First Day in York - the afternoon

A walk round a rather wet York this afternoon and a visit to the Castle Museum which York Castle Museum is one of Britain's leading museums of everyday life. It shows how people used to live by displaying thousands of household objects and by recreating rooms, shops, streets - and even prison cells.

A ride on a carousel outside the museum was great fun but the group are now slumped in the theatre foyer, a little tired after an exhausting journey to the UK and a busy first day.

First Day in York - The Morning

This morning our visitors from Palestine met at Friargate Theatre and then walked over to York Minster for a tour given by the Canon Precentor, the Revd Canon Jeremy Fletcher. On the way they passed the 'purple man', a regular feature on Stonegate.

During the tour of the Minster the group had an opportunity to see areas not usually open to the public including the mason's loft, the vestry and the Stonemason's Yard.

It was then back to Friargate for lunch with staff, hosts and friends during which we were very pleased to received a phone call to the group from Marina Barham of Al Harah Theatre Company who is currently in Liverpool with a project called Contacting the World.

Sadly the good weather this morning has given way to rain but after a quick purchase of some cheap umbrellas the groups are out exploring York and buying some clothes for Hani whose luggage has still not arrived.

Riding Lights at the Lambeth Conference

Luke Waldock, Israel Oyelumade, Charles Hanley, Rhian McLean, Amy Todd and Sally Okafor

Riding Lights has performed at the Lambeth Conference this week, the ten-yearly meeting of the bishops of the Anglican Communion.

On Monday the team of six actors performed a short piece called Making Peace by Paul Burbridge as part of the Spouses Conference of events. On Tuesday, the spouses led a joint session with the bishops on the abuse of power which began with Daughters of the House by Bridget Foreman and which introduced the issues by weaving together a number of Bible stories illustrating Jesus’s attitude to women. According to the Anglican Communion News Service (and indeed the accounts of the performers) "the drama – which reduced many members of the audience to tears – was followed by prolonged applause".

Paul Burbridge and Israel Oyelumade

It's been a long day....

Salam, Elena, Dana, Khaled, Sari and Hani arrive at London Heathrow Airport.

So we've been to Heathrow and back to York today and it took a few hours - about 9 hours driving all told. That's nothing really when you consider that it took about the same length of time for our guests from the West Bank to travel from Bethlehem to Amman on Tuesday and that's only a fraction of the distance we travelled today. Nevertheless, the drive back up to York was pretty long, gruelling and hot for us all and it's no wonder that our six visitors were all very ready to sleep by the time they were dropped off to their hosts. We'll all gather at Friargate Theatre in the morning so that they can see York in the daylight. We'll also be off shopping for poor Hani whose suitcase didn't make the journey with him from Amman to London!

HURRAH!

Our excited guests from Bethlehem and the surrounding areas of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour began their journey very early this morning, leaving Al Harah Theatre at 6am with their families waving them off. An hour ago I received an email from Nicola at Al Harah to say that they had crossed safely over the Allenby Bridge into Jordan from where they catch their flight to London tomorrow. We are looking forward very much to meeting Salam, Elena, Dana, Sari, Khaled and Hani tomorrow afternoon and have an exciting programme of activities for them over the next two weeks - the centrepiece being their involvement in the Summer Theatre School which starts on Saturday.

We'll be regularly updating this blog site with photos and news about their visit to the UK.

GIRL AND DEAN Fundraiser

Sarah Dean and Jess Ransom call the raffle at the end of their show last Saturday night which raised a further £400 to help with the costs of the visit by the group from Palestine to the Summer Theatre School.

Many thanks to Jess, Sarah and all who came along to support the event.

GIRL AND DEAN fundraiser

Last night saw Friargate Theatre in York hosting the last in the series of fundraising events raising money to fund the visit by the six Palestinians who arrive in the UK on Wednesday and will be attending the Riding Lights Summer School from 2-9 August.

This was the second performance by comedy duo Girl and Dean to raise money for this cause and this time they brought us their hilarious new show, stopping off in York on their way north to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They will be performing there in the Cellar at the Pleasance from 3.30-4.30pm most afternoons.

http://www.pleasancepages.co.uk/girl_and_dean/

The fundraiser has raised about £400 towards the costs of the visit. Many thanks to those who came along and supported the event and to Sarah Dean (ex Riding Lights Roughshod Administrator) and Jess Ransom (who together are Girl and Dean) for making it possible. Our best wishes go to them as they stumble across Edinburgh later today with what are possibly the heaviest rucksacks in the world!

www.girlanddean.co.uk

Summer School 'Hoodie'

Given the weather (!), we’ve put away the usual Summer School t-shirts this year and are instead offering you the opportunity to buy a ‘hoodie’ unique to STS ‘08. Glamorously modelled here by two of your very own Summer School staff (Andrew and Jenny) one of these special tops can be yours in time for the start of Summer School if you get your order in before Friday 18th July. Just phone the office (01904 655317) and let us know what size you want (S/M/L/XL). You can pay by card over the phone and the hoodies cost £25 each.

Things can happen....

One way or another people seem to return to the Summer School.... Three members of our current Roughshod company have attended the Summer School as participants in the past and they are certainly not the first STS ‘graduates’ to work for Riding Lights – there have been many others. This year we are very pleased to have with us Sarah and Ned Lunn who met at the Summer School a few years ago, got engaged at the Summer School in 2006 and last year were married at St Michael le Belfrey Church in York where Sarah’s father (and Riding Lights’ Chaplain!!), Ian Birkinshaw, was until recently Associate Minister.

Facebook

If you're coming on the Riding Lights Summer School, don't forget to join our group on Facebook.



http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=25324479828&ref=ts

Just click to apply and if you're a Summer School participant or member of staff then we'll make you a member of the group.

Of course if you are not coming on the Summer School but would like to stay in touch with Riding Lights through Facebook then you can lways join the Riding Lights 'fan' group at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Riding-Lights-Theatre-Company/7184841018?ref=ts

Al Harah Theatre Company

We have received a great deal of help in making arrangements for the group to travel from Palestine from Al Harah Theatre Company who are based in Beit Jala in the Bethlehem area. Having helped us identify the young people who will be coming to the Summer School, Nicola from Al Harah accompanied them on a journey this morning from Bethlehem to Ramallah to get their visas to visit the UK from the British Consulate. Everything went well and now that the air tickets are booked as well, the group can look forward to flying to London at the end of this month.

We first met Al Harah when five of us went on a research trip to Israel and Palestine in May 2006 - that's us at their base in Beit Jala in the picture. We met some of them again in April this year when they brought their own play, Born in Bethlehem to York Theatre Royal.

We are very grateful to Marina, Nicola and all at Al Harah for their help.

Riding Bikes for Riding Lights

Riding Lights Trustee and Board Member, Barrie Stephenson, completed his 110 mile bike ride through the Yorkshire Dales yesterday. He's managed to raise an online total of over £1,300 towards the costs of bringing the group from Palestine and several hundred pounds on top of that raised offline.

You can read more about Barrie's bike ride at:

Rising Dawn

You can still contribute by making a donation at:

www.help.co.uk/ridingbike