In The Spotlight
The Haunted Trees - A Mysterious Folk Tale
Written and adapted by Cheryl Hickman
(Starfish Theatre Company)
The Haunted Trees is based on a traditional Cumbrian folk tale about a farmer and his three sons. Every spring the Farmer places flowers under three ancient trees that stand guard on the edge of his land. He does this to thank them for protecting him and his farm against the perils of nature; frost, drought, gales and floods.
The farmer lives to a ripe old age and the farm produces bountiful crops. Once the farmer is dead, his older sons become lazy and fail to uphold their father’s springtime ritual. One day they mysteriously vanish and are never seen again. Will the farmer’s youngest son survive and rediscover the balance in nature he needs to secure the future of his farm?
Using live performance, music, animation and puppetry Starfish Theatre Company have taken recent environmental events in Cumbria as inspiration to create a unique and magical piece of theatre that will delight and enchant audiences across Cumbria.
The Haunted Trees will be touring around Cumbria from October - December 2010. See Events page for further details.
Starfish Celebration 2008 CD
Copies of the CD are still available for the amazing price of just £4!
The CD features songs from all your favourite Starfish shows over the last four years.
Contact Prism Arts for details on how to obtain a copy.
Review of Starfish Icicle Winter Festival 18th December 2008
Painter Mark arrived early and displayed their poems and art work around the hall.
The group arrived in ones and twos and immediately sat at the head of the hall to rehearse with Sheila, word perfect dutifully going through the routine in a quiet confidant way.
At the break Andrew told me he had been rehearsing his poem all night and Jackie came and jumped up and down in front of me "look it’s my poem" and dragged me under her poem and read the first line!
Robert carefully explain how he had coloured the writing from black to gold then with all the colours of the rainbow... this was after the last meeting when Robert arrived with an A3 sketchbook each page filled with a crayoned paintings of each one of the descriptors for the colours... Jack Frost Blue, Halloween, etc.
I still don’t know to this day how he went home and remembered each descriptor in order to paint them it was an extraordinary feat.
The hall filled, no seats left and Andrew introduced the performance show by welcoming everyone and then we were into it, what a change from the rehearsal!
Starfish came alive going through the ‘Colours of the Rainbow’ word perfect together with the actions before Sean and Andy came out followed by Jackie and Andrew to read their individual poems.
Then the rest of the group performed their ‘Pass the Rainbow’ dance.
You could see they loved performing.
Peter stood up to finish the show by thanking those that attended, but not yet as he had something special for the group and he invited his Dad to announce they were going to be given certificates.
"Certificates for the Dancing we did the other night?" Sean shouted, "Ho, we'll have some of that!"
Starfish exploded with excitement and a tsunami of delight surged through the Hall.
The deputy Mayor (who had previously sat in the customary dignitary slump - another performance to sit through!) was bolt upright a huge beam across his face as had everyone in the audience and we clapped and clapped as each Starfish member graciously came out to accept their certificate and their medal.
And that was it, well not quiet because Robert announced very firmly that he had something he wanted to say.
So Peter handed him the microphone and Robert wished us all a merry Christmas then Wendy came out to do the same and one by one they all took the microphone and wished us season’s greetings.
And that was it, well not quiet, they carefully took their time gathered up their certificates and coats and descended to greet their fans with hugs and kisses showing them their art and poetry - their celebrity undenied.
No one left, people stayed as the magic of Starfish surrounded them. And then Starfish went home and we were left enchanted.
I drove back on a wet and miserable evening but it didn't matter I was flying and I kept asking the questions.
Why are Starfish members so composed?
Why do they not only look you in the eye but look the audience in the eye?
I had seen talent before but I had never seen this bonhomie, this power of a group at one with itself - the very embodiment of Gestalt.
And how did they generate such loyalty? Why did Sheila lie flat under a table giving direction during the performance?
Why did Artist Mark arrive at the crack of dawn so that the display would be up when they arrived?
Why did Musician Mark make a brand new set of foot pedals in the colours of the rainbow so they had to only press each colour to hear the voices?
And then I realized it’s the key concept of the ideas and actions coming from Starfish members not from the staff! At that means that the staff are extended too because the ideas that the group generate are so exciting and rewarding... you want to be part of it!
A Starfish performance is a development of individual’s ideas not the leaders which is combined with a micro system, managed by Peter and Sheila who organise everything to the last degree so that the whole concept works seamlessly to ensure each individual's voice is heard.
It is so easy to say 'yes we allow the individual to decide' but it takes years to get this ethos embedded into the delivery as society is so used to taking over to such an extent that the individual gives up... what’s the point!
Starfish is a unique concept based on true ‘enablement’ which answers my question as to why Starfish members show such confidence, often performing in situations which non-disabled people would find intimidating and spills over into their everyday lives (two of the people who work with Diane at the garden centre told me the enormous change they had seen in her confidence since she started at Starfish.)
In my opinion Starfish should be used as a model of best practice where individuals from other organization can see just what the expression “I can do that “means.
Starfish really does take each of its members beyond their potential and I am proud to have been invited to be part of it.
Roger Cliffe-Thompson
