The Spark

Fire Starter Festival Newsletter

Not Mad Enough - Join our Legislative Theatre Launch Event

We open this year’s festival in theatrical style with 'Not Mad Enough', a Legislative Theatre piece from  Active Inquiry, on Monday, 1 February @ 10am.

Based on the recent Hard Edges Scotland report and explores issues of Mental Health, addiction, housing, services, poverty and violence, amongst others. Join us to experience how Legislative Theatre enables an audience to become actors, activists and policy makers by using theatre as a catalyst for proposing and voting on new policy.
 
The Story: 'Not Mad Enough'
Morag, like all of us, is playing the Great Game of Life. She wants the game to be fair but this isn’t a game of chance or skill when the rules are against you from the start. A background of poverty and violence means Morag is forced to play games of fortune with services when she wants to be able to control her own path. Is it inevitable there will always be winners and losers?
 
Can you shape a different outcome for our protagonist? Come along to our launch event on 1 February @ 10am to find out - Register below and have a look at our full festival programme here. Please note that you can still upload your own event to the website. 

Does Your Organisation Want to Get Involved in the Launch?

The Fire Starter Team and Active Inquiry would like to invite your organisation to contribute to the first part of the launch, the Advocacy Fair. This will involve you hosting a Zoom breakout room from 9.55-10.15, discussing the work of your organisation with attendees and answering questions they may have. The purpose of this Fair is to enable attendees to connect with Social Justice organisations, to learn about their work and to be able to use this knowledge in the Legislative theatre event. Please contact Gavin for more information (gavin@activeinquiry.co.uk).

Here is a short animation explaining Legislative Theatre

Glowing Embers, Sparks & Fires of Change - New Blog Reads

"Should there be a Fire Starter Festival this year? It’s something that we debated long and hard. What is the appetite for the sparks, the innovation, the creativity? With Brexit, a new lockdown, children once more being educated from home, the on-going worry about jobs, the potential for overwhelmed public services, was this the right time to talk about fires of change?"

Our new blog post reflects on our thoughts around #FSF2021 and what topics have emerged for this year's festival given the current situation. Get yourself a cuppa and read newest blog post and our previous ones. 
 

Collective Leadership for Scotland Offers

You might be interested in some of these upcoming Collective Leadership for Scotland events:

• Collective Leadership Taster Workshops
  These workshops are for individuals and potential participant teams to understand and experience the theory and practice of the Collective Leadership offer, and to explore what supports us to work well in complexity.
  The next one is 13 January @ 10am - Register here. 
   
• Inner Work for Creative Bravery Events
  We invite you to reflect on the inner barriers that stop you being creative - in all or any domain of your life, from how we lead and work to how we live and relate, to ourselves and each other. These are experiential sessions – you will need paper, pens, an open mind and a willingness to share your own creative bravery.
  The next one is 13 January @ 9.30am - Register here.
   
• Weekly Guided Journaling Sessions
  These hosted Guided Journaling sessions create a 30-minute opportunity to step away from other tasks and focus time on a deeper level of reflection.
  The next one is 28 January @ 4pm - Register here. 

If you would like to learn more about our Collective Leadership for Scotland visit the website and follow the team on Twitter @CollectiveScot.

Spread the Spark - Help us promote #FSF2021

Fire Starter Festival could not exist without you and everyone else contributing with their own events. Likewise, we also need you to spread the word about the festival. 
Please share the spark with your networks. You can share this informative poster or link to our website and social media. Thank you so much.