Identify Yourself - Programme

Identify Yourself – Programme

Series name	Theatre
Description	‘Identify Yourself’ was a Sampad drama project for youth which coincided with Black History Month 2001. The young people worked with drama artists Fateha Begum, Tarek Chowdry and Madani Younis after school at weekends and during half term. The production was a platform to present the participant’s views on their backgrounds, their place in their communities, and sense of identity in Birmingham and as British Asians. The programme details two sets of sketches, entitled ‘White Bread and Water’, about a young mixed race Pakistani and Bangladeshi boy finding his identity and, ‘The Other’, a montage of sketches dealing with the themes of identiy and sense of place. The performance was held at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Centre on 4 November 2001 and was supported by Birmingham City Council’s Arts Education Awards.
Date of Creation / Publication	2001
Creator	Sampad
Associated Person/ Organisation	Ray, Piali
Location	Birmingham
Collection and Reference Number	Sampad Collection (GB 2661 SA)
Catalogue Number	SA/THE/10
Copyright	The Creator and/ or the associated
Access to originals	The originals belong to Sampad
Series notes	Theatre is a relatively new area of activity for Sampad, although drama sessions have always played a key role within educational projects and programming. Sampad is currently adopting a new theatre strategy to encourage young British Asians to become more involved in theatre as participants, audiences, practitioners, administrators and producers. To date, Sampad has been commissioned a number of theatre productions, and has also held a conference on South Asian Identity in 1997, which included drama presentations.
Collection notes	Sampad was founded in 1990, under the directorship of Piali Ray OBE. The arts organisation was established to strengthen the infrastructure of South Asian arts in the West Midlands and Birmingham region. Due to Director Piali Ray's background as a dancer, this south Asian arts development agency has retained its strengths in dance, however its current remit is much wider, covering cross art forms of music, theatre, crafts and literature within education and community environments.