Little Star was a special performance at Britain Yearly Meeting in May 2002.
Kathryn Coffin and Emily Paul report:
On Sunday 6th May, 14 members of QYT gave a performance of Little Star at Britain Yearly Meeting. We'd had two days to put this play together, in order to raise money for the Young Friends General Meeting 'Little Star' appeal. The play portrayed the work of Chris Hunter, who co-founded the Little Star centre in Grozny, capital of Chechnya. Grozny is a city that has been systematically levelled by the Russian military campaign. It also followed the true story of Jon James and Camilla Carr, two volunteers who were abducted and held captive for 14 months.
We arrived at Uxbridge Friends Meeting House on Friday night, enthusiastic and ready for a couple of days of hard work. As well as learning the songs, (the words and music written and composed by QYT members), sorting out costumes and learning lines, we also put a lot into the play ourselves. With the help of the facilitators, we created still images, sound scapes and actions to the songs.
We also looked at the situation between Chechnya and Russia, and tried imagining what it would be like to live in the city of Grozny. We hope we were able to convey this to the audience, and as we raised over 1600, we think we were successful! If you would like to donate to this appeal, please contact Simon Best at the YFGM office, Woodbrooke, 1046 Bristol Road, Birmingham, B29 6LJ
Paul Levy was a member of the appeal committee, and worked with QYT members on Little Star. Here is his report:
This year's Young Friends General Meeting Appeal was to raise money for the Little Star Centre, which was established to help alleviate the stress and suffering of children who have been traumatized by the horrors of war in Chechnya, using arts and drama and psychotherapy. Originally a centre was established in Chechnya. Although that centre has now been destroyed, the work continues in the camps of Ingrusietia.
As a fitting end to the appeal and a tribute to all the hard work of Chris Hunter and everyone involved in the Little Star project, the appeal worked in partnership with The Leaveners to produce the performance of Little Star at Yearly Meeting. A group of 11 to 15 year olds worked from Friday evening to Sunday to produce a new piece of musical theatre to tell the story of the Chris Hunter and the Little Star appeal. Working from a script inspired by the 2000 production, polished and re-imagined by Rachael Veazey, the members of the Quaker Youth Theatre worked tirelessly to learn lines, movement, and blocking in record time. They managed to create a moving performance, using drama, music and movement to tell the story of Little Star, and the volunteers who risk their lives to work there.
The performance was a new venture for the Quaker Youth Theatre, and they managed to create something of high quality in such a short time. Chris Hunter and Moussa Kaznakov, a Little Star psychologist attended the performance and spoke a little about the work of the Little Star Centre, and the project was a glittering success raising almost 1,700 pounds for the appeal.
