British Bus for Gyumri at Armenian Patchwork

British Bus for Gyumri

June 2nd, 2007 by anush

Walking around the city I used to often notice a red bus with pictures of young people dressed really cutely. I thought to follow it and last week I went with it to Gyumri.
The British Bus is a project by the British Embassy. The group of young actors that take part in this project are exactly the kind that should be doing this. They call themselves Theatre for Change, and really their performances bring something new and open eyes. The plays of this group have the objective “to promote ideas of civic responsibility and good governance in young Armenians”, as I read on the blog of the British Bus .

The two-hour way to Gyumri was filled with the Mafia game all so popular here. The huge red bus, the props for the play and the road were all left aside in favor of the search for the once with a black card.

At some point in the middle we stopped for a cigarette. Marianna (on the photo) tells me she would like to be traveling like this to other countries for a long time. The group went to Tbilisi last month to perform another one of their interactive plays.

The Trchoonyan Orphanage the group was visiting surprised everyone by meeting them with bread a salt, which was accepted by the deputy head of mission at British Embassy, who was following the bus separately.

The home-made wine was also a nice welcome for the actors.

Before the British Bus would begin its play the children of the orphanage took the stage, singing, playing on the drums, and dancing.

The actors came out after the children, and taught everything necessary about traffic rules in the funniest ways.

The eyes of the children were shining, especially of this girl, who sat alone the whole time staring like in amazement.

One of the interesting things about the British Bus is that there is direct communication with the audience. The children were asked questions all the time, then lyrics were given to them and they sang a traffic rules song together.