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Stage Time and Juice: Saffron and Playing for Change!

Stage Time and Juice passed its 3-year mark over the summer. Anticipating that our audience would thin out as people headed off on their separate vacations, we decided to put together a special treat for those who remained in the city. Thus, our Stage Time and Juice XVII: Saffron Summer was born!

Stage Time & Juice 18

Taipei City Playgroup mom, Jaya, immediately volunteered her husband’s restaurant’s services in providing some authentic Indian treats. Red Room mother, Roma, offered to lead us in drawing some chalk rangoli on the passageway. Priya Lalwani Purswaney, the newest addition to the Stage Time and Juice creative team, managed to snag the Dubey siblings, Awantika and Akash. The well-seasoned Dubeys introduced the art of kathak dancing accompanied by tabla percussion to our family audience. It was engaging, intimate, and of course had the most special element of Stage Time and Juice, being that everyone gets a front row seat!

STJ photo by Kenneth-Hu

STJ photo by Kenneth-Hu

As always, the Juice open-mic performers came out in full force, demonstrating techniques that they had developed in front of us over the years. Jaya turned to me at the end of the show, quite astonished. It was the first time she had come to Juice, and she felt that perhaps by attending regularly, this might just be the proper environment to coax something out of her stage-shy son as well?

September was our Playing For Change Fundraising month. We have held this event three times already, but this year we decided we would attempt to better our donation from last year of US$100. US$100, from Playing For Change’s perspective, is not a trifling amount: it can pay for 2 months of music classes for 4 children in Nepal. But our team decided that we would try to shoot for the NT10,000 mark this time, or about US $320.

In previous years, we had depended on the children and sometimes adults to come out and perform. We decided that we would emphasize this gesture in a fun way by placing a guitar case in front of the stage, and allowing the audience to show their support both for the performers and the cause by tossing change into the guitar case. All proceeds went towards The Playing For Change Foundation.

Volunteer Sue DeSimone happily invited some professional musicians to attend the show in order to introduce the Juicers to different kinds of music, namely rock, blues, rockabilly, and jazz. In the spirit of the Playing For Change organization, the event raised money for music education, but also provided some musical education content of its own!

Finally, we asked our community sponsors to donate their own products and services to our raffle. There was quite a dizzying and unusual array of prizes, but it impressively showcased the surprising range of projects that our larger community is involved in!

Many things did not go as expected in both events. In July, the TAF decided to fumigate the compound that day. As agreed upon, they sprayed around our area only in the morning and moved on to other places in the enormous complex, but that did not stop the guards at the gate from informing our guests that they would probably die if they attended our event! In September, the band riled up the audience so much that they were unable to return to their usual quiet attentiveness for the children’s fundraising segment. This was particularly painful to us as organizers, because the nurturing aspect of our open-mic segment is what is particularly special and precious about our program.
On a more positive, and unexpected note, we raised US$580 (NT18,186) to donate to the Playing For Change Foundation! According to their website, this amount can support A Playing For Change Foundation teacher in Africa for almost half a year. For some children, this teacher is the only formal schooling they receive.

Katrina, one of the original founders of Juice who was visiting with her family from New Zealand, remarked to me that she was impressed by how far the “regular” open-mic performers have progressed. She was happy to see some of the children she had taught since they were very small expressing themselves up on the stage in ways she had not imagined.

Running Juice has its successes and failures every time. It will always be unpredictable, given the open format of the show. But if you were to plot our results over time against the confidence and creativity of the performers, much as one does when tracking financial investments, you see that the curve is definitely heading upwards. It’s good to remind ourselves that we have done something positive and important here, and it’s a little more than just having fun.

To join and follow the progress of Stage Time and Juice, check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/redroomjuice/

Carol Yao
Coordinator, Stage Time and Juice

The Juicers, September 2015

Our September Red Room had the challenge of hosting two different activities: our third musical open-mike fundraiser to benefit The Playing For Change Foundation, and warming up a brand new space in the Taipei Air Force base for the evening Stage Time and Wine. Our objective was to fill the space with music, rhythm, color, and life.

The Red Roomers had done a beautiful job of putting the enormous room together on such short notice. We now have a new cash bar area, which is primarily for the evening events, but Stage Time and Juice continued its tradition of encouraging participants to bring food and beverages for our community table. I am pleased to say we had a very generous spread this time, with even newcomers pitching in.

We were happy to welcome back many Juice performers that we had not seen in a long time: a pair of siblings played the saxophone and performed a challenging vocal solo from a musical. We also had two other pairs of siblings return to the stage, who delight us with their performances quite frequently. This time there were some handbells and an advanced version of a popular hand game: scissors-paper-rock-Spock-lizard that they wanted to introduce to everyone. There was also a violin performance and a song.

Our new performance area is about twice the size of the old Red Room on Da An Road. We had no problem filling it with a circle game of “Who Stole the Cookie in the Cookie Jar?” led by Catherine Daigle. Julian banged on the traditional drum as he tried to trap the Juicers in a percussion version of Musical Statues.

After stage time was completed, the Juicers had some quiet time folding origami cranes and other flying objects which were then floated to the 5 meter high ceiling of the space on big red helium balloons.

Photos courtesy of Carol Yao and Feebe Ng

Here is our impression of the event from some of our Stage Time and Juicers:

“I was surprised that the Red Room was so big, and I never knew that they SELL drinks. When I saw people doing their show, I felt nervous, and I didn’t think my show was good enough. I am looking forward to the next Red Room to perform a better show.”
–Michael.

image5At Stage Time and Juice, our motive is to produce collective happiness that we hope can touch the lives of the participants when they leave the room. And sometimes we try to reach just a bit further. In this case, we donated half of our ticket sales to the Playing For Change Foundation: US $100. The Executive Director sent us a personal email to thank us for the amount:

Dear Carol,

When we join together, so much more is possible! Thank you for participating in a global celebration of music and love. Your recent gift of $100.00 in support of the 5th annual Playing For Change Day will bring music into the lives of children who will learn, grow, and discover their potential.
Earlier this year, the students and teachers of the Khlong Toey Music Program in Thailand joined together for a meaningful benefit event. They organized a concert to raise funds for their fellow PFCF students in our Nepal programs in order to help them recover from the recent earthquake. Now, these students know that they can make positive change in this world through teamwork. We are so proud of the loving commitment they’ve expressed through music and during this event.
The Khlong Toey program actually grew out of a PFC Day celebration. Two women working in the Khlong Toey slum met while planning the event and started a program to bring music into the lives of these vulnerable people. The Ripple Effect of that partnership and cooperation is moving out in all directions, through the recent benefit concert to the children in Nepal and around the world. And last year, PFC Day celebrations in Curitiba, Brazil involved more than 80 performances and laid the foundation for the new Cajuru Music School, which is opening this summer.
Thank you for being a part of this year’s beautiful unfolding, with over 300 events in 52 countries! The Ripple Effect of music and love is moving out from so many communities and into the hearts of so many children. We are deeply grateful for your support!
One Love from all of us,

Elizabeth Hunter
Executive Director

Play a song. Change the world. September 2012.

Stage Time and Wine at the Red Room joins Playing for Change Day

Find our event here:

http://playingforchangeday.org/show/stage-time-and-wine–the-red-room