Kaleidoscope - Scottish Parliament (June ‘23)
In June 2023 Stand Easy was invited to perform at the Scottish Parliament at an event hosted by Maurice Golden and Jackie Baillie promoting the work on The Defence Medical Welfare Service. Our weekly Veterans group worked with recent graduates Sam and Tom to create a piece called Kaleidoscope for the event, the piece was designed to show the experiences veterans and their families have as the navigate the healthcare system.
All photos by David Mollison.
When we first began to work on creating a piece for this event we were all very clear that we wanted to portray the veterans’ experiences and messages as faithfully as possible whilst making a piece of theatre that would stand out, to really make sure that the audience would be drawn in and enticed to listen.
The project was our first out of university so there were some natural teething problems whilst we learned the ropes and developed a way of working together. The veterans all showed great patience and flexibility in working with us. This allowed us to build up a momentum as a group throughout the devising process, which became smoother and more efficient with each rehearsal.
Photo by David Mollison
The first few weeks were dedicated to collecting stories and experiences from the group through games and discussions, this then allowing for direct quotes to be included in the script. After that, we started to play with the stories and explore how we could inject some humour into them and experimenting with ways of portraying the ideas stylistically
Everyone contributed with enthusiasm, creativity and patience throughout the process. All the ideas we brought into the room were explored fully by the group, and any bits that didn’t work or that needed tweaking, were collaboratively altered with suggestions from everyone. The same was done with the script: we presented a guideline for what was to be said, but this was refined to be accurate regarding the veterans’ experiences and military speech.
Towards the end of the project Josef stepped in as an assistant director (and additional performer), together we put the finishing touches on the piece, refining it down into the performance that we were so proud to put on in front of everyone at the Scottish Parliament that day.
We’re proud of the work that together we all put in, but towards the end of the project we needed a hand to bring everything together into a tight, finished, project, and this is where Josef came in to be part of the performance and to help guide the show on the last leg of the journey. Overall, the piece we created together was the culmination of the tremendous effort that everyone put in and could not have done it without the complete dedication and honesty of the participants we work with.
Photo by David Mollison
