One Year to Go...

Last week we were excited to announce that the Citizens Theatre is one of the participants of Festival 2014, which will run during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, showcasing the best of Scottish culture and creativity across the Commonwealth. Today, 23^rd July, marks ‘One Year to Go’ and there were events across the city to celebrate the milestone. Our own Summer Academies joined in the fun, whilst finding out more about the Debajehmujig Storytellers who we’ll be working with for On Common Ground.

On Common Ground is a major participatory project led by the Citizens Theatre with Debajehmujig, as part of Festival 2014. Click here for some more background information on the project from our blog. The celebratory performance piece will bring together First Nation storytellers from Debajehmujig Theatre Group, Canada, and community performers from Glasgow as they share and explore each other’s stories and celebrate the diversity of cultures and communities of the Commonwealth.

The Debajehmujig Storytellers shared a film with our Summer Academy students this morning, as part of the ‘One Year to Go’ celebration. As well as sharing a bit about themselves, their unique heritage and customs, the Storytellers wanted to ask us the about our own Scottish culture, traditions and what makes us Glaswegian, in preparation for their visiting project next summer.

Our Summer Academy students responded to this with a series of imaginative and creative performance pieces all relating to Scottish identity, highlighting iconic locations and characteristics of Glasgow that any traveller needs to know. And as you might expect, Irn-Bru and our unpredictable weather got quite a few mentions! Check out our Flickr for more photos of the performances.

Summer Academy's 6-8 age group spelling out the word 'GLASGOW'!

To kick off today as the Commonwealth Games ‘One Year to Go’ milestone, the fantastic performance group Fish and Game also visited our Summer Academy students, and invited them to partake in their fun interactive show ‘Everyone’s a Winner, Baby!’. Thanks to Glasgow Life for treating us to this performance!

Fish and Game creating a countdown buzz in preparation for the Games

Keep a look out for more updates and messages from Debajehmujig over the next twelve months in the lead up to next summer’s Festival 2014 performances. The count down begins!