In its original form, Theatre was a celebration of life indulged in by the members of a whole village or town. It was used to exorcise demons, to con the gods into giving them a good harvest, to mock them as well as show that they weren't grovellers. Now days it has developed into an elitist "art" and has lost its role of social celebration.

But it does not have to be that way.

As a society we have many demons we must exorcise. The only way to do this is by the use of magic intonations, ritual movements, in fact the magic of theatre. We paint our faces, we don masks and through pure movement we mimic the demons, the politicians, the heros and heroines of our society and shrink them into shapes we can manipulate.

And we all can do it. A number of people who have worked in this area for a number of years are prepared to run workshops in order to share some of their hard gained knowledge, experience and sheer energy that comes from working in such close contact with our society.

Make-up is a good word to describe the art, for that is just what you do. You make-up a face that you wish to show the world. For example you choose parts of your facial anatomy that can be highlighted to advantage. You can change your make-up to match your moods, or even to completely change your external character. You can become weather-beaten, sallow, ill, old, or young. You can alter your natural colouring and create a stylisation of a king or queen, soldier, demon or clown.

Aileen has much experience in this field, having worked in professional and amateur theatre, T.V., children's theatre, improvisational theatre/ mime and clowns. Over the last year she was a member of the professional clown troupe Chameleon, and took part in "Phenomenon of Short Duration" for the University Arts Fesivall. At present she is working with Larf street theatre group.