Macau’s Comuna de Pedra (“Stone Community”) said in a recent statement that it held sharing sessions in communities and schools in June, featuring a series of videos about “The Never-ending Task of the Moment”: a performance that hopes to educate the public about the value, talent and capability of marginalised people.
Comuna de Pedra was established in 1996 as a non-profit cultural and artistic organisation. Since then, it has been focusing on physical and dance theatre productions. The organisation also produces art projects such as art exhibitions, festivals and cross-cultural collaborative programmes.
The statement said that although a few sharing sessions were cancelled due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, the overall results were successful and the audiences responded well.
The statement said Jenny Mok Sin Teng, the director of “The Never-ending Task of the Moment”, noted that the public often associates marginalised people with charitable events, like Caritas’ carnival. Mok underlined that this stereotype should be got rid of, and the group’s performance showed that marginalised people are just as able to express their emotions on stage as other people.
Mok added that the participants in the sharing sessions were very enthusiastic about asking questions about the performance. “The audience’s curiosity is a driving force for the performers,” Mok said.
The statement said that with the constant support of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), since 2020 Comuna de Pedra has been able to train a different “spectrum” of performers. The statement said that the performers, under the guidance of the organisation, slowly discover their own personal strengths, self-confidence, expression skills and artistic creativity.
The statement added that the performers’ improvement was remarkable, and the most important part was to let them realise their own capabilities in society and bring a positive impact to the public.
According to the statement, Comuna de Pedra hopes that the public will gradually pay more attention to marginalised people. The statement said that they also underlined the lack of accessibility facilities [for the disabled] at performing venues.
The statement noted that there have been positive changes in society towards marginalised people since 2020, including a growing connection between the marginalised and society; increased attention from different social sectors and the support from various institutions for the marginalised. For more information, visit https://www.comunadepedra.com/.
Comuna de Pedra holds sharing sessions with multiple local schools in early June. – Photos provided by Comuna de Pedra
These photos show the scenes of the “The Never-ending Task of the Moment” performed in January 2021, a video of which was shown during the sharing sessions in June this year.
