WHERE EVERY VOICE FINDS A SEAT
AND EVERY SEAT FINDS A VOICE
ABOUT
Welcome to Chairs, A web series created by Ben Growden and Luke Nestler about a group of people who come together to talk about the things that are weighing them down in their lives. The series is not only created to inspire and motivate it’s viewers but also to build a community of supporters who can relate to the characters and their issues, shining a much needed light on to the suffering and need for recovery that exists in our current world.
Our team consists of a group of volunteers who are all giving their time for this project as supporters of mental health and as people who know what it’s like to have things playing on their minds.
Chairs aims to tackle these issues by putting them out into the public and giving these subjects a chance to breathe. Which will hopefully inspire people to start their own healing journey.
THE AUDITIONS
In January 2024, all our efforts as a team were finally ready to share with the Shanghai art community as we put out a casting call for the official chairs Auditions, which were to be held on February 3rd 2024 at the Modephant art studio in M50.
As an artist, M50 has long been my dream studio location and that dream is shared by many artists not just around Shanghai but the whole country. So it’s with a real sense of excitement that we have modephant art space as our partner for chairs.
Moderphant art space are actually one of the only remaining original spaces in the whole of M50 with 罗文妍 LUO Wenyan (wenny), 琨布雷 KUN Bulei (Ray) and MA Ming, 马铭 (Zock) keeping the studio going for over 25 years, hosting an endless list of artists and creatives, making our colloboration even more special because to be held in the same light and space as the amazing artists and creatives who have presented here, really adds to the depth of what we are aiming to achieve.
After our first audititions, we waited for the Chinese new year holiday to end before announcing the second auditions and the call backs where we are pretty certain of 80% of our final cast.
We would like to take this opportunity by thanking everyone who came out to audition and support this brand new concept which has been created to help shine lights on to the darkest places that we as humans have to go to when trying to deal with our problems.
It’s allowed us to build amazing friendships, sponsorships and given us a great chance of success in what is the beginning of a new community in Shanghai as we finally get started on what has been many months of planning, writing and recruiting.
Please follow us on this journey and help us spread the word by checking out our social media channels and news updates over the coming months.
THE ONES WHO AUDITIONED
Upcoming events.
We did it! We auditioned! and we found our cast! but through that process, we also discovered some truly amazing people and some heart felt monologues that really blew us away.
As a special thank you to everyone who auditioned, we'd like to use this opportunity to showcase everyone's efforts whilst also introducing the concept of Chairs to our friends and colleagues here in Shanghai.
Mental Health effects 1 in 8 people around the world. It's what leads to depression, anxiety and addiction and contributes to many negative conditions that exist in our daily lives.
I created chairs after going through a series of unfortunate events that pushed me to limits that I did not know I could take. My life has not always been easy to say the least but suffering a new type of trauma at the ripe old age of 38 was something that had clearly been building for many years and something that I was not ready for.
As an artist and creative, I did what I normally do and used my pain to channel my art but the more I realised what I was creating, the more I started to realise just how much good this could do for others who were going through a similar range of problems and emotions.
Not to give too much away, All will be revealed at the event myself and my amazing team would like to invite you to join us on what could be potentially an emotionally challenging yet insightful and enlightening event, as we kickstart the process of creating this beautiful concept which we hope to eventually share with the world.
PARTNERS
