Community spirit, an abundance of cake and a touch of toilet humour!
Matt and Sarah discuss John Cage’s ‘Living Room Music’ percussive techniques during rehearsal
The above sentence sums up our annual Friends event which happened yesterday afternoon at Chailey Heritage School. We welcomed our wonderful Friends to the Dream Centre with a glass of bucks fizz and the Reza sextet then played an hour of music, before Hannah spoke and interviewed Marilyn (our newest trustee) and Paul Griffiths, who leads our Music Collective and some of our education work. All three spoke passionately about the importance of Reza's ongoing work in schools and the wider community and highlighted just how difficult it is to secure Arts funding these days.
We then served a delicious afternoon tea of scones and cake (provided by the very talented Michelle Dainty) and everyone had a chance to mingle, before the final slice of Reza entertainment, which featured varied percussion (including a loo brush and a crutch!), a typewriter and the world première of Anna Cooper's charming new story for schools, The Elves' Porridge.
There was a palpable sense of community and the room was abuzz with friends reuniting, new connections being made, stories being shared and so much laughter! Everyone seemed to have a fabulous time and we hope it was a fitting Reza thank you to all our very loyal supporters. We couldn't do it without you.