May 2023
HAVE YOU MISSED OUT?
Or were you there?
mAy
Firstly, in the next of our monthly series of history talks (talks about Accidental’s history, that is.
No kings or wars here!), Gillian asks Richard about Accidental’s Membership scheme, and why it matters.
External Events
The team have been out and about this last month doing a few different things. The stream team went down to the Cathedral Quarter to film some videos and audio for Brain Injury Matters, a charity which helps people living with Acquired Brain Injury to not just survive but to thrive. BIM were doing a showcase as part of NI Mental Health Arts Festival (NIMHAF) of mythical stories written at a creative writing workshop facilitated by friend of Accidental Shannon Yee. Emy and Marty recorded some videos and audio in advance of the event for the readers, for the BIM archive and for readers who were unable to attend, and streamed the whole event live.
Emy in particular thought it was an incredibly worthwhile and enjoyable event, and said that they were “giving a voice to the voiceless, and making sure people felt valid, even though they might not look or sound like they used to.” A very worthy cause!
The bookings and marketing teams have been taking part in some free workshops run by Belfast City Council, in various aspects of marketing, e-commerce, and customer experience. The first couple of these were online, but one was the first one back in person, so Gillian got to explore the BCC offices in the town centre, and bring some pastries back to the office!
Second Floor
Meisner acting workshop series Repeat has had its last few classes of the spring term, keep an eye out on our Courses & Classes page, or follow their social media for more updates!
The Rehearsal Room has also hosts Swing dancing from Swing Belfast, Cuban Salsa, and much more – find out morea bout joining in next time here.
First Floor
Here on the first floor (where the Accidental office is) it’s been a slightly quieter month:
Paul Mone hosted his regular class Improv Comedy Lv1: Beginner in the Book Bar, using our small stage in there to give his students an accurate performing experience.
The office users have been enjoying the warmer weather, and enjoying sharing their reviews of shows they've seen – most opinions best kept under wraps!
Though Pual collaborated with a made Handmade Music event at the start of the month, that regularly takes over the Book Bar one night a month. This time we had QUBe Ensemble playing musis all over the building and Paul’s Improv troupe performing at the same time as being musically heckled :)
Members can watch the show On Demand.
Theatre
The Theatre has been the busiest place this month, with private and public events galore!
At the beginning of the month we had the Green Party's council election manifesto launch, with party members and press asking pertinent (and less so) questions to the panel.
Our first Scratch Night since lockdown brought us four new pieces of theatre for people to feed back on, and a fun (and useful) evening was had by all. Hopefully we'll see some of those shows developed further and brought back here in the future!
Our regular monthly Cosmic Jam was another highlight, with bands and musicians coming together to play music with new people.
And Never Seen It Film Club this month was a doozy! Grey Gardens (1975) is the very odd, strangely compelling documentary about a mother and daughter who live as almost recluses together in their house in the woods. It's definitely one that will stay with all of us who saw it – though we're not necessarily all happy about it!
Figure This, our resident life drawing facilitators, did a private event in the theatre for a hen party, before they hit the town. The group loved it; what a unique way to spend time for that kind of celebration. More people should try it (maybe instead of those party bikes?!).
And the piano tuner came in, and told us some interesting things about our piano!
It was kindly donated by someone just last year, and it turns out to have a casing that’s 120 years old - and an inside that’s 180 years old!
But now it’s all tuned up and sounding lovely, and we can now include it in gigs and events!
Our lovely office users Friends Of Africa, who are celebrating 25 years this year, ran a wonderful event to celebrate Africa Day, with music, art, a guest speaker, and food from around the continent.
This was a free event, and we hope to be able to produce some more great nights of entertainment in collaboration with Friends Of Africa.
Basement
In the Basement we’ve streamed lots of our shows, including the return of Scratch, Gillian and Richard recorded their monthly video (at the top), and Emy and Gillian recorded another episode of Take Me Or Leave Me, the love it or hate it musical theatre podcast. You can listen to that when it’s ready wherever you normally get your podcasts, or through the button below.