Creative Electric

The Happiness Project for me was an excellent prompt to question what we take for granted and what we truly want to devote our time to. Questioning the habits society pushes on us and how happy it makes us was an incredibly valuable experience. As a process it allowed for mad research sessions into varying subject matters, everything form the lyrics of Lily Allen to the depths of pornography addiction. I think the show is educational, itŌĆÖs certainly an experience, itŌĆÖs defini...tely moving.
If this tweet speaks to you: https://twitter.com/PhilNWang/status/1136 407747786936322ŌĆ” then the show certainly will.
If you'd like to support Alistair and the cast of The Happiness Project then please donate to https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundiŌĆ”/ the-happiness-project
Your donations will not only help to pay for the access costs for the disabled members of the cast but will also help us to ensure The Happiness Project is financially accessible by providing free tickets to young people who may not traditionally engage with the arts.
Alistair Maxwell, Ryan Lithgow, Georgia Dunn, Gregor Campbell, Conor Macdonald, Roz McAndrew, Nick Kidd, Heather Marshall
Image by Chris Scott
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Thanks to The Edinburgh Reporter for covering our fundraising campaign
https://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/ŌĆ ”/can-you-help-creaŌĆ”/
Heather Marshall, Nick Kidd, Roz McAndrew, Georgia Dunn, Alistair Maxwell, Ryan Lithgow, Conor Macdonald, Gregor Campbell, Rebecca Morgan, Mark Hannah Chris Scott

"When I arrived at Creative Electric my confidence and self esteem was at a low. I tended to remain quiet and be in the background as much as I could. However, the safe, warm and caring environment of Creative Electric allowed me to shatter these walls I had build around myself and gave me the space to use my voice, which for so many years I was afraid to use. The Happiness Project is a prime example of using my voice, as I shared a difficult time in my personal life. Creat...ive Electric supported and nurtured me by channelling this hard time in my life, into a beautiful piece of work I can be proud of. To me creative electric is that, a supporting, loving environment that gives the voiceless a voice." Ryan Lithgow If you'd like to support Ryan and other young people to share their stories please donate to https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundiŌĆ”/ the-happiness-project Image by Chris Scott
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Nick was doing his best Gruffalo acting for our wee participants at Garscube Playrooms. WeŌĆÖve been reading our favourite books in Scots. The Gruffalos Wean went down a treat! Part of our Glasgow Life Artist Residency.

"I was lucky enough to find Creative Electric at a point in my life where I was at a loose end at what I wanted to do. Creative Electric has given me a voice to put my identity into art and feel genuinely proud and accomplished of the work that myself and the company have created. Creative Electric supports and nurtures voices that are typically censored, together with a group of young people we confront live situations and investigate our answers in this process. Creative El...ectric has liberated me, helped me in education, my own arts practice and also in my personal life. What I am part of is more than a theatre company, it is a community and a safe haven. I am immensely grateful for that." Georgia
If you'd like to help Georgia and other young and emerging artists continue to create exciting new work please donate to https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundiŌĆ”/ the-happiness-project
Your donation will go towards allowing both young artists and audiences engage with accessible art and performance with no financial or social barriers.
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We're excited to be performing at YAS QUEEN! We've heard rumours of giant inflatable swans and Brenda dancing on the bar! If you've not been to a LeithLate club night in the cricket club are you even a Leither? Scroll down for info and tickets.

Massive thanks to pals Lisa Baxter, Jess Thom, Jennie Sinclair, James Day, Anne Jerman, Stephen K, Pete, Susan Marshall and our anonymous supporters who have donated to support our young disabled artists. We're fundraising to cover the costs of support workers, therapy sessions and travel support for artists involved in The Happiness Project. We heard today that Creative Scotland assessors recommended us for funding, we scored extremely highly in all sections but that there... simply wasn't enough money in the pot to fund us. Creative Scotland stated: ŌĆ£The Happiness ProjectŌĆØ is by itself a work of artistic quality with strong social resonance and relevance in terms of ideas and meanings. The cast appears to have been assembled in a way that truly represents a social model of disability on stage. All this suggests strongly that Creative ElectricŌĆÖs experience and collaborative approach can result in developmental relationships between artists and audience. This project has the potential for enhancing the companyŌĆÖs practice and by extension its ability to produce work of quality in the future."
And so we're working to raise the funds to ensure that The Happiness Project goes ahead. We'd love it if you could support in any way that you can- this might be a donation, sharing the project or chatting to us about sponsorship opportunities via creative_electric@hotmail.com
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundiŌĆ”/ the-happiness-project
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Sadly Creative Scotland decided not to fund Creative Electric's application to support for our disabled artists. The fund was hugely oversubscribed, proving that they need to prioritise more support for minority communities. We had applied to fund access costs including support workers, therapy and travel support for our artists who are performing in The Happiness Project. Each of the cast of The Happiness Project ticks one of the diversity boxes that funders are so keen t...o see- they are a company of queer, poc, disabled, working class emerging artists. They created The Happiness Project in 2018 as a way to explore the need for non sexual physical contact in our digital era. For the majority of young people aged 15-26 they only experience physical contact during sex. How scary is that? The cast agreed and decided to look at elements of their own life in relation to this. They explored what it meant to be autistic and want to have a romantic relationship but not sure where to start. They explored what it meant for a young man to grow up in Persian culture where people are openly very tactile and then learn that this isn't so accepted in Scottish male culture. They explored why the majority of gay people they see on stage and screen are part of a coming out story and decided that as young LGBT people they wanted to just be able to tell their stories of love without them being fetishised. They created hugely important work. So much so that they were invited to perform at The Festival of Rest and Resistance curated by Jess Thom of Touretteshero at Battersea Arts Centre, IDY.Fest curated by Helen McIntosh and Claricia Parinussa Kruithof and at Eden Court as part of the National Theatre of Scotland Exchange Festival. They've now been invited to perform as part of Summerhall's fringe programme alongside some of the most exciting international artists they can imagine. This is such a huge opportunity for the cast and we're so so proud of them. We really want them to have this opportunity. But we need some support to help pay for the casts access and therapy costs. (therapy is important for many of our artists as they are telling challenging personal stories and we want to ensure that they stay mentally healthy) We hate crowdfuding, We hate asking our friends for help. But we'd hate to not be able to support these incredible artists. If you could donate the cost of a pint or a cup of coffee we'd be so grateful. If you can share this post and our crowdfunder with your friends we'll love you forever. If you got to the end of this super long post, thank you. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundiŌĆ”/ the-happiness-project
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Behind the scenes on Edinburgh International ChildrenŌĆÖs Festival press call with the Shoplifter<>Shapeshifter team. WeŌĆÖll be performing tomorrow at Family Day 10-4.30pm at The National Museum of Scotland and would love to see you there!

Last day to put your proposals in to perform at Working Class Exotica. Deadline 5pm. Nae poshos. Nae shiters. Nae tories. https://opportunities.creativescotland.co m/ŌĆ”/084ff0e9-3d6e-ŌĆ”

WeŌĆÖre delighted and very excited to announce that The Happiness Project is part of SummerhallŌĆÖs Fringe programme. WeŌĆÖre going to be developing the show, meeting some new cast and telling you more about creating an intervention for the fringe very soon. Keep watching for updates. Tickets are on sale at https://festival19.summerhall.co.uk/ŌĆ”/t he-happiness-project/