The Jumping Jelly Beans are back with another great community project, this time focused on helping a group of young and energetic disabled individuals to produce, run and promote their own theatre production! What I find so great about this project is that it is an ongoing, yearlong effort to give back to the disadvantaged in a meaningful way. The idea is to give the group skills that will empower them to be independent and productive members of society.

Every week on Tuesdays, instead of going to school, they gather at the Annex in Central Market to spend the day taking various classes on different elements of theatre and performance. To name a few, we have Edwin Sumon and Cinzia conducting theatre and expression workshops, Paul Augustine conducting percussions workshops and yours truly is working with the kids on capoeira and maculele. Meanwhile, other teachers are giving lessons on sales and marketing of theatre productions, t-shirt printing, and other business aspects. Isn’t that cool??

I’ll be putting up some pictures from the capoeira workshops here so go ahead and have a look. They are such a sweet and enthusiastic group!

For those of you who are interested to drop by and help out, Capoeira and Maculele for Theatre of the Disabled will be on at 11am every Tuesday till the end of August. Please give me a ring to let me know beforehand if you plan to visit. Also, I’ve invited the group to our Saturday night rodas in Bangsar leading up to the Festival this year so be sure to look out for them.