Street Life
Street Theatre Performance
Friday 18th March 3pm
Longmarket (Next to New Look on Canterbury High Street)
Theatre challenging the residents of Canterbury's attitudes towards homeless and ex-homeless people.
Street Life
I was inspired by having worked with Cardboard Citizens in London whilst on my placement to work using drama and in particular using the methods of Augusto Boal with some of the Homeless people of Canterbury.
Come and see a piece of Theatre created in collaboration with members of my workshop group that I have been running weekly drama workshops with, based in The Scrine Foundation near Canterbury East Station.
I feel passionately that I want to give them the opportunity to have a second chance, something I think all human beings deserve. These people have become homeless for a variety of reasons; I am not interested in what these are, what I am interested in is their experiences of what Canterbury is like if you¡¦re homeless. Many of us including myself are probably guilty of having made the Homeless people of Canterbury feel excluded from society. This can be in a number of different ways; from ignoring someone selling The Big Issue, to verbal abuse, and even to violent crimes. This is what I want to challenge in my performance. How do you behave towards someone who lives on the streets?
I think people may be unaware of how social exclusion can lead to a whole host of other issues. In extreme cases, this rejection by society can lead to other problems such as alcohol and drug addictions as well as mental health problems.
Below are some statistics relating to homelessness taken from http://www.nationalhomeless.org and http://www.crisis.org.uk. These show how homelessness is more widespread than some people may think, and that homeless people get a rough time from society, though the actual figures are much higher than this;
Facts about Homelessness
About 596 people sleep outside around England on any one night, 321 of whom are in Greater London (ODPH, June 2002).
Over 76,680 people place themselves in bed and breakfasts each year. Research has estimated that 88% of these are single homeless people.
There are 26,471 single homeless people who live in hostels and
9,600 single homeless people live in squats.
24,000 asylum seekers were recorded as 'absconded' by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in 1998. This group would, therefore, be denied access to help with accommodation.
There are 265,579 people who live in crowded accommodation with too few bedrooms.
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