Tag Archives: Season of Bangla Drama

Daedalus November Newsletter

Dear friends,

Welcome to our November newsletter.

Image credit: montage by Paul Burgess using photos by Simon Daw and Rehan Jamil

Ten Years East

With A Season of Bangla Drama nearing its halfway point, and our next show, Ten Years East, just over a week away, we’d like to tell you more about the exciting line-up we have brought together for you.

Farah Naz is a poet and Deputy Director of The British Bilingual Poetry Collective. She was part of the original East group, and some of her stories can be seen on our East Archive, as can John Heyderman’s remarkable story of his father’s escape from Nazi Germany: Two Gold Rings. John will be sharing a Jewish story, and Farah will tell a tale from the Muslim tradition.

Our two lead storytellers, both of whom have been at the heart of the East project since the start, will also be performing. Shamim Azad is a highly celebrated writer, poet and storyteller here in East London and in Bangladesh, while Sef Townsend, an internationally acclaimed storyteller, has told stories around the world, from refugee camps to festivals. They will be joined by Tasnim Siddiqa Amin, Daedalus’s assistant director and producer. Tasnim is a theatremaker, critic and artist, and has a script-reading of one of her own plays later today as part of the festival programme: Knotted.

September Newsletter

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In the meantime, here’s the September issue.


Dear friends,

Welcome to our September newsletter.

Firstly, we’d like to share our next spotlight on a member of the fantastic Dysbiosis team. This month we’re featuring Daedalus’s Assistant Producer/Director Tasnim Siddiqa Amin, a queer Bangladeshi-British visual artist, theatremaker and writer from East London. In her spotlight, Tasnim talks about the project and its relationship to her creative journey.

“I found it interesting how all of us with our different backgrounds came back to mythology, folklore or fantasy to creatively express that huge word “nature”. In an age of science where spirituality has largely been confined to organised religions it is interesting to me that when we think of nature we oppose it with science still which is a binary way of thinking, and so associate the unexplained and intangible with nature.”

Mobile Incitement returns to East London

After having its tour cancelled due to the pandemic, Gerrard Winstanley’s True & Righteous Mobile Incitement Unit is back! And not just that – it’s returning to Daedalus’s home turf: London’s East End.

The show, made in collaboration with The Black Smock Band and Rua Arts, with funding from Arts Council England, been invited to open the Freedom and Independence Theatre Festival with a bespoke version of the show, featuring guest artist Saida Tani. Who is amazing. It’s all quite an honour, frankly. It’s next Friday and Saturday at the Brady Centre in Whitechapel.

You can find out about the festival and download the brochure here – there are lots of great shows and other events. Do have a look.

You can also jump straight to buying a ticket for Mobile Incitement (as we call it for short) here on Eventbrite.

We hope to see you there!

A Season of Bangla Drama – photos

We’re so pleased to have been a part of this year’s A Season of Bangla Drama. It was a fantastic month and, as ever, proved that art can be open and inclusive at the same time as being ambitious.

Here are some photos by Rehan Jamil of our East storytelling performance at Rich Mix London, which we produced in association with BSK.

You can see the whole album of photos from the rest of the season here.

East: this Friday!

As you probably know, East, the storytelling group we run in partnership with Bishwo Shahitto Kendro, will be performing at Rich Mix this Friday, as part of A Season of Bangla Drama 2017. A Season of Bangla Drama is a major event in the Tower Hamlets cultural calendar and it’s a huge privilege to be a part of it.

As ever, we’ll be sharing stories and songs, new and old, told and sung the mix of professionals and community members that comprise East. But this time we’ll also have guest appearances from two wonderful artists: Somali teller Kinsi Abdulleh and folk singer Dan Cox. It’s going to be a great evening.

This Friday, 10th Nov, 7pm, at Rich Mix.

Here’s the event on the Rich Mix website and here’s the Facebook event.

We really hope to see you there!

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Rehearsing for East

Here are some photos from rehearsals for East’s next performance, an evening of songs and stories from people living, working or otherwise connected to East London. It’s going to be a lovely night and we hope to see you there! 10th Nov, Rich Mix at 7pm, as part of A Season of Bangla Drama.

Here’s the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/618550445201568/

And here’s the info on Rich Mix’s website: https://www.richmix.org.uk/events/theatre/east

A Season of Bangla Drama 2017 Sharing Day

Some of the group from East – the storytelling group we run in partnership with BSK – joined other theatre companies from A Season of Bangla Drama 2017 yesterday, to get to know each other and see extracts of work in progress. It was a great day and a great chance to meet some very lovely and talented people!

East will be performing at Rich Mix on Nov 10th at 7pm. More info here: https://www.richmix.org.uk/events/theatre/east

Photo: A Season of Bangla Drama

Going Beyond East

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Left to right: Farah Naz, Shamim Azad, Paul Burgess and Sef Townend. Photo credit: Indigo

East‘s behind-the-scenes organisational team met at Rich Mix to plan the next stages of the project. What started as a simple, short-term community storytelling project (led by Daedalus and Bishwo Shahitto Kendro, and supported by Rich Mix, the Arts Council and Apples and Snakes) has grown. With further support from the Arts Council plus some crowd-funding, we’re now making an online archive of our stories (and some songs) and working out how to support our storytelling group’s desire to do something longer-term, while also dealing with several offshoots of the project, including our work on radical history (which will probably now be treated as a separate project) and possible work with local schools and community centres. Oh and the events we’re planning as an offshoot of A Season of Bangla Drama. They’ll be in April. Watch this space…

All of which explains why the meeting was about three and a half hours long. We got through a lot of tea, but were very restrained and shared just one piece of cake between us.

East on TV – again!

Various people involved in A Season of Bangla Drama were on ATN Bangla TV channel last night, to be interviewed about their shows. Sef and Paul were there to talk about East. And on Wednesday evening, Shamim and Paul will be on Betar Bangla radio. Massive thanks to the A Season of Bangla Drama team for giving us these opportunities.

For more info about East, including how to book tickets, please see our project page.

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