WE REASTART strongly advocates the invaluable role arts play in our society, especially as tools of recovery and resilience after individual and collective crises.
In particular, theatre and the entire environment that gravitates around its creative production plays a special part for its ability to speak to our imagination and directly connect with people.
Now more than ever, we are eager to be back together and experience the healing and inspiring power of live performances.
WE RESTART ONSTAGE develops around 3 different schemes, aiming to make theatre more accessible for the community and offering young people the possibility to be inspired by theatre and to discover this special microcosm.
For more information about WE RESTART ONSTAGE and how to take part, please email contact@werest.art
Read our Study for WE RESTART ONSTAGE, click on RESOURCES.
1. 20 OFF
Aiming to make theatre more accessible and to build a network with non-for-profit organisations and charities working with the community, as part of WE RESTART ONSTAGE programme, we offer 20% discount on tickets for members of the community aged 25+.
Organisations can request the discount Code via email contact@werest.art
2. STALLS
WE RESTART wants to offer young people the possibility to directly experience the power of theatre storytelling as a precious source of examples and a trigger for alternative schemes of thinking and acting. For this, we give 80 complimentary tickets to young people aged between 16 and 25.
3. STAGE + BACKSTAGE
With this scheme, WE RESTART aims at introducing young people whose paths are made arduous by situations of psychological distress, due to the delicate moments of transitions in their lives and/or to the trauma inflicted by the pandemic, to professional theatre productions. Considering the special insight that the theatre environment can provide to improve and heal emotional injuries, the project develops around a series of meetings with the cast and crew of the show, the possibility of discovering the rehearsal process, experience backstage tours and attend the final production as an audience.
Specific schedules and meetings are agreed taking into consideration the boys and girls needs and the theatre production features. The meetings with the creative team can be an invaluable moment to unveil how art has been for many people an instrument to overcome obstacles or to recognize and build their identities, and to discover how different professionals have found fulfilment in contributing to give life to the artistic creation.
WE RESTART advocates the potential women posses to be a driving force in the recovery processes and to be examples and beacons as far as building or rebuilding identity is concerned. For this reason, in particular women artists and women professionals involved in the show will narrate their stories and how art and their professional roles have informed their lives and vice versa
Through this scheme, we strongly want to contribute to improve the lives of young people who are experiencing psychological and emotional distress by restoring hope, rebalancing emotions, building up self-knowledge, learning from experiences of others and recovering sensibility through theatre, a microcosm where vulnerability is not only accepted but also shared and valued as a creative engine.
VANARA the musical will make its world premiere on 22 October 2021 and will run until 31 October 2021 at the Hackney Empire Theatre in London.
Set in a time when, due to greed and thoughtless expansion, the human race barely survives and in a place where the last remaining forest is a symbol of peace and thanksgiving, Vanara narrates the story of Ayla, a young woman who must choose between protecting the traditions of the people she will one day lead and questioning everything she’s been taught in order to forge a future. Two tribes, locked in a centuries old battle. Her tribe has the secret of fire. The other tribe wants it. Can she make her people understand the need for unity? And what of her enemies?
VANARA is a story of love and sacrifice and nature at its most unpredictable.
VANARA with its imaginary world seems to narrate the threat and uncertainty of today crisis but also the timeless struggle youngsters have to face in order to build their identities and find their places in the world, that often collide with expectations adults have for them. Ayla, with her strength and combative spirit but also her simplicity of being just a teenage girl struggling with growing up, is the companion to be inspired of and hopefully to start a new journey with.
Thanks to its story, characters and a cast and creative team that benefit from the contribution of many women, VANARA perfectly embodies how theatre can be a precious resource for recovery and an inspiration for restart.
WE RESTART join forces with Oscar Awarded Giovanna Romagnoli to launch Vanara The Musical – World Premiere at the Hackney Empire, London
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WE RESTART , a not-for-profit organization founded in the midst of COVID-19 global pandemic, whose mission is to produce and promote artistic projects where art functions as a tool for restart, has launched WE RESTART ONSTAGE. The theatre programme opens with Vanara The Musical, giving 80 complimentary tickets to young people aged between 16 and 25 years old and providing 20% discount on all tickets for all groups and associations who will be invited to join the schemes.
Italian producer Giovanna Romagnoli (Oscar Awarded for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) says “I am extremely excited for this important London debut. The whole cast and crew are simply incredible and truly hope the audience will be fascinated and thrilled by the story.”
With a score by Gianluca Cucchiara, lyrics by Andrew James Whelan, and book by Michael Conley, the piece is set "on another earth in another time" and follows two tribes battling it out as disaster threatens to destroy their planet.
Set in a time when, due to greed and thoughtless expansion, the human race barely survives and in a place where the last remaining forest is a symbol of peace and thanksgiving, Vanara narrates the story of Ayla, a young woman who must choose between protecting the traditions of the people she will one day lead and questioning everything she’s been taught in order to forge a future.
VANARA is a story of love and sacrifice. With its imaginary world the show mirrors the threat and uncertainty of today crisis and also the timeless struggle youngsters face to build identities and to find their own place in the world.
For these reasons, VANARA perfectly embodies WE RESTART ’s ethos and how theatre can be a precious resource for recovery and an inspiration for restart.
The musical will make its world premiere on 25 October 2021 and will run until 31 October 2021 at the Hackney Empire Theatre in London. After its world premiere, the show will have a UK-wide tour in 2022.
Mental health care for all: let’s make it a reality
(Reproduced with permission of the World Health Organization)
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on people’s mental health. Some groups, including health and other frontline workers, students, people living alone, and those with pre-existing mental health conditions, have been particularly affected. And services for mental, neurological and substance use disorders have been significantly disrupted.
Yet there is cause for optimism. During the World Health Assembly in May 2021, governments from around the world recognized the need to scale up quality mental health services at all levels. And some countries have found new ways of providing mental health care to their populations.
Visit Vanara - Hackney Empire to learn more about the show, dates and time.
The show runs from the 22nd to the 31st of October at the Hackney Empire.
There are only 80 tickets, so hurry up!