Beached - Events day with St John’s Waterloo

On Monday 6th March Mental Fight Club Presents held a day of creative workshops at St John’s Church Waterloo. Focused around the work of leading puppet and mask practitioners Strangeface Theatre Company.

We kicked off our day with a burst of energy as Danceworks was live from St John’s, filling the space with music, laughter and rhythm. Then we held a joint session which saw our Dragon Café singers filling the venue with sound whilst Strangeface performed rolling performances of ‘Beached’ with the viewers wearing headphones for the full immersive experience. To finish off our day we explored puppetry in very different ways including: making, working, bringing them to life and how they can help explore emotions and stories.

We would like to say a massive thank you to St John’s Church Waterloo, Strangface, our practitioners, and all the patrons for making the day possible.

Full Timetable:

1pm – 2pm: Danceworks

A mixed bag of modern and historical dance is welcoming Dragons this coming Monday at St Johns Church. We look forward to celebrating friendship and connection once more in great company!

2pm – 3:30pm: Strangeface begin rolling performances of “Beached”.

This short piece of immersive puppetry tells the tale of Arnold, who wants nothing more than a peaceful day on the beach… However, the outside world makes things difficult for him and the desired rest soon turns into a monstrous adventure under water.

Award-winning and internationally renowned Strangeface Theatre Company is committed to providing their audience an intimate and unique theatrical experience: using headphones, the performances’ humour is enhanced by the actors’ delightful style, the imaginative world of the puppets and scenography, and the familiar sound effects of cartoon classics.

2:15pm – 3:15pm: The Singing Group

The Dragon Café Singing group will be meeting for a live session on Monday, where we will be raising our voices together in song as we come together. Come along and join in, everyone is welcome.

3.30pm - Strangeface Puppetry Workshop

You are invited to join the puppeteers of Strangeface for this unmissable Puppetry workshop. This hands-on workshop will be explore developing puppet techniques, how we give them life and improvisation. We will work with large scale Bunraku style puppets as well as those used in the show “Beached”. This workshop is ideal if you have never used a puppet before or if you want to further develop your puppetry technique.

5.30 pm – Strangeface Q&A

Strangeface's Artistic Director will join with Mental Fight Club’s Neil Coles to discuss the neuroscience of puppetry, and how puppetry can be used as a safe means of expression when exploring topics such as trauma and grief.

Russell Dean is artistic director of Strangeface Theatre Company. He is a writer and maker with a particular interest in cognition and what masks and puppets reveal about the way we perceive the world. He has made masks and puppets for Trestle, Geese, Vamos, ITV, Channel 4, and is responsible for the large Mrs Thatcher puppet in Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot. After touring nationally and internationally with Strangeface, his recent work has focused on using puppets in workshops with vulnerable adults, families with children in hospices and fathers in prison.