IAA Images June/July 2008 - Drama at the Fringe, Silk Group's 9th Exhibition

Drama at the Fringe

Carol Twinch
Anyone interested in the multitudinous art forms on offer in Ipswich throughout June and July will be spoilt for choice. No one could fail to be impressed by the wealth of quality and diverse drama, exhibitions, talks and musical performances at venues across the town. In addition to the truly astonishing programme of literature, dance and music offered by the Ipswich Arts Festival (see www.ip-art.com ), the New Wolsey’s Pulse Fringe Festival and Amateur & Community season concurrently offers wide-ranging performances. Much of the work reflects the vibrant aspects of multi-cultural Ipswich.

Under the Amateur & Community umbrella Refugee Café is a new play by Suzanne Hawkes (New Wolsey Studio, 19 June). Presented by the Refugee Council and Black and White Productions it is based on the experiences of refugees who have found their way to Ipswich from such countries as the Sudan, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq.

Refugee Café

The Gallery Players drama Spend, Spend, Spend (17-21 June) portrays Viv Nicholson, millionaire winner on the football pools in 1961. Appeal Theatre Group’s Working is the East Anglian (amateur) premiere of the Stephen Schwartz original production (7-12 July).

The Bangladeshi Annual Community Day takes place on 22 June. Programme information is available from the Bangladeshi Support Centre on 01473 400081.

The New Wolsey’s Andrew Burton told Images: ‘Pulse is in its 8th year and has developed into a very interesting and important Festival of new and energetic talent. There is a range of art forms including poetry, comedy, dance and physical theatre – some like Claire MacDonald’s Correspondence going on to the Edinburgh fringe.’

Events are too numerous to list but A Mother Speaks, written and performed by Judd Batchelor, is hailed as ‘spectacular’ as she tackles a mother’s grief when her son is the innocent victim of street gun crime.

One of the features of the 2008 season is the low ticket cost, some as little as £3. Events and venue details are found on www.pulsefringe.com and the ticket hotline is 01473 295 900. There is a Festival Blog on the website to which IAA members are encouraged to contribute.

Brochures for both programmes are available at New Wolsey Theatre and Tourist Info Centres

‘SILKWORMS ON MULBERRIES’

The Silk Group‘s 9th Exhibition
18th – 28th July, Sutton Hoo

The theme of this year’s exhibition is taken from a Haiku poem by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694):
Rainy days –
Silkworms droop
On Mulberries

Embroidered book cover
by Val Latham.

The exhibition is a celebration of silk and its tiny makers – the silkworms. Silkworms eat only mulberry leaves, which provide them with all the nutrition they need to grow from a tiny speck to a worm, some 2.5 inches long, in about three weeks.

Each cocoon produces between 600 and 900 metres of true thread, plus the outer layer of fibres that support the cocoon during pupation. All the silk produced is used either in craft work, paper-making, or for the production of the finest cloth in the world.

Silk Moth on Mulberry Leaves
by Sandy Spirling

The Silk Group was founded in Suffolk in 2000 as an offshoot from a local branch of the Guild of Silk Painters. The Group wished to explore other aspects of silk work such as embroidery, bag making, book covers and so forth – anything in fact that their members could create as long as it contained silk. The Group now has members with a wide range of skills, including painting, beadwork, quilting, jewellery-making and so forth. These skills are shared in a series of workshops throughout the year allowing the work to remain fresh and inventive.

The Group exhibits annually and will be holding its 9th exhibition at the Court Gallery, Sutton Hoo between Friday 18th July to Monday 28th July inclusive.

Contact Sandy Spirling 01728 660140