QFC is a friendly workshop that brings families together through costume, character and play. Led by creators and facilitators with many years of experience, the session gently builds, using games that guide participants to create a simple costumed character and to share these creations with each other through more games and performance (if desired!).
VFD is collaborating with QFC apart of MANAKI our new queer-led, community-based project that brings together a range of arts and cultural practices under one framework.
Cabaret is the most fun and fundamental of the theatre arts and it provides an in-the-moment and accessible means to share spontaneous creativity and to celebrate each other.
Expect laughter and connection as we build community through silliness and celebration.
Led by Sally & Arkem - here's a little about them:
Sally trained as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and worked for 20 years in the NHS, leaving in 2017 to pursue clowning and poetry and the therapeutic potential of play.
She created Queer Family Cabaret with Arkem Mark Walton, after she found that clowning and performing with her daughter helped them to have fun together and (looking back) to weather the dreary skies of UK’s retrograde gender policies.
Arkem Mark Walton is a performer, maker and creative enabler. They work in cabaret, story-telling and craft. Arkem has performed on the hallowed stage of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, in the galleries of the V&A, down The Rabbithole at Glastonbury and in a hot air balloon over Cappadocia. They enjoy taking the audience on a giddy journey through songs and poems with D.I.Y. drag stylings and a clowny edge. Arkem also enjoys helping curious folk to find new sides of themselves through costume, make-up and accessory making.
The workshop will run between 2pm and 5pm:
2pm-3pm: We will meet each other in the space and create a character.
3pm:There will be a break with snacks.
3:15pm-4pm: We find a costume and play more theatrical games.
4pm-5pm: Continued silliness, a group sharing and we will end our time together.
This workshop is about empowerment through play and feedback is enthusiastically encouraged!