Art Gallery Education Workshop this Friday 7th March, 10am-4pm. The
event is a 'drop-in', free of charge, all materials provided.

'Minotaur' is an experimental life-modelling piece performed by Nina Kane of
Cast-Off Drama to 'Stengam' by Cor Fuhler. The work explores writing and
storytelling through the body using mask, physical theatre and sustained,
nude, posing. It offers fantastic opportunity for making drawings,
paintings, 3-D work and creative writing. We will be working with both
electric light and candlelight. Come as and when you can, stay for half an
hour or all day! All welcome. Please bring a thread with you!

'Minotaur' forms part of ongoing work for a module on Collaborative Writing
that Nina is completing as part of an MA in Writing for Performance at
University of Huddersfield.For any questions on the event please contact
castoffdrama@btinternet.com or ring 07800 861351 / 01484 685948.

Striped Dress

We are currently developing a script about the model-artist relationship between Kathleen Newton and James Jacques Jospeh Tissot. The working title is: 'Striped Dress'. Watch this space for updates.

Work on the other scripts is going well. See our repetoire section for details.

Kimbal Bumstead

Check out Kimbal Bumstead's work with life-modelling at: www.kimbalbumstead.com and www.tapedduck.com . Kimbal did a wonderful performance at arts@trinity exploring touch and the life-model as object. (His website will explain this better so have a look!) It is great to see other artists working performatively with this field and we expect more performances to come from him and other model-performers in the Leeds area in the not-too-distant future! Well worth a visit!

The Art Studio, Sunderland

Also check out The Art Studio, Sunderland - a wonderful community resource for artists living with mental health issues. Drop-in and see them if you are in the area! It's an absolutely inspiring place with some brilliant work going on - www.theartstudio.org

Parita

New developments!! We are delighted to be teaming up with Parita - a company delivering training to local government departments and small CVS organisations on Equalities issues. We will be using our theatre of the body, also Forum Theatre and other political theatre methods to explore good working practice and provide education and consciousness-raising activities on a range of Equalities issues.

Embodying the Other

Embodying the Other: Pedagogic and Performative Strategies Used in the Art of the Life-Model 2002 - 2007 by Nina Kane is now available as a reference document at Leeds College of Art & Design Libraries and Leeds City Art Gallery Education Dept.

Cast-Off's Artistic Director Nina Kane will be presenting the current findings of her research into contemporary life-modelling studies at The Leeds College of Art & Design, Wednesday 30th January. More details to follow.

News from elsewhere:

WILMA -Having successfully completed an exciting autumn programme, we are writing up our interim report for The Scarman Trust and look forward to receiving our second installment of funds to run more workshops this Spring. We also hope to establish the WILMA facebook and get models contributing! Thanks to a successful male model launch on Nov 16th at The Media Centre (formerly Host) in Leeds, MILMA (Men Into Life-Modelling Arts) is now up and running. Contact Paul Armitage via the WILMA e-mail for further details.

The Art of the Life-Model - Was in danger of being replaced by a straight life-drawing class last term but was reinstated after students protested and said they wanted it kept just as it was! Hurray! We promise to run even more exciting, experimental, model-led and community-centred workshops this term in our 10-week 'Drama-into-Drawing' module! And yes, we have stolen this phrase from Cast-Off Drama but isn't it a good one?! Sessions are back to being held at weekends, and will run from Saturday 12th January - Saturday 15th March 2008 inclusive (no half-term), 1-4pm, Education Room, Leeds City Art Gallery.

Students on The Art of the Life-Model are planning an exhibition showing works made in response to the course's workshop sessions and life-modelling experiments over the years. If you would like to be involved in organising this please contact Christine Smith (details to follow).

Frozen Blog....Sleeping Beauty Awakes!
We experienced some technical difficulties with the blog and as a result many of our entries between 2006 - 2007 were frozen and were unable to be accessed. Thankfully this is now rectified and we publish below a synthesis of those postings.

Autumn 2007:

From October 2007, Cast-Off Drama is renting an office in The Media Centre, Huddersfield. Our address for correspondance until the Summer of 2008 will be:
Cast-Off Drama, Unit F5, The Media Centre, 7 Northumberland Street, Huddersfield, HD1 1RL. Fax: 0870 990 5100.

Modelworks...a programme of model-led life-drawing workshops will run from Nov 8th - Dec 13th, every Thursday, 9.30 - 3.30pm, in the Circle / Corner rooms at The Media Centre, Huddersfield. Cost: £12 / £8 concessions. We are sorry these are not free, but haven't you noticed there's an Olympics on?! All money goes directly to pay the model.

Work is going well on the scripts, but an opportunity to participate in the University of Leeds Jack Keroauc 50th Anniversary 'On the Road' conference is lost as the conference is cancelled due to a fire in the planning office! Our commiserations to the Conference organisers.

Artistic Director Nina Kane has completed a paper for the Leeds College of Art & Design on her performance research into contemporary life-modelling studies - Embodying the Other: Performative and Pedagogic Strategies Used in The Art of the Life-Model, 2002 - 2007 ((C) Nina Kane, 2007). The paper references the work of Cast-Off Drama in contributing to teaching and studies in this field. The research will be presented to the public in January 2008.

News from our friends..

WILMA - Thanks to the Community Champions Award from Cando, The Scarman Trust we are proud to launch a programme of free workshops for female models in community venues across Leeds, Huddersfield and Barnsley. We will also be launching a start-up workshop for male models on Nov 16th. Creche provided at some venues. Visit www.wilmawomenlifemodels.blogspot.com for further info.

The Art of the Life-Model returns to Leeds City Art Gallery (Education Workshop) this term with a 10-week module 'Performance Art & the Model'. Sessions are on Tuesday evenings from 5-8pm. Contact Neil Hedges at Leeds College of Art & Design
(0113 202 8165) for enrolment details.

Spring / Summer 2007:

Cast-Off Drama is in negotiation with Spacemaker Storage, Leeds to provide an installation venue for 'Between Stars. We have met with Hayden Productions with the prospect of some exciting video collaboration on the piece. Looks promising! Watch this space for further details.

Artistic Director Nina Kane visits Helensburgh, Glasgow and Edinburgh searching out locations and site-specific inspiration for 'Poisson d'Argent'. Useful research done for play script. Further research visits planned.

We have received a grant from the Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society towards the costs of writing 'Between Stars'. The work focuses on the lives of Maria Callas and Dorothy Squires. Thank you very much to the society for their assistance.

We begin work on 'Pull My Daisy'- a work for male models based on writing by Leonard Cohen, Jack Keroauc and Neal Cassidy.

Our administration folder of draft funding applications and research ideas is lost on a train between Leeds and Newcastle. Most of it handwritten. It is never seen again! Is this a sign? We desperately need an office!

News from Elsewhere:

Community Champions!!!! WILMA has received a Community Champions Award for £2,000 to run a series of free life-modelling workshops for women interested in trying life-modelling or currently working as life-models. A big thank you to John Parkes at Roundhay Rd Resource Centre, Leeds and The Scarman Trust for their advice on this!
The news is dampened by the report that we are likely to be one of the last groups to receive this as the Government has withdrawn the Small Grants programme and will be closing the Community Champions scheme from February 2008. It will not replaced with anything else. We urge everyone who cares about grassroots, voluntary,small-scale community projects to write to their MP c/o the House of Commons to oppose this.

The Art of the Life-Model: has moved from a 'drop-in' to a 10-week modular system. It is still being run at Leeds College of Art & Design as we await the refurbishment at Leeds City Art Gallery. It is now running on Thursdays, 6-9pm at Jacob Kramer buildings, Blenheim Walk. Contact Neil Hedges on 0113 202 8000 for more details.

Ocarina Nina: The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk are very excited to be appearing at the Sunrise Festival in Glastonbury this June. We intend to focus on the larger festivals in forthcoming years and move further afield to other areas of Europe.

Summer / Autumn 2006:

Cast-Off Drama has developed and incorporated two organisations under its wing in recent years - WILMA: Women Into Life-Modelling Arts and Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre. For a whole range of logisitical (and very positive) reasons, we have decided that these should operate separately and in the Summer of 2006, we took the decision that Ocarina Nina and WILMA should act as separate entities from Cast-Off Drama and continue to flourish and prosper in their own spheres. We wish them well on their journeys and will update Cast-Off blogwatchers on their progress.

News!
Cast-Off Drama, WILMA and Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre & Singing go their different ways. This is a decision taken as a mark of success - we have all outgrown each others' remits and are strong enough to fly off in our different directions. Visit Ocarina Nina's blog at: ocarinanina@blogspot.com

Work begins on the script of 'Poisson d'Argent' - a Gallery work for life-models on the 1857 Madeleine Smith story.

News from elsewhere:

The Art of the Life-Model is temporarily at Bracken Edge Primary School / Space@ art room, Chapeltown, Leeds. Monday evenings, 6-9pm while Leeds City Art Gallery has its long-awaited makeover! The artspace at Bracken Edge is fantastic! We also have a new Community Education manager Marianne Springham - welcome to her and a big thanks to Garry Barker for his support over the years! We look forward to new innovations!

Latest News... Spring 2006

Moving Bodies – A Cast-Off Drama workshop, Leeds City Art Gallery

Friday 2nd June, 10am-4pm - Free workshop. Part of the Frank Brangwyn exhibition programme (6th April - 18th June 2006).
Moving Bodies explores the journeying aspects of Frank Brangwyn’s work through drama, storytelling, figure-drawing, mask-making, textiles and discussion. We focus on his images of itinerant workers, notably his depictions of sailors, spinners and Travellers, and investigate the development of the vardo as an art influence on Brangwyn’s frames and motifs. The workshop offers an opportunity to experiment with a range of art materials and drama practices in relation to the exhibition. The workshop is free, all materials provided.
Moving Bodies is put on in connection with Cast-Off Drama’s forthcoming production ‘Beads’ (23rd/25th June).
Research funded by Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society
For booking contact Nina Kane, 01484 685 948
E-mail: castoffdrama@btinternet.com

Beads ('I took the beads of her necklace...') 23rd - 25th June - POSTPONED due to underfunding and cast injury. Despite a strong community input for resources, funds to rehearse with a cast were unforthcoming, and cast injury has prevented us from doing it voluntarily - as such we took the difficult decision to postpone this event. We are continuing to make the work and will relaunch the project when circumstances improve. Meanwhile, we would like to say a big thank you to Inner North West Area Committee Neighbourhood & Housing (Leeds City Council) for the offer of creche funding, Councillor Penny Ewens for MICE money, Swarthmore Centre, Leeds College of Art & Design and Leeds City Art Gallery for resources, venue and materials support, Bracken Edge Primary School for studio space and Women Into Community Health Network, Wade's Charity and Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society for research funds.

'Beads', A two and a half day continuous production for artists, sculptors and makers - Friday 23rd June 10am- 4pm and 6 - 8.30pm; Saturday 24th June 10am - 4pm, and Sunday 25th June 10am - 12pm; Swarthmore Education Centre, Main Hall - 'drop-in' performance. Free creche. Cast-Off offers audiences a unique opportunity to experience a story told in two ways. On the Friday evening come and watch a play. On the Saturday the story will be retold through tableaux images - drop-in, make drawings and paintings - bring loose beads with you to tell your own tales.

Beads is a horror story of greed, wounding and obsession. It tells the story of Ella and the vampiric Mrs de Plein. Ella collects beads. She finds, cleans and polishes them, listens to their stories and threads them into necklaces to sell. Mrs de Plein is a grande dame with large purse and a huge magnifying glass. She loves to get her teeth into something. An amateur anthropologist, explorer and bead enthusiast, she is determined to acquire 'all things Ella' at any cost. As her obsession grows, the audience is sucked into a chilling tale of evasion and pursuit which moves through Elzabethan England, the C19th and the Holocaust. Part clown show / part pantomime, grotesque and compelling, Beads is an enticing and challenging piece of physical theatre.

Two and a half years in the making, 'Beads' tackles the issue of C19th 'Gypsylorism' head-on through a physical theatre investigation of image, text, film and music. Eschewing the vampiric and reductive images of the past, we build new stories, tableaux and soundscapes inspired by the work of contemporary Traveller artists - Cor Fuhler, Hester Hedges, Tony Gatlif, Bob Lovell, Papusza - as well as non-Traveller sources.

'Beads' is Cast-Off's first major all-cast production since 'Chime Chimera' (2003) (though as many of you know, there has been some solo performances and workshops since). We are proud to be returning to the Swarthmore Centre, a fully-accessible community venue, and one of our initial supporters.

Also....Cast-Off recommends that you check out 'Second Site' - an exhibition of four Traveller Artists to be held at the West Park Centre, Leeds 5th - 28th May. For full details contact Dianne Greenhow at Travellers Education Service on 0113 274 8050 or Peter Saunders - Peter.saunders@educationleeds.co.uk . Artists exhibiting are: Daniel Baker, Ferdinand Koci, Damian LeBas, Delaine LeBas. Also, for those of you working in schools, the Traveller Education Service is running a Traveller Storytelling project. Contact Dianne or Peter for further information.

The Singing Secretary will be launching her 3rd Summer Season at Holmfirth Folk Festival on Saturday 6th May. She will be appearing at Garforth Arts Festival in Leeds on Saturday 8th July, and at Banstead Community Festival, Leeds on Saturday 22nd July. More dates to follow. For details of the Banstaed Park Festival, contact Peter Turner on 0113 240 6486, and check out Pete's website at www.peanut-the-clown.com

Cast-Off recommends...that you check out The Naked Shed. - www.thenakedshed.blogspot.com Naked Shed has developed from work at Dartington College Devon with Jerry Holloway and Emma Leeming and explores life-modelling in sheds at three sites in Devon and at the Roundhouse, Hebden Bridge on 18th June. In 2004 Cast-Off collaborated with Jerry in a Leeds-Devon Exchange. Hosted by WILMA / Cast-Off in Leeds, and the 'Out of Context' Symposium at Dartington, Nina and Jerry explored life-modelling theatre, clowning, gender and movement with life-drawers from Devon and Leeds. The work was inspirational to all involved and we are excited by developments at Dartington since this time. Emma is an experienced life-model and artist and has recently curated a project about sheds. Following the Roundhouse event she will exhibit the finished life-drawings in a local park. Well worth checking out!

We have moved!! Cast-Off Drama is now located in the beautiful Netherthong area of Holmfirth. We are very excited about this move and the potential it offers to broaden our work. We will still keep our links with Leeds, but look forward to working with artists and performers in the wider region. Our new contact details are as follows:
Cast-Off Drama, 133 Leas Avenue, Holmfirth, HD9 3EW. Tel: 01484 685948. E-mail: castoffdrama@btinternet.com

Studio space... We are grateful to Bracken Edge Primary School, Leeds and the Head Chris Walton for once again providing us with much-needed studio space at the school. We will be resident until the June break making a selection of masks for children's theatre. We are still engaged in making Serafina's Yard in the space (see below under 'recent projects') and are happy to report the Jinny's Car Scrap box is being filled with a wonderful array of old toy cars, trains and diggers! Work on the scrap yard will begin after Easter.

'Off the Wall!' An exhibition of Cast-Off Drama's work is now on the walls of the cafe exhibition space at Swarthmore Education Centre, Leeds and very fabulous it looks too! The work has prompted lively conversation and admiration - it will run from from 8th January - 4th February 2006. The exhibition is primarily of work from the two Venus Interventions projects, but also includes masks and photos from other projects and work-in-progress from 'Serafina's Yard' and 'There are no pockets in shrouds (Le Grand Depart)'. Thank you to Swarthmore for their help in getting this up.

'Raaz Ki Baat II' Cast-Off are delighted to be returning to Nasha to work on their young peoples' project. Nasha have teamed up Project 7, a youth project in the Chapeltown area of Leeds for the production. We will be working with youths from both projects on 'Raaz ki Baat' a production about drugs-taking in the South Asian community. Raaz Ki Baat was devised by youths on the Nasha project with Cast-Off and premiered at the Pakistani Centre, Leeds in May 2005. It is performed in a mixture of Urdu, Mirpury and English. The next production will be performed in the Space@ facility in Hillcrest Primary School, Chapeltown, Leeds on Friday 7th April, 6pm.

A New Wardrobe! Cast-Off Drama has 'inherited' the costume collection from the former Ascot School of Ballet. As such we have a magnificent children's wardrobe of frocks, hats and props for our youth work. We are immensly grateful to the family of Pat Hall (formerly Ascot) - Lydia, Mark and Tina- for passing these onto us. Given the sheer volume of dance wear, we have been sharing our good fortune and have passed sets of beautiful costumes and leotards on to Tanya Cusan's Salsa Theatre school for their Children's Salsa Productions. For details of Children's Salsa workshops please contact Tanya Cusan at www.tanyacusanespinosa.co.uk Thank you very much again to Tina, Mark & Lydia.

Staff Challenge Day: Cast-Off successfully ran a 'challenge' day workshop for employees of Thompson Design in Leeds on 21st January 2006. The staff attending the day were 100% committed to the activities and gave freely of energy, creativity and enthusiasm! The workshop was well-received and we look forward to future dealings with the company.
The Art of the Life-Model 'drop-in' sessions held at Leeds City Art Gallery will start again on 7th May, 1-4pm. (see below for details of this). This term's dates are:

Sunday 7th May 1-4pm
Sunday 14th May 1-4pm
Sunday 21st May 1-4pm
Sunday 28th May 1-4pm
Sunday 4th June 1-4pm
Half-term
Thursday 15th June 10am-1pm
Thursday 29th June 10am-1pm
Thursday 6th July 10am-1pm
Thursday 13th July 10am - 1pm
Thursday 20th July 10am-1pm

(Joint partnership between Leeds College of Art & Design and Leeds City Art Gallery. Sessions devised and run by Nina Kane - Tel: 0113 202 8166 / 247 8254. Please note that due to refurbishment work at Leeds City Art Gallery from Autumn 2006, the course is likely to be run through a community venue for the next academic year, offering us a fantastic opportunity to develop the experimental aspects of the life-modelling and life-drawing work. We look forward to returning to the Gallery after its re-opening in Summer 2007.)

About Ocarina NIna and WILMA (Spring 2006):

Street-Theatre... Under the auspices of Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre, Cast-Off offers festival goers a fantastic set of walkabout characters. Acapella singing is a central specialism of our street-theatre performance with all charcters using a wide repertoire of songs. Our main figure is The Singing Secretary - a poshPA with golden phone who invites you to 'choose a button from the box' before singing a song - jazz, blues, folk, pop, opera, showbiz musicals...the range is eclectic and varied. For Christmas events we have Christmas Carol - a singing lady Santa who gives you a 'bauble and a warble' with a repertoire of tunes from Bing to Bethlehem! For promotional events (leafleting flyers and brochures etc) we have Shopping Molly who peeks at your purchases whilst promoting the event...ring her till and she'll give you a trill of whatever Supermarket music happens to be in her Chanel-adorned head!

New from late Summer 2006 and ideal for Folk and Blues Festivals is Fiona Folk - a bustle-wearing, basket-carrying Belle of the Woods who will offer you a sprig of lavender whilst crooning a folky tune. Ballads, bells and smells Fiona Folk croons an impressive repertoire from Dylan to Dairymaids! Ideal for folk, country, blues and world-music audiences.

On a more lyrical note, Milady Milarkey is an original Shakespearian clown reciting songs and odes from the works of the Bard. Available for all arts festivals, also for figurative drawing sessions.

Incorporating...
Cast-Off incorporates 'Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre' and 'WILMA - Women Into Life-Modelling Arts' and works with local communities and small organisations to explore 'the theatre of the body' in meaningful, people-centred projects.

Projects 2005 - 2009:

2005-02-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

Recent Projects:
Summer 2009

I Love To You Cast-Off Drama Summer Sessions
We are offering a unique series of figurative sessions this Summer to life-drawers, models, thinkers and anyone with an interest in performance art and feminism. Working from our beautiful life-drawing studio at Bates Mill, Huddersfield, we will perform a series of life-drawing days taking inspiration from the writings of feminist and philosopher Luce Irigaray. The workshops offer readings and embodyings of Irigaray's work in an open and contemplative environment and are model-led. Readings will provoke sustained and gestural poses for an inspirational day of drawing, painting or 3-D making. Some materials provided, but feel free to bring your own. Refreshments also provided. We can offer wall-space and floor space to work on, and temporary storage of art produced for the Summer season. We offer a sliding scale of costs payable on the day, but it would be great if you could book in advance just to help us plan for numbers. Each session is self-contained, so come as and when you can, and choose the dates that work for you.Dates & Times:
Tuesday 21st July, 10am - 4pm
Monday 27th July, 11am-5pm
Monday 3rd August, 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 5th August, 10am - 4pm
Saturday 8th August, 10am-4pm
Monday 10th August, 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 12th August, 11am - 5pm
Tuesday 18th August 10am-4pm
Wednesday 19th August, 10am - 4pm

Cost per day:
£6 - general ticket (average-earners)
£5 - concessions -students, unemployed, oaps, part-timers, etc.
£10 -'high-earners'- for anyone earning over £45,000pa

Money in the pot on entry please! We won't be asking to see any documents, but please claim concession if you need it or give more if you can afford it!

There is lift-access for wheelchair users or anyone with restricted mobility, with prior arrangement (please telephone 07800 861351 / 01484 685948 or e-mail: ninakane@btinternet.com with 48-hours' notice to let us know). There is a level-access toilet.

All ages welcome, but under-16s need to be accompanied by an adult.

To book, contact Nina Kane on 07800 861351 or at ninakane@btinternet.com. For details on the Artspace at Bates Mill visit www.batesmill.co.uk .

Cleansed by Sarah Kane
From July, Cast-Off will research staging options for Sarah Kane's 'Cleansed' using life-model, performance art and other theatre of the body methods in production. The performance will be developed at Bates Mill. Watch this space for cast and set-design opportunities.

Festival Appearances! Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre & Singing is very happy to announce that the Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk will be hitting the festival circuit this Summer. We had a year off last year to re-charge batteries and to learn some new songs, but the bookings are rolling in and we are excited to be back! Catch us at the following and check their websites for details!

May 22nd - 24th: Off the Tracks Spring Festival - www.offthetracks.co.uk
The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk will both be appearing here!

June 13th: Leamington Peace Festival - www.peacefestival.org.uk
Fiona Folk will be crooning peaceful tunes at this, the longest-running free festival in Britain

June 14th: Holmfirth Arts Festival - www.holmfirthartsfestival.co.uk
The Singing Secretary will be appearing at this. It is the second year of the festival, and promises to be an exciting line-up.

June 26th - 28th: Glastonbury 2009 - www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk
Our first Glastonbury appearance for The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk. It was amazing and we will be back next year!!!

July 24th - 26th: Indie Tracks Festival, Butterley, Derbyshire - www.indietracks.co.uk Indie-pop joy along the sides of a steam railway!

August 21st - 23rd: Beautiful Days Festival, St Mary's Ottery, Devon
www.beautifuldays.org - We are looking forward to another trip down the Sunny South -West to this festival organised by thye Levellers

August 28th-30th: Solfest 2009 - www.solwayfestival.co.uk
Bank Holiday sunshine on the banks of Silloth! Both The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk will be appearing here!

September dates being confirmed as we write including Lumb Farm and Barnsley Pride - watch this space!

'Making' Opportunity for Environmental Artist
Cast-Off have an opening for an environmental artist (or artists?) to develop a large-scale structure for outdoor performances and workshops next Summer. We can provide making space, all materials and endless tea and biscuits from September onwards. Contact us on 07800 861351 if interested.

Bride-Cake Bride-Bones

Bride-Cake Bride-Bones directed by Eluned Murphy, written by Nina Kane.

'Ev'ry step you take, Evr'y move you make, that’s right, you know how it goes . . . ' Dark and Bold, cold and present, Bride-Cake Bride-Bones is a sweeping whirlwind of a tale. Under the constant leer of the Poleeesze a recluse wonders whether she will ever find her son and a stale love affair returns to haunt its owners. Love, loss and jealousy haunt its bejewelled quarters. This is the place where drama, technology, lemons and a reincarnated Iguana collide.

Thursday 30th April 7:30pm
Sunday 3rd May 5:30pm
Milton Festival of Theatre, Milton Studio, University of Huddersfield.

Eluned Murphy's fantastic adaptation of the second act will be presented at the Milton Studio Theatre, University of Huddersfield.
Contact: miltonboxoffice@hud.ac.uk for info and bookings. See postings below for details of Cast-Off Drama's work on this play.

Textual Revolutions, University of Stirling, 8th & 9th May 2009

Nina Kane will discuss the script development of Bride-Cake Bride-Bones and Cast-Off Drama's scripting processes as a whole in a paper for the University of Stirling's Textual Revolutions conference this May. The paper will form part of a plenary on New Textualities and is entitled:
The Theatre of the Life-Model - an interdisciplinary arts approach to creating new scripts for performance. For further details of the conference, contact Steven Craig at the Dept. of English Studies, University of Stirling: steven.craig1@stir.ac.uk

The Art of the Life-Model Sculpture on a Saturday!

Henry Moore once said that sculpture is the most dramatic of all the fine arts due to the emotions evoked by its 3-dimensional form. Well, we will shall be elaborating on this idea in our own special way with another fantastic season of free public art workshops at Leeds City Art Gallery exploring the role of the model in the creation of figurative art. Workshops will investigate the sculptures of Nimptsch, Rodin, Canova,Gormley, Chadwick and others through drama, life-drawing and exploring the space and collections of Leeds City Art Gallery. And if the weather's sunny we will work outside in Victoria Gardens so there's still a chance to tan whilst you soak up the sculpture! (We need all the sunshine we can get in Leeds after all!). Sessions are on a 'drop-in' basis and are free of charge, but a small donation towards tea and biscuits is always appreciated! A big thank-you as ever to the hard-working staff at Gallery Education and on the gallery 'floor' for their support.

Work from these sessions can also go towards the Art of the Life-Model exhibition currently being organised by participants in the course. Contact Christine Hincliffe for further details on cdhinchliffe@hotmail.com (see posting below).

The 7 sessions are on Saturdays, 1-4pm on the following dates:
2nd, 16th, 30th May
13th, 20th June
11th, 25th July

Singing Lessons:

Cast-Off Drama offers one-to-one and group singing lessons at Bates Mill. The sessions are designed to build confidence and to develop your repertoire in a range of singing styles. Complete beginners and more advanced equally welcome!
Ring 07800 861351 for further details.

News from our friends...The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk on the Festival Circuit this Summer

Please note: We are not the Singing Secretary that appears on YouTube - That's a different singer!

News from elsewhere...
We have long wanted to take life-drawing to the world of festivals, but somehow never got round to it. We were very pleased therefore to see at our recent Glastonbury visit a woman doing life-modelling in a tent in the Healing Area! Perhaps we'll get roind to it and join her next year! The joys of mixing theatre and life-drawing seem to be in the air this Summer and we've spotted two new initiatives that seem well worth checking out and attending if you are in the area! The first is London Drawing who are running theatrical life-drawing days at Battersea Arts Centre in London, also the Drawing School in Brighton who are running life-drawing workshops working from an actor to create storyboards. Contacts:
Anne Noble-Partridge - www.londondrawing.com for The Drawing Theatre
Alice Mahtani - info@thedrawingschool.org.uk for Sara Easby workshop

We hope to make the London one at least!

Spring 2009

The Art of the Life-Model
Following our look at the Model as Performance Artist in the Autumn, we shift our focus to a more classical vein this Spring and investigate The Model as Patron with selected works from Leeds City Art Gallery's collection and its current touring exhibition 'Rank'. Sessions are free and on a 'drop-in' basis at Leeds City Art Gallery. They use drama, art history and life-drawing to reflect on themes relating to the role of the model in the making of figurative arts work. The Model as Patron is one aspect of the many histories of the life-model as uncovered by our work in this field, and relates to systems of patronage, portrait commission and 'sitting'in life-modellling history.

Saturday 14th February, 1-4pm
Pauline Buonaparte Borghese : 'Venus and the Bath of Milk'. A look at Antonio Canova's 'Hope Venus' and a reflection on his most famous 'Venus' model - Pauline Bonaparte Borgehese.

Saturday 14th March, 1-4pm
Dorothy Una Ratcliffe: ' Gypsylorism and the Capturing of Words'. A look at the model for Ivan Mestrovic's 'The Reader', and an investigation of Gypsylorism in early C20th Yorkshire.

Saturday 18th April, 10am-4pm
In Whose Image? A Dayschool on Patronage, Power and Class in Image-Making, taking inspiration from the 'Rank' exhibition and its featured works.

Contact us at 07800 861351 or at ninakane@btinternet.com for more info.

Following the success of last September's student exhibition at the Swarthmore Centre,Christine Hinchliffe is organising an open exhibition of works produced friom this term's Art of the Life-Model sessions and invites any participant to submit work for this. The exhibition will be held at Leeds Central Library Artspace in the month of September 2009. Contact Christine at cdhinchliffe@hotmail.com if you would like to participate.

Fine Art student and artist Matthew Pinder is covering these sessions amongst other activities in his blog. Visit this at: htpp:/automatton.wordpress.com

A big thank you to Leeds City Art Gallery Education, and its Supervisor / Gallery Floor staff for their support of these sessions.

Artistic Director Invited To Be RAM Rep!
The Register of Artists' Models (www.modelreg.co.uk)have invited Nina Kane to be their representative for the North East of England! The Register of Artists' Models camapigns tirelessly for better employment conditions for life-models and offers a fantastic agency service to models looking for work, and for life-drawing groups / tutors looking for models. RAM has a new Director - Rachel McCarthy - and we congratulate her on her new post! Cast-Off (and our sister organisation WILMA) have long supported RAM and its aims. Nina is proud to accept RAM's invitation and looks forward to representing its members and campaigns in the North East!

Crossing the Atlantic...and into the Heart of the Beast!
A long-time friend and collaborator is off to explore puppetry at acclaimed experimental company In the Heart of the Beast. We look forward to hearing all about it in the autumn! Check them out at www.hobt.org

Third-Year Degree Students work on 'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones'
Third-year drama students at Huddersfield University are currently developing Act 2 of 'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones' for their Final Year Directing Project. The script, written by Nina Kane, was developed from life-drawing performance days at Leeds Art Gallery in July 2008 (see below). The student cast have been brought together by exciting young director Eluned Murphy - an up-and-coming talent if ever there was one! - and we are very excited with what we see in rehearsals! Watch this space...!

Winter 2008
Support the Striking French Life-Models! Send a message of support to them by e-mailing your comments to ninakane@btinternet.com before Tuesday 13th January 2009!If you wish to add your name to our petition, please do so by e-mailing us your name and town.

On 15th December 2008, life-models from the College des Beaux Arts in Paris staged a nude protest supported by artists who drew them as they stood in freezing temperatures. The striking models were protesting over the French Government's ban on them accepting tips through the traditional 'cornet' - a cone of paper that is passed around after a life-drawing class for artists to place their tips in. The tips are essential in supporting the models' meagre earnings. Cast-Off Drama and WILMA recognise the seriousness of their position and whole-heartedly support their aims. We ask you to join with us in sending them a message of support from across the Channel. For further information visit The Guardian newspaper's website (see artice on 17th Dec '08), or search You Tube for images under 'French model's nude protest'. Thank you!

Wallpaper, Roses, Reposes...
We are investigating temporary art spaces in which to host our durational performance of Wallpaper. It is a play in three acts designed for an installation space, and the actors perform it in permanent cycles over the course of a day.

Between Stars
Plans are firming up for a site-specific production of our piece about the lives of Maria Callas and Dorothy Squires in the Autumn of 2009, followed by a Galleries production of Poisson D'Argent (funding-permitting) in the Spring of 2010. Between Stars was scripted with funding from the Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society. We are grateful to the society for their ongoing support. More details to follow...!

The Art of the Life-Model
The Autumn programme of wild performance art and modelling happenings at Leeds City Art Gallery was a resounding success! It was well-attended by regulars and brought a positive interest from members of the public passing through the Gallery. Working largely with improvised modelling and movement within the public spaces of the Gallery, it marked a departure from our usual practices, and brought a heady cocktail of foil, feathers, paper boxes, masks, nude clowning and the story of Cinderella to Saturday afternoon visitors! We envisage a slightly different format for it this Spring 2009, and will be announcing details towards the middle of January so watch this space...! Thank you to all those who attended and who continue to support the work through their presence and input.

We recommend...The Hounding of David Oluwale, 31st Jan - 21st Feb at West Yorkshire Playhouse
Check out the West Yorkshire Playhouse's production of 'The Hounding of David Oluwale', based on the award-winning book by Kester Aspden, and adapted by Oladipo Agboluaje for the stage. David Oluwale was a homeless Nigerian man with Mental Health difficulties who died in police custody after brutal hounding by Leeds officers in 1969. We are supporting the campaign to build a memorial to David Oluwale in the centre of Leeds. For details of this, contact Max Farrar, Community Engagement Officer at Leeds metropolitan University on : m.farrar@leedsmet.ac.uk

Autumn 2008

The Art of the Life-Model returns to Leeds Art Gallery in partnership with the company. We use drama, art history and life-drawing to explore the gallery's collection and touring exhibitions. The sessions are on a 'drop-in' basis and are free!
Saturday 13 September 1-4pm
Saturday 27 September 1- 4pm
Saturday 4, 18, 25 October 1- 4pm
Saturday 8, 15, 29 November 1- 4pm
Saturday 6 December 1- 4pm
Contact 07800 861351 for more info.

Exhibition at the Swarthmore Centre Leeds.
Art of the Life-Model students past and present have come together to organise a community exhibition of work inspired by sessions led by Nina Kane from 2002 - present. The initiative came directly from the students and Cast-Off Drama are very proud that the work of the course is being honoured in this way. The exhibited pieces are fantastic and a lot of hard work hasbeen put in to the organising. The exhibtion will run from 28th September - 18th October at the Swarthmore Centre cafe, Leeds. Opening 29th October, 7pm - all welcome.

Life-Drawing Workshops for 6th Formers at Temple Moor High School, Leeds
We are running a series of after-school workshops for 6th Formers in life-drawing in the Art department of Temple Moor through the Autumn Term. The sessions are model-led and cover a range of topics from analytical drawing to performance art, narrative figuration and the Body in Technology. The sessions are now up and running and very well-attended by a wonderfully creative and mature group of young people. We are very excited to be working with the school and say a big thanks to Claire Harris of the Art Department for initiating the programme.

Bride-Cake Bride-Bones
The script is now complete and has been developed as a play for technology. We are seeking funding to develop this further. Watch this space!

Bates Mill
We are now happily esconced at Bates Mill in Huddersfield and will shortly embark on an intensive 'making' process in the Artspace towards some sculptural pieces for Bride-Cake Bride-Bones.

Summer 2008 - new developments!:
On the Move again...!

Having enjoyed a year of administrative luxury at the Media Centre Huddersfield, Cast-Off Drama will be moving out of the F5 office on October 1st. We will still be leasing a 'Front Desk' service from the Media Centre, so for all postal enquiries, please continue to contact us there. Thank you to all the Media Centre staff for their friendliness in the last year.

We are very pleased to announce, however, that we have found a wonderful new 'making' space at Bates Mill in Huddersfield. It is a beautiful mill building on South Queen Street and we look forward to meeting lots of new people in the Artspace and embarking on some exciting collaborations with them. Artistic Director Nina Kane will be moving in to Studio 3, Floor 1 on September 26th.

The Art of the Life-Model returns...
Free-of-charge 'drop-in' workshops exploring the role of the life-model in the making of figurative art. These model-led workshops use drama, life-drawing, movement, art history and performance art to explore works in the gallery's collection, and touring exhibitions. Open to all - come as and when you can! Saturday afternoons, 1-4pm, Leeds City Art Gallery. Exact dates tbc.

We are very excited to announce that from Autumn 2008, The Art of the Life-Model will be run exclusively by Cast-Off Drama as part of our education programme. The Art of the Life-Model has brought over 900 participants into Leeds City Art Gallery since its inception in 2002. Originating from Cast-Off Drama and WILMA's 'Will You, Won't You' pilot project in July 2002, the course run through the Leeds College of Art & Design's Community Education department, until withdrawal of funding this Summer. We are grateful to the college's community education department for its support of the course over the years and wish them well in their new ventures. Due to massive support from its participants and requests for the course not to fold, Cast-Off Drama will continue to run this innovative and much-loved workshop programme and are seeking funding to develop it further in the future. The course has a strong track record in offering practical, experimental opportunities and access to creative, model-centred working within the Leeds community, and is open to anyone whatever their background, ability or level of experience. We are very grateful to Leeds City Art Gallery for their continued support, and look forward to announcing exact dates in due course - so watch this space!

Between Stars back on...
Negotiations are back on with Spacemaker Storage in Leeds to provide a performance venue for our installation-based production on the lives of Maria Callas and Dorothy Squires. Updates soon...!

Anyone for Doubles?
Nina will be collaborating with Michael Cleary to run a series of doubles workshops on alternate Sundays in Leeds. The sessions will run from 10am-4pm and will explore working from two models. The morning session will feature Michael and a visiting model (male or female), the afternoon session will feature Nina and Michael working to a particular 'doubles' theme. The sessions are 'drop-in' and will cost £6 for the day! A bargain! Venue details are being confirmed as we speak so watch this space!

The Body Religious - Nina and Michael are in negotiation with the Flesh Festival due to happen in Bradford this October. We hope to offer a day-long life-modelling performance investigating genedered images of the male and female body in religious art. The performance will be open for visitors to come and draw or watch. Fingers crossed this happens - updates soon!

'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones'

Friday 11th July 10am - 4pm
Saturday 12th July 10am-4pm
Sunday 13th July 1-4pm
Education Workshop

Three days of life-modelling performance at Leeds City Art Gallery on the figure of Miss Havisham in 'Great Expectations'(Dickens)and in response to
Helen Chadwick's 'Eat Me' currently exhibited in the Gallery's collection. The performance is open on a 'drop-in' basis to life-drawers, writers, performance artists, musicians, theatre-makers and anyone interested in attending.
Free of charge, materials provided but feel free to bring your own too.
'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones' forms part of ongoing research into the potential of
life-modelling theatre to create new writing and develops from 'Minotaur' as an invesitgation into female desire and rage. Contact us at 07800 861351 / 01484 685948 for more details.

Spring 2008:

'Minotaur'

You are invited to come and do some life-drawing and / or writing at Leeds
City Art Gallery Education Workshop this Friday 7th March, 10am-4pm. The
event is a 'drop-in', free of charge, all materials provided.

'Minotaur' is an experimental life-modelling piece performed by Nina Kane of
Cast-Off Drama to 'Stengam' by Cor Fuhler. The work explores writing and
storytelling through the body using mask, physical theatre and sustained,
nude, posing. It offers fantastic opportunity for making drawings,
paintings, 3-D work and creative writing. We will be working with both
electric light and candlelight. Come as and when you can, stay for half an
hour or all day! All welcome. Please bring a thread with you!

'Minotaur' forms part of ongoing work for a module on Collaborative Writing
that Nina is completing as part of an MA in Writing for Performance at
University of Huddersfield.For any questions on the event please contact
castoffdrama@btinternet.com or ring 07800 861351 / 01484 685948.

Striped Dress

We are currently developing a script about the model-artist relationship between Kathleen Newton and James Jacques Jospeh Tissot. The working title is: 'Striped Dress'. Watch this space for updates.

Work on the other scripts is going well. See our repetoire section for details.

Kimbal Bumstead

Check out Kimbal Bumstead's work with life-modelling at: www.kimbalbumstead.com and www.tapedduck.com . Kimbal did a wonderful performance at arts@trinity exploring touch and the life-model as object. (His website will explain this better so have a look!) It is great to see other artists working performatively with this field and we expect more performances to come from him and other model-performers in the Leeds area in the not-too-distant future! Well worth a visit!

The Art Studio, Sunderland

Also check out The Art Studio, Sunderland - a wonderful community resource for artists living with mental health issues. Drop-in and see them if you are in the area! It's an absolutely inspiring place with some brilliant work going on - www.theartstudio.org

Parita

New developments!! We are delighted to be teaming up with Parita - a company delivering training to local government departments and small CVS organisations on Equalities issues. We will be using our theatre of the body, also Forum Theatre and other political theatre methods to explore good working practice and provide education and consciousness-raising activities on a range of Equalities issues.

Embodying the Other

Embodying the Other: Pedagogic and Performative Strategies Used in the Art of the Life-Model 2002 - 2007 by Nina Kane is now available as a reference document at Leeds College of Art & Design Libraries and Leeds City Art Gallery Education Dept.

Cast-Off's Artistic Director Nina Kane will be presenting the current findings of her research into contemporary life-modelling studies at The Leeds College of Art & Design, Wednesday 30th January. More details to follow.

News from elsewhere:

WILMA -Having successfully completed an exciting autumn programme, we are writing up our interim report for The Scarman Trust and look forward to receiving our second installment of funds to run more workshops this Spring. We also hope to establish the WILMA facebook and get models contributing! Thanks to a successful male model launch on Nov 16th at The Media Centre (formerly Host) in Leeds, MILMA (Men Into Life-Modelling Arts) is now up and running. Contact Paul Armitage via the WILMA e-mail for further details.

The Art of the Life-Model - Was in danger of being replaced by a straight life-drawing class last term but was reinstated after students protested and said they wanted it kept just as it was! Hurray! We promise to run even more exciting, experimental, model-led and community-centred workshops this term in our 10-week 'Drama-into-Drawing' module! And yes, we have stolen this phrase from Cast-Off Drama but isn't it a good one?! Sessions are back to being held at weekends, and will run from Saturday 12th January - Saturday 15th March 2008 inclusive (no half-term), 1-4pm, Education Room, Leeds City Art Gallery.

Students on The Art of the Life-Model are planning an exhibition showing works made in response to the course's workshop sessions and life-modelling experiments over the years. If you would like to be involved in organising this please contact Christine Smith (details to follow).

Frozen Blog....Sleeping Beauty Awakes!
We experienced some technical difficulties with the blog and as a result many of our entries between 2006 - 2007 were frozen and were unable to be accessed. Thankfully this is now rectified and we publish below a synthesis of those postings.

Autumn 2007:

From October 2007, Cast-Off Drama is renting an office in The Media Centre, Huddersfield. Our address for correspondance until the Summer of 2008 will be:
Cast-Off Drama, Unit F5, The Media Centre, 7 Northumberland Street, Huddersfield, HD1 1RL. Fax: 0870 990 5100.

Modelworks...a programme of model-led life-drawing workshops will run from Nov 8th - Dec 13th, every Thursday, 9.30 - 3.30pm, in the Circle / Corner rooms at The Media Centre, Huddersfield. Cost: £12 / £8 concessions. We are sorry these are not free, but haven't you noticed there's an Olympics on?! All money goes directly to pay the model.

Work is going well on the scripts, but an opportunity to participate in the University of Leeds Jack Keroauc 50th Anniversary 'On the Road' conference is lost as the conference is cancelled due to a fire in the planning office! Our commiserations to the Conference organisers.

Artistic Director Nina Kane has completed a paper for the Leeds College of Art & Design on her performance research into contemporary life-modelling studies - Embodying the Other: Performative and Pedagogic Strategies Used in The Art of the Life-Model, 2002 - 2007 ((C) Nina Kane, 2007). The paper references the work of Cast-Off Drama in contributing to teaching and studies in this field. The research will be presented to the public in January 2008.

News from our friends..

WILMA - Thanks to the Community Champions Award from Cando, The Scarman Trust we are proud to launch a programme of free workshops for female models in community venues across Leeds, Huddersfield and Barnsley. We will also be launching a start-up workshop for male models on Nov 16th. Creche provided at some venues. Visit www.wilmawomenlifemodels.blogspot.com for further info.

The Art of the Life-Model returns to Leeds City Art Gallery (Education Workshop) this term with a 10-week module 'Performance Art & the Model'. Sessions are on Tuesday evenings from 5-8pm. Contact Neil Hedges at Leeds College of Art & Design
(0113 202 8165) for enrolment details.

Spring / Summer 2007:

Cast-Off Drama is in negotiation with Spacemaker Storage, Leeds to provide an installation venue for 'Between Stars. We have met with Hayden Productions with the prospect of some exciting video collaboration on the piece. Looks promising! Watch this space for further details.

Artistic Director Nina Kane visits Helensburgh, Glasgow and Edinburgh searching out locations and site-specific inspiration for 'Poisson d'Argent'. Useful research done for play script. Further research visits planned.

We have received a grant from the Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society towards the costs of writing 'Between Stars'. The work focuses on the lives of Maria Callas and Dorothy Squires. Thank you very much to the society for their assistance.

We begin work on 'Pull My Daisy'- a work for male models based on writing by Leonard Cohen, Jack Keroauc and Neal Cassidy.

Our administration folder of draft funding applications and research ideas is lost on a train between Leeds and Newcastle. Most of it handwritten. It is never seen again! Is this a sign? We desperately need an office!

News from Elsewhere:

Community Champions!!!! WILMA has received a Community Champions Award for £2,000 to run a series of free life-modelling workshops for women interested in trying life-modelling or currently working as life-models. A big thank you to John Parkes at Roundhay Rd Resource Centre, Leeds and The Scarman Trust for their advice on this!
The news is dampened by the report that we are likely to be one of the last groups to receive this as the Government has withdrawn the Small Grants programme and will be closing the Community Champions scheme from February 2008. It will not replaced with anything else. We urge everyone who cares about grassroots, voluntary,small-scale community projects to write to their MP c/o the House of Commons to oppose this.

The Art of the Life-Model: has moved from a 'drop-in' to a 10-week modular system. It is still being run at Leeds College of Art & Design as we await the refurbishment at Leeds City Art Gallery. It is now running on Thursdays, 6-9pm at Jacob Kramer buildings, Blenheim Walk. Contact Neil Hedges on 0113 202 8000 for more details.

Ocarina Nina: The Singing Secretary and Fiona Folk are very excited to be appearing at the Sunrise Festival in Glastonbury this June. We intend to focus on the larger festivals in forthcoming years and move further afield to other areas of Europe.

Summer / Autumn 2006:

Cast-Off Drama - new address from Feb 2006: 133, Leas Avenue, Holmfirth, HD9 3EW. Tel: 01484 685948.
Other changes:
Cast-Off Drama has developed and incorporated two organisations under its wing in recent years - WILMA: Women Into Life-Modelling Arts and Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre. For a whole range of logisitical (and very positive) reasons, we have decided that these should operate separately and in the Summer of 2006, we took the decision that Ocarina Nina and WILMA should act as separate entities from Cast-Off Drama and continue to flourish and prosper in their own spheres. We wish them well on their journeys and will update Cast-Off blogwatchers on their progress.

News!
Cast-Off Drama, WILMA and Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre & Singing go their different ways. This is a decision taken as a mark of success - we have all outgrown each others' remits and are strong enough to fly off in our different directions. Visit Ocarina Nina's blog at: ocarinanina@blogspot.com

Work begins on the script of 'Poisson d'Argent' - a Gallery work for life-models on the 1857 Madeleine Smith story.

News from elsewhere:

The Art of the Life-Model is temporarily at Bracken Edge Primary School / Space@ art room, Chapeltown, Leeds. Monday evenings, 6-9pm while Leeds City Art Gallery has its long-awaited makeover! The artspace at Bracken Edge is fantastic! We also have a new Community Education manager Marianne Springham - welcome to her and a big thanks to Garry Barker for his support over the years! We look forward to new innovations!

Latest News... Spring 2006

Moving Bodies – A Cast-Off Drama workshop, Leeds City Art Gallery

Friday 2nd June, 10am-4pm - Free workshop. Part of the Frank Brangwyn exhibition programme (6th April - 18th June 2006).
Moving Bodies explores the journeying aspects of Frank Brangwyn’s work through drama, storytelling, figure-drawing, mask-making, textiles and discussion. We focus on his images of itinerant workers, notably his depictions of sailors, spinners and Travellers, and investigate the development of the vardo as an art influence on Brangwyn’s frames and motifs. The workshop offers an opportunity to experiment with a range of art materials and drama practices in relation to the exhibition. The workshop is free, all materials provided.
Moving Bodies is put on in connection with Cast-Off Drama’s forthcoming production ‘Beads’ (23rd/25th June).
Research funded by Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society
For booking contact Nina Kane, 01484 685 948
E-mail: castoffdrama@btinternet.com

Beads ('I took the beads of her necklace...') 23rd - 25th June - POSTPONED due to underfunding and cast injury. Despite a strong community input for resources, funds to rehearse with a cast were unforthcoming, and cast injury has prevented us from doing it voluntarily - as such we took the difficult decision to postpone this event. We are continuing to make the work and will relaunch the project when circumstances improve. Meanwhile, we would like to say a big thank you to Inner North West Area Committee Neighbourhood & Housing (Leeds City Council) for the offer of creche funding, Councillor Penny Ewens for MICE money, Swarthmore Centre, Leeds College of Art & Design and Leeds City Art Gallery for resources, venue and materials support, Bracken Edge Primary School for studio space and Women Into Community Health Network, Wade's Charity and Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society for research funds.

'Beads', A two and a half day continuous production for artists, sculptors and makers - Friday 23rd June 10am- 4pm and 6 - 8.30pm; Saturday 24th June 10am - 4pm, and Sunday 25th June 10am - 12pm; Swarthmore Education Centre, Main Hall - 'drop-in' performance. Free creche. Cast-Off offers audiences a unique opportunity to experience a story told in two ways. On the Friday evening come and watch a play. On the Saturday the story will be retold through tableaux images - drop-in, make drawings and paintings - bring loose beads with you to tell your own tales.

Beads is a horror story of greed, wounding and obsession. It tells the story of Ella and the vampiric Mrs de Plein. Ella collects beads. She finds, cleans and polishes them, listens to their stories and threads them into necklaces to sell. Mrs de Plein is a grande dame with large purse and a huge magnifying glass. She loves to get her teeth into something. An amateur anthropologist, explorer and bead enthusiast, she is determined to acquire 'all things Ella' at any cost. As her obsession grows, the audience is sucked into a chilling tale of evasion and pursuit which moves through Elzabethan England, the C19th and the Holocaust. Part clown show / part pantomime, grotesque and compelling, Beads is an enticing and challenging piece of physical theatre.

Two and a half years in the making, 'Beads' tackles the issue of C19th 'Gypsylorism' head-on through a physical theatre investigation of image, text, film and music. Eschewing the vampiric and reductive images of the past, we build new stories, tableaux and soundscapes inspired by the work of contemporary Traveller artists - Cor Fuhler, Hester Hedges, Tony Gatlif, Bob Lovell, Papusza - as well as non-Traveller sources.

'Beads' is Cast-Off's first major all-cast production since 'Chime Chimera' (2003) (though as many of you know, there has been some solo performances and workshops since). We are proud to be returning to the Swarthmore Centre, a fully-accessible community venue, and one of our initial supporters.

Also....Cast-Off recommends that you check out 'Second Site' - an exhibition of four Traveller Artists to be held at the West Park Centre, Leeds 5th - 28th May. For full details contact Dianne Greenhow at Travellers Education Service on 0113 274 8050 or Peter Saunders - Peter.saunders@educationleeds.co.uk . Artists exhibiting are: Daniel Baker, Ferdinand Koci, Damian LeBas, Delaine LeBas. Also, for those of you working in schools, the Traveller Education Service is running a Traveller Storytelling project. Contact Dianne or Peter for further information.

The Singing Secretary will be launching her 3rd Summer Season at Holmfirth Folk Festival on Saturday 6th May. She will be appearing at Garforth Arts Festival in Leeds on Saturday 8th July, and at Banstead Community Festival, Leeds on Saturday 22nd July. More dates to follow. For details of the Banstaed Park Festival, contact Peter Turner on 0113 240 6486, and check out Pete's website at www.peanut-the-clown.com

Cast-Off recommends...that you check out The Naked Shed. - www.thenakedshed.blogspot.com Naked Shed has developed from work at Dartington College Devon with Jerry Holloway and Emma Leeming and explores life-modelling in sheds at three sites in Devon and at the Roundhouse, Hebden Bridge on 18th June. In 2004 Cast-Off collaborated with Jerry in a Leeds-Devon Exchange. Hosted by WILMA / Cast-Off in Leeds, and the 'Out of Context' Symposium at Dartington, Nina and Jerry explored life-modelling theatre, clowning, gender and movement with life-drawers from Devon and Leeds. The work was inspirational to all involved and we are excited by developments at Dartington since this time. Emma is an experienced life-model and artist and has recently curated a project about sheds. Following the Roundhouse event she will exhibit the finished life-drawings in a local park. Well worth checking out!

We have moved!! Cast-Off Drama is now located in the beautiful Netherthong area of Holmfirth. We are very excited about this move and the potential it offers to broaden our work. We will still keep our links with Leeds, but look forward to working with artists and performers in the wider region. Our new contact details are as follows:
Cast-Off Drama, 133 Leas Avenue, Holmfirth, HD9 3EW. Tel: 01484 685948. E-mail: castoffdrama@btinternet.com

Studio space... We are grateful to Bracken Edge Primary School, Leeds and the Head Chris Walton for once again providing us with much-needed studio space at the school. We will be resident until the June break making a selection of masks for children's theatre. We are still engaged in making Serafina's Yard in the space (see below under 'recent projects') and are happy to report the Jinny's Car Scrap box is being filled with a wonderful array of old toy cars, trains and diggers! Work on the scrap yard will begin after Easter.

'Off the Wall!' An exhibition of Cast-Off Drama's work is now on the walls of the cafe exhibition space at Swarthmore Education Centre, Leeds and very fabulous it looks too! The work has prompted lively conversation and admiration - it will run from from 8th January - 4th February 2006. The exhibition is primarily of work from the two Venus Interventions projects, but also includes masks and photos from other projects and work-in-progress from 'Serafina's Yard' and 'There are no pockets in shrouds (Le Grand Depart)'. Thank you to Swarthmore for their help in getting this up.

'Raaz Ki Baat II' Cast-Off are delighted to be returning to Nasha to work on their young peoples' project. Nasha have teamed up Project 7, a youth project in the Chapeltown area of Leeds for the production. We will be working with youths from both projects on 'Raaz ki Baat' a production about drugs-taking in the South Asian community. Raaz Ki Baat was devised by youths on the Nasha project with Cast-Off and premiered at the Pakistani Centre, Leeds in May 2005. It is performed in a mixture of Urdu, Mirpury and English. The next production will be performed in the Space@ facility in Hillcrest Primary School, Chapeltown, Leeds on Friday 7th April, 6pm.

A New Wardrobe! Cast-Off Drama has 'inherited' the costume collection from the former Ascot School of Ballet. As such we have a magnificent children's wardrobe of frocks, hats and props for our youth work. We are immensly grateful to the family of Pat Hall (formerly Ascot) - Lydia, Mark and Tina- for passing these onto us. Given the sheer volume of dance wear, we have been sharing our good fortune and have passed sets of beautiful costumes and leotards on to Tanya Cusan's Salsa Theatre school for their Children's Salsa Productions. For details of Children's Salsa workshops please contact Tanya Cusan at www.tanyacusanespinosa.co.uk Thank you very much again to Tina, Mark & Lydia.

Staff Challenge Day: Cast-Off successfully ran a 'challenge' day workshop for employees of Thompson Design in Leeds on 21st January 2006. The staff attending the day were 100% committed to the activities and gave freely of energy, creativity and enthusiasm! The workshop was well-received and we look forward to future dealings with the company.
The Art of the Life-Model 'drop-in' sessions held at Leeds City Art Gallery will start again on 7th May, 1-4pm. (see below for details of this). This term's dates are:

Sunday 7th May 1-4pm
Sunday 14th May 1-4pm
Sunday 21st May 1-4pm
Sunday 28th May 1-4pm
Sunday 4th June 1-4pm
Half-term
Thursday 15th June 10am-1pm
Thursday 29th June 10am-1pm
Thursday 6th July 10am-1pm
Thursday 13th July 10am - 1pm
Thursday 20th July 10am-1pm

(Joint partnership between Leeds College of Art & Design and Leeds City Art Gallery. Sessions devised and run by Nina Kane - Tel: 0113 202 8166 / 247 8254. Please note that due to refurbishment work at Leeds City Art Gallery from Autumn 2006, the course is likely to be run through a community venue for the next academic year, offering us a fantastic opportunity to develop the experimental aspects of the life-modelling and life-drawing work. We look forward to returning to the Gallery after its re-opening in Summer 2007.)

About Ocarina NIna and WILMA (Spring 2006):

Street-Theatre... Under the auspices of Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre, Cast-Off offers festival goers a fantastic set of walkabout characters. Acapella singing is a central specialism of our street-theatre performance with all charcters using a wide repertoire of songs. Our main figure is The Singing Secretary - a poshPA with golden phone who invites you to 'choose a button from the box' before singing a song - jazz, blues, folk, pop, opera, showbiz musicals...the range is eclectic and varied. For Christmas events we have Christmas Carol - a singing lady Santa who gives you a 'bauble and a warble' with a repertoire of tunes from Bing to Bethlehem! For promotional events (leafleting flyers and brochures etc) we have Shopping Molly who peeks at your purchases whilst promoting the event...ring her till and she'll give you a trill of whatever Supermarket music happens to be in her Chanel-adorned head!

New from late Summer 2006 and ideal for Folk and Blues Festivals is Fiona Folk - a bustle-wearing, basket-carrying Belle of the Woods who will offer you a sprig of lavender whilst crooning a folky tune. Ballads, bells and smells Fiona Folk croons an impressive repertoire from Dylan to Dairymaids! Ideal for folk, country, blues and world-music audiences.

On a more lyrical note, Milady Milarkey is an original Shakespearian clown reciting songs and odes from the works of the Bard. Available for all arts festivals, also for figurative drawing sessions.

Incorporating...
Cast-Off incorporates 'Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre' and 'WILMA - Women Into Life-Modelling Arts' and works with local communities and small organisations to explore 'the theatre of the body' in meaningful, people-centred projects.

Ocarina Nina Street Theatre - New Acts for Christmas 2005!

'Christmas Carol'

A warble and a bauble! 'Christmas Carol' is a singing lady Santa carrying a big sack of Christmas 'baubles' (ie. sweets, chocolate coins, little Christmas trinkets, bells, etc). People choose 'a bauble from the bag' and she sings them a Christmas song from a repertoire of carols and Christmas pop songs. Ideal for Christmas fetes, parties, shopping arcades, long queues, department stores.

*** Christmas Carol will be appearing at Bracken Edge School Christmas Disco in Leeds on Wednesday 14th December. She will be out and about in York from Saturday 17th December! ************

'The Singing Secretary Christmas Special'
The much-loved Singing Secretary dons her winter woolies for her very own Christmas Special! The posh PA, complete with hairbrush mike, travel bag and golden phone will sing to you from a Christmas repertoire of carols and pop songs when you 'choose a button from her box'! Ideal for pantomimes, long queues, festivals, parties and any outdoor and indoor events.

Whitcliffe Mount School, Cleckheaton :
Whitcliffe Mount is setting up regular weekly life-drawing classes for 16-18 year olds. Cast-Off is proud to be modelling for these. A big well done and thank you to staff Lee Graham and Mark Murphy for their hard work in getting the classes up and running.

The Big Draw - Venus Interventions II: 164+ visitedThe Big Draw event over the weekend! Some wonderful drawings were produced and a fantastic time was had by all! Here are some of the comments:

"Fun. Met some nice people. Opened my eye to different medium"

"An interesting and exhausting day. Thanks."

"Absolutely super! We've had a lovely time. Thank you."

"Fun and very interesting."

"Excellent. Great atmosphere. - unsure about the introduction but it worked! Broke the ice! Learned a lot. I wouldn't normally work with the colours I did and would have given up on it long ago, but being forced to keep working at it has been a great learning experience as the picture came through!"

"Useful, thanks."

"Very refreshing to try different things and interact with the other life-drawers and model."

"Excellent! Thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'll have to learn to share!"

"My daughter thought it was a very good idea (Annabel age 7) and had great fun. I should have joined in as well (dad) but did not have the courage. Maybe next time. Thanks."

"My son and daughter liked it very much. They were at it right from the start. You can keep in touch with us (them) at... (address supplied)"

"Very good project. Wished I had brought my grandson."

"Very good idea"

"Hannah enjoyed this experience." (mother's comment)

" Good fun. More white paper and black ink needed!"

"Eye-opener!"

"Very good. First time I've been." (child's comment).

"First time. Very good." (child)

"It was fun, filled with zillions of art and I loved drawing cartoon characters." (child)

" Very stimulating and FUN!"
"A wonderfully focused atmosphere - creative, lively participants. Great fun."

Venus Interventions II - The Big Draw weekend
Saturday 15th October - 10am - 4pm
Sunday 16th October 1pm - 4pm
Ziff Gallery, Leeds City Art Gallery

A rerun of last March's 'Venus Interventions' workshop on the Saturday plus an opportunity to make work on a fresco or make individual drawing from the model on the Sunday.

Experience collective art-making whilst developing your own skills! Venus Interventions offers a unique opportunity to make shared art!

Working in groups of 3, you will develop life-drawings and paintings from the model, posed in a reconstruction of Antonio Canova’s ‘Venus’. You will rotate your drawings with your group, working into each other’s pictures using a variety of materials, media and techniques. Finished work will be exhibited at a community venue in the near future, after which participants can choose which picture to take home.
A fantastic opportunity for beginners and advanced drawers alike. The workshop will be model-led and will involve intensive sustained drawing from a nude model over a 4-hour period. Please note that you will not be able to take the finished work home until a later date.

Pre-booking required and it is preferable if participants can commit for the day if possible on the Saturday.. All materials provided.

Sunday's - Drop-in session: Still working with the Venus, a chance to work on narrative frescos in groups or to make individual drawings from a costumed model (all ages welcome).

All events have been organised in partnership with Leeds City Art Gallery and The Big Draw.

Wilma: WILMA (Women Into Life-Modelling Arts) will be running the 'Will You, Won't You...?' pilot project for female life-models at Space@Bracken Edge, Leeds on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th September. The project works to a format pioneered by WILMA at Leeds City Art Gallery in July 2002, offering female life-models the opportunity to explore life-modelling as a profession and to network with other models in their area. The workshop runs from 10am-4pm each day, is free of charge and is open to women who have never modelled but would like to have a go as well as those already working in the profession. There will be an opportunity to model for a life-drawing group on the afternon of Sunday 25th. A big thank you to Wade's Charity who have funded the workshop, also Voluntary Action Leeds and Space@Bracken Edge for their support. For further details and to book, ring: 0113 262 0608 or e-mail: julesnina@ntlworld.com

STOP PRESS...Listen to the Bob Walmsley show on Radio Leeds 92.4FM from
3.30 - 4.00pm on Thursday 18th August for an interview on the WILMA project!

Ocarina Nina Singing Club: Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre will be running a weekly Singing Club for Key Stage 2 pupils, teachers and parents at Bracken Edge Primary School, Leeds every Monday lunchtime, 12.00 - 12.45pm (term-time only). We'll be singing Jazz, Blues, Soul, Pop and all the latest chart hits acapella! Bring your favourite song and we'll sing it together!

Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre: 'The Singing Secretary'- Having wowed the general public at the Doncaster Hot House Festival this February, The Singing Secretary will be appearing at the following events:
11th June: Little London Community Day, Leeds
18th June: 'Celebrating Harehills', Banstead Park Community Festival, Leeds
7th July: Garforth Main Street, Leeds
9th July: Garforth Community Street Festival, Leeds
10th July: Hebden Bridge Arts Festival
5th August: Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
6th August: Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
7th August: Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
8th August: Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
9th August: Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
10th August: Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
11th August: Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
12th August: Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
28th August: Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival, Colne, Lancashire
29th August: Leeds West Indian Carnival, Chapeltown, Leeds - appearing with 'International Office Boy'!
3rd September: Chapel Allerton Arts Festival, Leeds - with International Office Boy!
4th September: Haworth Arts Festival
1st October: Ingleton Folk Festival
30th October: Mosaic Arts Market Launch, Host Media Centre, Leeds
12th November: Unity Festival, City Art Gallery, Manchester - with International Office Boy!
14th December: Bracken Edge Primary School Christmas Disco - Christmas Carol
17th - 23rd December: Christmas Carol - out and about in York and Leeds
Other dates are being firmed up as we speak and we are BOOKING NOW for all 2006 gigs!!!!!

Studio, also Cars, Trains 'n Boats 'n Planes Cast-Off Drama has 'making space' courtesy of Bracken Edge Primary School in Leeds for the autumn term 2005/6. We have a fantastic portacabin in the playground in which to make masks, sculptures and costumes, shared with Costume Designer and Artist Pam Burrett. Nina Kane is currently working on the installation Serafina's Yard in the space. A big thank you to the Head Chris Walton and to Pam.

As part of 'Serafina's Yard' and in preparation for the Cars, Trains 'n Boats 'n Planes project, Cast-Off is inviting children to post all their broken old toy cars, trains, boats and planes in a postbox in the school's reception area, and write something about their toy before sending it on its way! The collected vehicles will form part of the 'Serafina's Yard' installation.

'Papa Don't Preach' Drama Teens Project, Richmond Hill, Leeds
We will be assisting with workshops and rehearsals for 'Papa Don't Preach' - a youth production about teenage pregnancy in the Richmond Hill area of Leeds. Performances:
Tuesday 1st November
Wednesday 2nd November
6.30 - 8.00pm
Newfounds Methodist Church Hall, Richmond Hill, Leeds

Apprentice Studio Project (ASP):
During the Autumn, Cast-Off will be running a series of workshops exploring the working experiences of artists and models in late Medieval and early Renaissance studios. The workshops will practically investigate studio practices of antique, copying and shared arts-making within a hierarchial construct with the sessions being model-led. It will explore the various roles and duties practised by artists within the schools and studios of the 'old masters', with the model occupying the position of 'patron'. The workshops aim to reveal the dynamics of competition, flattery, and patronage operating within the Renaissance schools. 'Apprentice' is part of ongoing experimentation by the company into collaboratively-produced figurative art which challenges the one-artist-one-model paradigm of C19th life-drawing traditions. One of the events will be put on for The Big Draw. For further details, watch this space.

Shopping Molly. 'It ain't over 'till the fat bailiff rings...!' Living Sculpture meets Haute Couture. For a bit of Yorkshire urban cheek, watch out for Shopping Molly this autumn as she tinkles her till and gets you to flash your tat! From Boho Bazaar to Bargain Basement Bonanzas, if you've shopped till you've dropped Shopping Molly will be peeking at your purchases and swapping top trading tips! New for this autumn!

The Art of the Life-Model - Autumn 2005 dates
Thursday 6th October 10am - 1pm
Sunday 9th October 1pm -4pm
Thursday 20th October 10am - 1pm
Sunday 23rd October 1pm - 4pm
Thursday 3rd November 10am - 1pm
Thursday 10th November 10am-1pm
Sunday 20th November 1pm - 4pm
Thursday 24th November 10am - 1pm
Thursday 1st December 10am - 1pm
Thursday 8th December 10am - 1pm
The Art of the Life-Model is run in joint partnership between Leeds College of

In the News...
The work of The Art of Life-Model, Cast-Off Drama and WILMA recently received coverage in the Yorkshire Evening Post (21st May 2005) and on BBC Radio Leeds ('The Breakfast Show' 27th May 2005, Bob Walmsley Show 18th August 2005 and bulletins on Citizens Week, October 2005); 'The Singing Secretary' appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post (20th June 2005) Asian Express (July 2005) and Colne Times (September 2005). Cast-Off Drama articles about life-modelling have also appeared in Artscene (February 2004) and The Hub website (May 2004).

Summer Workshop - 'Encountering the Other - performing the work of Jacob Kramer'
A practical workshop on the artist
Jacob Kramer
Saturday 2^nd July<
10am-4pm
Education Workshop, Leeds Cityst1:placename>Art Galleryo:p>
· Painting and drawing from a life-model
· Looking at Kramer’s work in the collection
· Making puppets & 3-d objects
· Portraiture, mask and disappearance!
The workshop is free – all materials provided!
Book Now on 0113 262 0608 to reserve your place!

Cast-Off Drama returns to Leeds City Art Gallery on Saturday 2nd July to do a day-workshop on the artist Jacob Kramer. This involves drawing from the model 'in performance', discussion and drawing from Kramer's pictures in the collection, group work with masks, life-drawing/making 3d objects from the model and exploring Kramer's mixed art influences. The workshop posits Kramer as a multi-cultural artist with reference to his mixed Ukranian-Jewish/Leeds British heritage and explores his curatorial interest in acquiring African and South Asian masks and artefacts. The performance will reflect on his status and experiences as a refugee artist within early C20th Leeds, and Kramer's own unique relationship to portraits, masks and disappearance. It will be performed in front of Kramer's works to the music of Naftule Brandwein.

Community Happenings...
The 18th June is a busy day for Cast-Off as we will be supporting two fantastic community events:
1. Refugee Week, West Yorkshire Playhouse:
In the morning of the 18th June, we will be one of a number of community theatre workers hosting drama workshops as part of the Refugee Council's Refugee Week in Leeds. Cast-Off will be working with refugees in various workshops throughout the Autumn as part of 'My World, Your World'. General info : www.refugeecouncil.org.uk

2. 'Celebrating Harehills' Community Festival in Banstead Park, Harehills, Leeds:
In the afternoon of the 18th June 'The Singing Secretary' will be appearing in support of the Banstead Park Community Festival in Harehills, Leeds. For further details of the event, e-mail: Peanutfrsa@Aol.com

Cast-Off Drama - A 'Theatre of the Body' project
***'Raaz Ki Baat' was attended by an audience of over 300! A great time was had by all and a big thank you and well done to Nasha and Leeds Health Focus!***

Raaz Ki Baat - 'Secrets'
May 14th 2005, Pakistani Centre, Harehills Lane, Leeds. 1-4pm, free entry - food included! There will also be a bazaar with henna painting, make-up demonstrations and jewellery stalls as well.

Cast-Off has been commissioned by Leeds Health Focus to work with NASHA - a community drugs project focused on highlighting the issues and experiences of drug use in the South Asian community, and offering support to families and individuals experiencing the effects of drug misuse. The project serves the Chapeltown, Harehills, Burley Lodge and Hyde Park areas of Leeds and particularly targets the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in the city.

Cast-Off is working with a group of South Asian youths to develop a play which explores the reaction of two families to the knowledge that their teenage children are involved in drug-taking, and the experiences of the youths taking them. The finished work - entitled 'Raaz Ki Baat', performed in a mixture of Urdu, Mirpury and English, will be toured to local community centres, schools and Health Promotion events! For details of the NASHA project ring Leeds Health Focus on: 0113 248 8866.

'Negotiating Us, Here and Now' - Artist House, Situation Leeds Festival -
**Raphael's work will be exhibited at Leeds City Art Galley until 10th July. She is a fantastic artist! Thank you Raphaelle!***
Nina Kane and Raphaelle de Groot will be collaborating on Raphaelle's latest piece of Performance Art at Leeds City Art Gallery on Saturday 7th May, 10am-4pm and Sunday 8th April 1-4pm as part of the Situation Leeds Festival and The Art of the Life-Model. Using the Gallery's collection and the public space of the Ziff Gallery, the pair will negotiate the balance between theatre and performance art in the role of the model. The aim of the session is to further develop and explore the movement and 'mask-working' aspects of Raphaelle's performance, exploring seeing and non-seeing, negotiation of space, audience and 'risk', the 'mirror' of memory and the body as 'object' and performative subject. Nina will take a facilitative role in the collaboration, as a 'guide', a mask director, and 'sounding board', offering challenges and observations on aspects of the Performance Artist's use of the body through physical theatre intervention and persepective, and negotiating differing boundaries of risk. Raphaelle will perform the second stage of her work as part of The Art of the Life-Model to a class of life-drawers who will be invited to submit one of their drawings to Raphaelle for inclusion in a later installation work by her to be exhibited at the Gallery as part of Situation Leeds.

'Negotiating Us, Here and Now' is hosted by Artist House and Leeds City Art Gallery, with Cittadellarte Pistoletto, Italy Exhibition, 14th May - 10th July 2005, part of the Situation Leeds Festival 16th-29th May 2005. www.artistshouse.com

Spring Drawing
(in partnership with Leeds City Art Gallery)

'Proscenium Memorial' and 'Venus Interventions'
A double-bill of Life-Drawing at
Leeds City Art Gallery

Proscenium Memorial
Saturday 12th February
10am – 4pm
Silver Gallery
Leeds City Art Gallery
Model-Performer Nina Kane performs a pre-rehearsed series of narratives in response to Susan Hiller’s ‘Monument’ in the Silver Gallery. The life-drawing audience is invited to make short drawings and paintings from the model, then negotiate a sustained pose for a two-hour drawing based on the performance. The work combines nudity and draped work offering a fantastic opportunity for gestural and sustained (still) life-drawing. Some materials provided but also bring your own. There will be a 30-minute lunch break. Performed to selected pieces from 'Corkestra' by Cor Fuhler.
No booking necessary - just turn up and come and go as you wish. Free event, but donations welcome in aid of the Tsunami Appeal.

After a successful premiere of the above, 'Proscenium Memorial' is now available for booking and will tour to gallery spaces throughout 2005. Contact the company for booking details. See audience feedback in our main 'Responses' section

Venus Interventions
Saturday 12th March
10am - 4pm
Ziff Gallery
Leeds City Art Gallery
Experience collective art-making whilst developing your own skills! Venus Interventions offers a unique opportunity to make shared art!

Working in groups of 3, you will develop life-drawings and paintings from the model, posed in a reconstruction of Antonio Canova’s ‘Venus’. You will rotate your drawings with your group, working into each other’s pictures using a variety of materials, media and techniques. Finished work will be exhibited at a community venue in the near future, after which participants can choose which picture to take home.
A fantastic opportunity for beginners and advanced drawers alike. The workshop will be model-led and will involve intensive sustained drawing from a nude model over a 4-hour period. Please note that you will not be able to take the finished work home until a later date.

Pre-booking required and it is important that participants commit to the whole day. All materials provided. Free event, but donations welcome towards the Tsunami Appeal.

For Booking and details ring: 0113 262 0608
Free Events: Any donations to the Tsunami Appeal.

Cast-Off intend to repeat this event on a larger scale for this year's 'Drawing Power'. We will also be holding a collective drawing day and auction for the Tsunami soon. Watch this space!

Our "Venus Interventions" collective drawing day was fantastic fun! A huge thank you to all the artists who attended and to the Gallery for all their help! We're now looking for a community venue to host the exhibition of work so watch this space....! Spring Drawing raised £65.42 for the Tsunami so thank you all!

************************************************************************************

Art of the Life-Model Summer Term:

center;"Sunday 24th April 1-4pm
Wed 27th April 4.30 - 7.30pm
Sunday 8th May 1-4pm
Sunday 15th May 1-4pm
Saturday 21st May 1-4pm*
Sunday 22nd May 1-4pm*
Sunday 5th June 1-4pm
Sunday 12th June 1-4pm
Sunday 19th June 1-4pm
Venue:
Education Room,
Leeds City Art Gallery
(Leeds College of Art & Design Community Education & Leeds City Art Gallery Education).

Contact: Nina Kane via:
0113 247 8254 - gallery/202 8054 - college of art

*************************************************************************************
OTHER CURRENT, ONGOING and UPCOMING.... Spring/Summer 2005
Brief guide to current projects and repertoire - see below for fuller details of our work and watch this space for updates:

Cast-Off Production work: 'I took the Beads of her Necklace...' Weekend performance. Research funded by Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society and Women Into Community Health Network. Watch this space...!

WILMA: is developing a Mental Health arts project looking at the potential benefits of life-modelling for women suffering with depression, ME, eating disorders, self-harm and low self-esteem, also the therapeutic benefits of life-drawing within art therapy contexts. We are looking for female models to talk to us confidentially about any experiences of these issues, also in general about their reasons for going into life-modelling. We are also looking to hear from art therapists and other health professionals who may be interested in the research.

Trains 'n Boats 'n Planes... What are the boundaries between public and private? What stories do our possessions hold for us? What is the journey of objects? What do we create from inhabiting the same locality or space? What is the value of the 'cast-off'? What is our relationship to shared spaces and community/clan/family? What do we carry with us as we 'pass through'? Following personal artistic investiagtion into these themes in Le Grand Depart ('There are no pockets in shrouds') last Summer (2004) Cast-Off is running a spin-off storytelling and 'making' project called 'Trains 'n Boats 'n Planes' in the Chapeltown area of Leeds. Participants will be invited to explore their relationship to treasured and long-held possessions within the context of their local environment. If you live or work in the Chapeltown area and would like to be involved please contact Cast-Off on 0113 262 0608.

Also progressing from 'Le Grand Depart', Cast-Off will be running a series of creative sessions in the garage of a private house, exploring questions of intimacy and boundaries when making arts work in the home. For further details contact Nina Kane - 0113 262 0608.

>

Repertoire of Works and Audience Response

2004-10-15T08:18:00.002-07:00

Repertoire

2006 - 2011:
At present we are concentrating on new performance writing. Scripts currently in development include -

'The Green Children of Wolfpit' - a community cross-artform collaboration with participants on the Modelworks programme. This work is based on the true story of two children who appeared in a C12th village at Harvest time green from head to foot. THe final presentation of this will involve installations, storytelling, live performance and soundscape.

'Panoptican' - a futuristic youth theatre script for 13 - 21 year-olds based on teenage pregnancy.

'Bride-Cake Bride-Bones' - a script for a cast of 8 involving CCTV technology and holographic projection. For small / middle-scale theatre venue.

'Striped Dress' - for 3 performers. A performance work based on Kathleen Newton and James Jacques Jospeh Tissot (from Jan 2008)

'Pull My Daisy' - A Gallery work for 3 male models exploring the male body, spirituality and images of masculinity in the work of Leonard Cohen, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. (2007)

'Between Stars'- A site-specific work for 2 female singers set in a storage unit. Based on the lives of Maria Callas and Dorothy Squires. (2006 - 8)

'Poisson d'Argent'- A Gallery work for three female life-models on the trial of Madelaine Smith, her reinvention as model and artist in William Morris' workshop and her final disappearance into the celluloid world of 1950s Hollywood. (2006 - 8)

Now complete:

'Beads'- a work for two female performers - could be performed by 1 playing two parts if wanted.
Beads is a horror story of greed, wounding and obsession. It tells the story of Ella and the vampiric Mrs de Plein. Ella collects beads. She finds, cleans and polishes them, listens to their stories and threads them into necklaces to sell. Mrs de Plein is a grande dame with large purse and a huge magnifying glass. She loves to get her teeth into something. An amateur anthropologist, explorer and bead enthusiast, she is determined to acquire 'all things Ella' at any cost. As her obsession grows, the audience is sucked into a chilling tale of evasion and pursuit which moves through Elzabethan England, the C19th and the Holocaust. Part clown show / part pantomime, grotesque and compelling, Beads is an enticing and challenging piece of physical theatre.

Currently Devising...'I Took the Beads of her Necklace' - 2 performers (Clothed/Costumed)(see above 'Beads' for complete script notes)
This multi-lingual work explores the experience of women working in casual, transient and itinerant occupations. It involve two models (costumed) and draws on writing by Truman Capote, Hester Hedges, Djura Makhotin, Grace Paley, Derek Jarman; art by Georgia O'Keefe, Anne Brigman and Imogen Cunningham, contemporary improvisatory jazz by 2nd Outlet and filmwork by Luc andJean-Pierre Dardenne. Songs informing the production represent a range of cultures and languages. (Research funded by the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society). Contact the company on 0113 262 0608 for further information.

Touring:
Proscenium Memorial - 1 performer
(previously entitled 'Memorial for the Model Who Was There-Not-There') (Draped/Costumed/Nude)
A young boy shoots a bird with his catapult, a flamenco dancer's claps are lost, a man becomes petrified by molten sugar and hisses his anger through the veil. Elsewhere a woman hugs herself on a stone floor, a doctor prepares himself to die, a stewardess on a sinking ship apologises to her fiancee... Inspired by Susan Hiller's Monument and Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa the work channels the unheard voices of those who died saving the lives of others and gives silent shape to those who were left to mourn. An eerie performance at which 'death' is the only clown. Performed to extracts from 'Corkestra' by Cor Fuhler. 2004 ( supported by Leeds City Art Gallery).

Chime Chimera - 3 performers
(Nude /Mask - Drape)
Devised by a cast of six, Chime Chimera is a work for 3 female life-models fusing spontaneous mask-working, percussive performance and movement with pre-set sustained poses. Three masks - Spider King, Water Queen and Fruitface - swing between conflict, complicity and harmony, negotiating jealousy, desire, revenge, birthing, separation and nurturing in their shared need to survive. Visually-striking, emotionally-compelling, the work grew out of research by the cast into Paula Rego's Dog Women, Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson and The Passion According to GH by Clarice Lispector (c) heirs of Clarice Lispector. Premiered March 2003. Funded by Arts Council -Yorkshire, supported by Leeds City Art Gallery and Leeds College of Art & Design.

The Bath - 2 performers
(Nude)
In the South of France, 2 women in their forties share an exchange as one leaves her bath and the other prepares for one. The afternoon is hot, the smell of lavender streams through an open window, the floor is terracotta, a mirror is in the centre...that is all. What do we know of these women? What is their relationship, and the reality of their everyday lives? What does each artist in the audience see as they draw? Devised by a cast of three, The Bath was inspired by images of women bathing, notably in the art of Picasso, Degas, Bonnard and Suzanne Valadon. Devised for The Big Draw, October 2002 by WILMA, supported by Leeds College of Art & Design and Leeds City Art Gallery.

Will You, Won't You...Join the Dance?! - 3 performers
(Nude and draped)
Blood-ties, recognition, rage, separation, dignity, forgiveness...a mother and teenage daughter open their hands to a stranger at an annual harvest dance. As the stranger accepts, the mother recognises it to be her estranged daughter. The moon is full, the waves lap gently as the women dance in silence. And then they begin to talk... Originally devised by WILMA for the pilot project (July 2002) in response to Paula Rego's work 'The Dance' and Gabrielle Roth's 'Luna', this has been adapted by Cast-Off Drama for performance.

Year-long Research Project:

Le Grand Depart (There Are No Pockets in Shrouds) / Serafina's Yard:
Touring installation comprising large sculpture (mixed media), photography and live performance - Booking Now for Autumn 2005! Initial stages of research assisted by grant from the Women Into Community Health Network.

For a week in July 2004, theatre artist Nina Kane invited people in Leeds to rummage in her garage taking away anything they wanted from a pile of discarded possessions for free. The possessions included: books, records, CDs, clothes, jewellery, household crockery/linen, posters, love letters, old CVs and job applications, files, cosmetics, school books and many other personal everyday items. The items had travelled with her for years but no longer had a place in her heart or home. Visitors were invited to write their responses in a visitor's book. On July 31st, the remaining items were made into a fire-sculpture and burnt. From August 1st - September 1st 2004, the artist travelled to places from her past carrying a suitcase full of ash from which she made 'invisible ink'. When in places associated with the possessions she wrote letters in the ink 'to the memories', placed them in envelopes, and burnt them in discreet bonfires before leaving the places behind, laying memories both good and bad to rest.

In the year following the 'depart', the artist has been creating a large-scale installation work: 'Serafina's Yard' working from the leftover materials, memories and 'visions' arising from the journey. An installation /exhibition of sculptures, images, writing and storytelling on the project will be available from 1st August 2005 for residency in galleries and other appropriate spaces and will involve the artist in continuous 'presence/performance' as part of the installation. Contact Cast-Off Drama on 0113 262 0608 for details.

Coming soon...Trains 'n boats n' planes..a project into spaces around the Chapeltown area of Leeds. Contact the company for more details.

Community Theatre and 'Theatre of the Body' Projects:
Raaz Ki Baat for Nasha, Leeds Health Focus - see above

OCARINA NINA STREET-THEATRE...

The Singing Secretary... a posh PA complete with suit, travel bag and hairbrush microphone! Choose a button from her box and she'll sing you a song - all styles: jazz, blues, pop, musical, folk, opera! Who knows what'll come out of her mouth! This musical lady will entertain and astound you with her vocal range. Acoustic Street-Singing at its best!

Milady Malarkey in 'Baubo's Fardel'... a Shakespearean clown, Milady Malarkey weaves stories and carnival magic from the works of the bard shaping songs and speeches into mesmeric physical theatre for life-drawing audiences. Her latest offering, 'Baubo's Fardel' takes The Winter's Tale to places it has never been before offering opportunity for a fantastic day's drawing. Available for indoor and outdoor events, in parks, galleries, common ground or beaches...tides and weather permitting.

Shopping Molly... 'It ain't over 'till the fat bailiff rings...!' Living Sculpture meets Haute Couture. For a bit of Yorkshire urban cheek, watch out for Shopping Molly this autumn as she tinkles her till and gets you to flash your tat! From Boho Bazaar to Bargain Basement Bonanzas, if you've shopped till you've dropped Shopping Molly will be peeking at your purchases and swapping top trading tips! New for this autumn 2005! Let us push your promotion or sell your sale! Ideal for High Street promotions, supermarket and Shopping Arcade events! Book now on 0113 262 0608.

Christmas acts:

'Christmas Carol'

A warble and a bauble! 'Christmas Carol' is a singing lady Santa (with beard!) carrying a big sack of Christmas 'baubles' (ie. sweets, chocolate coins, little Christmas trinkets, bells, etc). People choose 'a bauble from the bag' and she sings them a Christmas song from a repertoire of carols and Christmas pop songs. Ideal for Christmas fetes, parties, pantomimes, long queues, shopping arcades, department stores. £175/gig.

'The Singing Secretary Christmas Special'
The much-loved Singing Secretary dons her winter woolies for her very own Christmas Special! The posh PA, complete with hairbrush mike, travel bag and golden phone will sing to you from a Christmas repertoire of carols and pop songs when you 'choose a button from her box'! Ideal for pantomimes, long queues, festivals, parties and any outdoor and indoor events. £150/gig.
Responses to Our Work...

"I thought it was very interesting and thought-provoking. I've never done anything like this before and it was a refreshing change from conventional life-drawing."

"Fantastic models. Very beautiful, especially when moving. Hard to do them any justice. The element of theatre and the movement involved makes life-drawing come alive. Thanks."

"Shared interaction gave a sense of value to all."

"Great fun – lots of ideas, inspirations & nice drawings."

"HARD WORK but inspiring, keen to see more of this kind of thing."

"Brilliant! Lovely to see the gallery come alive in this way. Keep up the good work."

"The performance was wonderful, the range of movements & emotions & descriptions made the Susan Hiller piece come alive. There were so many great poses, lovely drawing practice. Just been in another national gallery this week, but they don’t have anything as exciting as this going on".

"Always inspiring to draw."

“Absolutely brilliant. Thank you. Nina and all the ‘students’ in the workshop worked hard. Some great results and so generous.”

“Challenging but fun – very well organised.”

“Extremely enjoyable. Much better than I expected. I learnt a lot!!”

“Huge fun. I thought I would feel overawed but I didn’t. The day passed really quickly and results were great. I would like to come again.”

“Very interesting to work with other artists.”

“Really enjoyed the day. Was a great opportunity to work alongside people with different
styles and ideas. Thank you!”

“Very interesting – very similar to a previous event you staged last year in that groups moved from piece to piece. It was also interesting how each group’s paintings had close similarities and to see how paintings evolved through the various stages.”

“A fascinating way to work – thank you very much – very stimulating & inspiring & thought-provoking.”

“Lovely atmosphere, exciting and friendly. Made me think about my own ‘style’ and others. I think maybe I and others should have held back a little as some lovely things were changed too much. Nice conversations about the work. Thought-provoking. Thank you for a lovely day.”

“Unorthodox as usual, but well worth it! Very interesting/rewarding – hope the efforts are greeted with respect when they’re finally nailed up.”

“Really interesting process. Brilliant results. Extremely well-organised. Very enjoyable.”

"A very enjoyable day – it was a very supportive environment in which to try life-drawing. Thank you very much!”

“An excellent day with a fascinating holistic approach.”

"Very inspiring session particularly if you haven’t done any life-drawing for years like me. Thank you very much".

"As always a very splendid time – new ideas about drawing –

well living."

Found the performance stirred up lots of images – very inspiring, a really good day. Thank you!

"A refreshing change to normal life-modelling because it was model-led and I felt this enabled everyone to gain a greater insight into the art discussed including myself as a model."

"You created a really warm environment. I had a fab day! Thanks."

"Excellent. I hope there will be many more of these events. Inspiring and very educational. Wonderful atmosphere."

"Very useful to hear about other models' experiences, views and attitudes."

"Interesting - good idea to combine performance / modelling. Will definitely come again."

"Lovely day. Went on a lot of travelling in my mind, opening up. The performance was a treat to try and capture on paper. Lots to take away, think about, use in other work."

"Really good day. Made me look again...at art, the world and where I fit. Thanks."

"I found it stimulating and fun, educational and thought-provoking...I was certainly able to take part in things that I would never have even considered. I am glad that I did."

Early posts 2002 - 2005: Cast-Off Drama - A Theatre Company of Life-Models, Street-Performers and Itinerant Artists

2004-10-13T11:07:00.000-07:00
incorporating WILMA - Women Into Life-Modelling Arts and Ocarina Nina Street-Theatre
Artistic Director: Nina Kane
Contact Details: Cast-Off Drama, 55 St Martin's Rd, Leeds, West Yorkshire,
LS7 3LU, United Kingdom.
Tel: UK 0113 262 0608
E-mail: julesnina@ntlworld.com

Formed in 2002 Cast-Off Drama is the recognised pioneer of 'life-modelling theatre' offering new roles to life-models as perfomers and to artists as 'notators' and audience members.
Based in Leeds, England, Cast-Off is a theatre company of life-models, artists and street-performers and works with itinerant and community artists in gallery or community settings.

Our work explores the performance potential of the life-model and offers high-quality theatre productions, workshops and events for a life-drawing and street-theatre audience. Drawing on fine art, old stories, music, literature and circus history, our work explores the drama of the body in art through physical theatre, mask-work, singing and storytelling. We explore everyday clothing, masks, costume, nudity and non-nudity to generate a theatre of the body which plays to the strengths of the individual model-performer.

We believe that figurative art is best achieved through an active creative exchange between life-model and artist. Led by Nina Kane, a practising life-model, actress and singer, models and artists join together to create work that is dynamically still and emotionally-charged.

Our performances take place as a day-long event, over a weekend or couple of evenings. Valuing uses of presence, instinct and story-telling in performance we present rehearsed material to our audience who make drawings, paintings, masks and models of the work. New stories emerge from their creations and are shared by participants in informal discussion with the cast. Negotiation is an integral part of the performance and audiences are invited to choose a tableau from which they make sustained drawings for the remainder of the performance. By the end of the event substantial fine art and drama have been created by all present.

Repertoire: (see above for descriptions of the work)

Currently Devising...'I Took the Beads of her Necklace' - 4 performers (Clothed/Costumed): Autumn 2005

Proscenium Memorial (previously Memorial for the Model Who Was There-Not-There) - 1 performer (Draped/Costumed/Nude): 2004/2005

Chime Chimera - 3 performers (Nude /Mask - Drape): 2003

The Bath - 2 performers (Nude): 2002

Will You, Won't You...Join the Dance?! - 3 performers (Nude and draped): 2002

Cast-Off Drama Research Project:

Le Grand Depart (There Are No Pockets in Shrouds)/Serafina's Yard (2004-5)

Theatre of the Body Projects:

'Raaz Ki Baat' for Nasha & Leeds Health Focus

OCARINA NINA STREET-THEATRE...

The street-theatre section of the company, Ocarina Nina, explores the fairground and circus tradition of the 'poses plastiques'. Challenging the silence of conventional 'Living Sculpture' our street-theatre characters create high-impact, humourous and warm exchanges with the public through singing, speeches and stories. In line with our development of the theatre of the body, we work acoustically (ie. no amps or mikes!) and are skilled in a range of musical and vocal styles.

The Singing Secretary
The Singing Secretary wowed audiences last Summer at Unity Festival Manchester, Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, Chapel Allerton Arts and the Swaledale Festival to name a few and has launched the 2005 season in style at the Doncaster Hothouse Festival. At £150 a gig, this is too good to miss. Taking Bookings Now for 2005 on 0113 262 0608.
Garforth Community Festival, Leeds - Sat 9th July
Broadstairs Folk Week - Fri 5th - Fri 12th August (daily)

Milady Malarkey in 'Baubo's Fardel'... Available for indoor and outdoor events, in parks, galleries, common ground or beaches...tides and weather permitting. Book now on 0113 262 0608.

Shopping Molly. New for this autumn 2005! Let us push your promotion or sell your sale! Ideal for High Street promotions, supermarket and Shopping Arcade events! Book now on 0113 262 0608.

WILMA - Women Into Life-Modelling Arts
Our research organization WILMA - Women Into Life-Modelling Arts creates space for female life-models to explore life-modelling as a creative form. It also offers the opportunity for women interested in life-modelling to have a go and we offer a start-up project designed to develop life-modelling networks in your area.

We aim to explore the conventions of Western life-modelling through practical work and to widen discussion and practice of ethics of image-making and image-taking from/of the body. Part of this involves exploring the use of the body in non-Western art forms and workshops allow each woman as an individual to develop a code of practice in relation to her own image-making activity whether as an artist, model or both. WILMA is dedicated to developing life-modelling as a profession and providing space for female life-models to develop their creativity whilst exploring varying gendered and cultural perceptions of the role of the body in art. We recognise the importance of a woman-only space for this.

WILMA is a free informal advocacy and network service for life-models offering a forum for discussion, advice to new models and support in setting up model-led projects. It is not an agency. We work to extend access through identifying appropriate venues, working appropriately within differing cultural contexts (with regard to methods of image-making, use of nudity and hygiene/cleaning rituals) and providing free childcare.

WILMA has developed and run a number of free community projects including:
The Will You, Won't You...? pilot project at Leeds City Art Gallery and the Swarthmore Centre, Leeds, July 2002. Attended by women aged 18-67 years.
Bi-monthly programme of activities led by individual models including sessions on: Black Women's Poetry, Puberty and the Body, Digital Art and Projection Work, Counselling and Gestalt, Clowning and Life-Modelling, Body-Painting. Workshops led by models: Tamsin Spain, Sharon Williams, Ann McGuire, Deborah Sanderson, Nina Kane.

Event for The Big Draw
Currently devising a professional development course for female life-models. The course uses drama for models to explore their own personal ethics/practice whilst developing assertive and co-operative communication with artists in one-to-one and group situations. It also gives space for models to test out and share their own creative posing ideas and develop practical techniques.
Currently researching a Mental Health arts project looking at the potential benefits of life-modelling for women coping with ME, self harm, depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders.

The Will You, Won't You pilot proved successful at developing life-drawing and modelling networks in the area, and is offered as a start-up weekend package for £150. Please ring 01484 685948 / 07800 861351 for further information

Other Education Work<: Cast-Off Drama has a successful track record of community education and research partnerships. Like our general drama workshops, these are model-tutored and include : 'Moving Bodies' - a workshop on Traveller art and Frank Brangwyn; 'Venus Interventions' - a collective drawing day, workshops on Jacob Kramer (coming soon) and workshops on the 'Lady of Shallott' (Tennyson/Waterhouse) and 'Three Wives Sat Up In the Lighthouse Tower' (Kingsley/Webb-Robinson), ongoing work at leeds City Art Gallery

The Art of the Life-Model, a free adult education 'drop-in' at Leeds City Art Gallery (joint with Leeds College of Art & Design and Leeds City Art Gallery Education Department) - 2002 - ongoing. See below for this term's detailsKirklees Local Government Arts Education Service - teacher training workshops in working with a life-model for Art Teachers (Secondary-level). Schools' workshops - 2004/5
Dartington College, Devon. Exchange with Arts Management student Jeremy Holloway (a professional life-model and clown) and participation in the Out of Context Symposium - 2004.
Tall Tales. Storytelling work from objects by single model in your regular local life-drawing session (pay us at your normal hourly rate)
Thompson Design Ltd Leeds - Staff 'Challenge' day - creative workshop for design staff members, Leeds City Art Gallery, (2006)

In addition to this we collaborate with galleries, universities, schools/colleges and private artists to devise creative and inspiring life-drawing sessions. We work on a project-by-project basis and do ongoing research and planning, also have a number of free training courses and links to other groups. We therefore welcome interest from anyone who thinks they may like to work with us in some capacity, and will let everyone on the list know when posts come up. Posts are advertised in local newspapers and through Internet channels (such as the Arts Council, Arts Jobs list). We try to provide free childcare for rehearsals and performances, operate flexibly with rehearsal schedules to fit in with other work and domestic commitments and also operate on a parity of wages system ie. every member of the cast gets the same hourly wage including the artistic director. The WILMA network is open to all female life-models to join free of charge. Bookings: Our repertoire of performances, workshops and street-theatre events are available at very reasonable rates. We welcome collaborations and commissions and are happy to negotiate ways in which our skills can meet the needs of your event or group. We prioritse and value work with itinerant and part-time/multiply-employed artists, with women, with community groups and education providers. We have a successful track record in community arts development and work with galleries and small theatre spaces making active use of public art and museum collections. Where possible we work with venues to enable audiences to attend performances and workshops free of charge or at very low rates. We try to provide a free creche. Applications for residencies are welcome and we will occasionally consider help-in-kind agreements for community projects.

Cast-Off Drama would like to thank the following for the ways they have inspired us over the years and their ongoing work in community, public, experimental or political arts...:Leeds City Art Gallery Education, Leeds College of Art & Design Community Eduaction, University of Huddersfield Drama Dept., Judith Adams, Slung Low Theatre, Institute of Crazy Dancing, The Scarman trust, Roundhay Rd, Resource Centre, Bracken Edge Primary School in Leeds, The Kelman Group (past & present), Twisted i, Horse & Bamboo Theatre, Welfare State International, Cathy Denford, Hyde Park Unity Day & Panto, Studio Theatre Leeds Metropolitan University, Workshop Theatre, Yellow Belly Theatre, Naga (artists past and present), Women Into Community Health Network, the Gypsy Council for Education, Welfare & Civil Rights, Sue Morrison, Janet Smith (Janet Smith & Dancers), Paula Rego, Cor Fuhler, Broadstairs Folk Week, Harry Venning, Thanet Youth Theatre, the Swarthmore Centre, Lynette Margerison, Emma Byron, Leeds Children's Circus, Pete 'Peanut' Turner, the Friends, Families & Travellers, NASHA & Leeds Health Focus, the Women's International Arts Foundation, Gay Abandon, all WILMA members past and present, Pyramid of Arts, Leeds West Indian Carnival and, finally, the Underground jazz club, Leeds (sadly missed!). Also thanks to the Arts Council (Yorkshire), Leeds City Council, Women's Health Matters, Leeds Libraries and Leeds Philosophical & Literary Society, Wade's Charity and Voluntary Action Leeds.
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Cast-Off Recommends...

The work of playwright Judith Adams - www.judithadams.co.uk

The dance work of Margie Gillis - www.margiegillis.org

Fifty-Nine Productions - www.fiftynineproductions.co.uk

Slung Low Theatre and the work of Alan Lane

The Institute of Crazy Dancing - www.icdancing.co.uk

The drama dept. at the University of Huddersfield - www.hud.ac.uk

Bracken Edge Primary School, Leeds - www.brackenedge.leeds.sch

The Art of the Life-Model, Leeds College of Art & Design - held at Leeds City Art Gallery:
This practical course will encourage you to see and make art from a new perspective. Sessions are based on the Gallery’s collection of art. Using drawing, drama, discussion and practical group work we explore contemporary understandings of the human body in figurative art and sculpture. The class is taught from the model’s perspective giving you the opportunity to focus on the role of the life-model in Western and non-Western art.

The sessions are free. See postings higher up the site!

Natural Voice Practitioners Network - www.naturalvoice.net

Unity Youth Arts and Sounds (U.Y.A.S) Manchester - www.unity-manchester.org.uk

Animotion - New Leeds-based Puppetry, movement and object animation company, Animotion is a company dedicated to making theatre specifically for Deaf audiences, but which is also accessible to non-deaf audiences - please email hayliclifton@hotmail.com

Hyde Park Unity Events - www.unityday.freeserve.co.uk

The Wright Stuff - Theatre of Puppets - www.thewrightstuff.co.uk

Broadstairs Folk Week - www.broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk

A.I.M - Artists in Mind, Huddesrfield

Quiddity Theatre Company - www.quidditytheatre.com

Phil Lockwood's Art About Sheffield Life-Drawing Site - www./mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/sheffield_art/index

The Kelman Group
Experimental Theatre Workshops - see website for details: www.kelmangroup.com

www.romani.org

The music of Cor Fuhler - www.euronet.nl/users/fuhler

The work of Deanne Lord - www.candidarts.com/networkad/deannelord

The work of Paula Rego

The work of Susan Hiller - www.susanhiller.org

The work of Gabrielle Roth - www.5rhythmsuk.com/staffroom/gabrielle

Horse & Bamboo Theatre - www.horseandbamboo.org

Welfare State International - www.welfare-state.org

Sue Morrison - www.canadianclowning.com

Rough Cut Theatre - www.roughcuttheatre.com

Leeds Postcards - www.poptel.org.uk/leedspostcards

www.digyorkshire.com

www.ncadc.org.uk

www.bodyweather.net

www.gypsy-traveller.org

www.fire-uk.net

www.stopwar.org.uk

www.no2id.net