Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/321747
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 JUNE 2014 36 BEYOND Borders aims to look be- yond the borders of both writing and Malta. This project is being held between June and July at the Teatru Salesjan in Sliema. Dutch playwright, Stella van Lieshout, will spend eight weeks residency work- ing on new material while running a series of workshops with young peo- ple from across the nation. The workshops will kick off with brainstorming sessions on how cul- tural differences and similarities can serve as the foundation for new ex- citing stories. Every week there will be two group sessions, with a series of individual meetings between par- ticipants and workshop leader. For the Advanced workshops, each individual will create a piece not ex- ceeding 10 minutes, which will be then performed by a group of actors to a select audience at the end of the journey. All scripts written by young people will be discussed in detail and encouraged to build perform- ances at a later stage. The Beginners' workshops will empower young people to devise a scene in writing for theatre. Concurrently, Lieshout will be working on her own script, using the 106-year old theatre and the Sliema community as her main sources of inspiration. The piece will then be put up to the general public through- out the 2014/15 theatre calendar. Advanced workshops will be tak- ing place during June 9, 12, 16, 18, 23 and 25; while beginners' workshops will be taking place during July 2, 7, 9, 14, 16 and 21. Sessions will be held at 19:30, Teatru Salesjan, Sliema. All workshops will be conducted in English. To book, fill in the ap- plication form found on www.te- atrusalesjan.com . Presentations are slated for July 26. All sessions are held free of charge, however against a refundable €20 deposit. The initiative is being supported by the Malta Arts Fund THIS WEEK The sand martin is a member of that graceful group of accomplished !iers: the hirundines. The star in this family is the barn swallow, which is also the most common and widespread, but sand martins are no rarity in Malta either. They di"er from swallows by having shorter tails – though forked nonetheless – and by being sandy brown in colour rather than blue-black. Like other hirundines, the sand martin (M: hawwiefa tax-xtut) is migratory, so we see it mostly in spring and autumn while it is travelling between Europe and Africa. Unlike the swallow, however, there is no record of sand martins nesting in Malta, and one reason is that we don't have the kind of breeding habitat they like. While swallows and house martins readily use human habitation to build their mud nests – porches, under balconies and overhangs, even inside buildings – the sand martin digs its own horizontal burrow in a sandy bank, usually near a river or lake. So it is likely that sand martins will keep using our islands for short B&B stints, and little else. Text Victor Falzon Photo Raymond Galea 406. SAND MARTIN Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us www.foemalta.org. You can also support us by sending a blank SMS donation on 50618070 (€4.66) or 50619223 (€11.65). GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 308: MAKE THE MOST OF TOMATOES - You just can't beat the taste of fresh tomatoes. But did you know you shouldn't store them in the fridge? And that you can transform overripe tomatoes into the perfect pasta sauce, rather than chucking them in the bin? The first shipment of highly polluting Canadian tar sands oil to Europe arrived in Spain earlier this week. warn that this delivery provides a snapshot of Europe's energy future – a continued addiction to ever-dirtier oil The 600,000 barrels of oil arrived in Bilbao and have been purchased by Spain-based multinational Repsol. It is the first major shipment of tar sands oil to the EU. Tar sands oil is one of the dirtiest fossil fuels in commercial production today and produces three to five times more climate changing emissions than conventional crude oil. Described as "the biggest carbon bomb on the planet" by leading climate change scientist James Hansen the extraction of tar sands causes pollution and deforestation, kills wildlife and threatens indigenous Canadian communities. Tar sands are currently only exploited on a large scale in Canada. Tar sands are deadly for our climate and must be kept in the ground and out of Europe. To give a lifeline to this dangerous industry is to set us up for climate disaster. In 2009 the European Union agreed to reduce emissions from transport fuels through a law known as the Fuel Quality Directive. This directive was due to enter into force in 2010. Due to the European Commission's inaction, it still hasn't been implemented. The Canadian government has undertaken an aggressive lobbying effort to stop the law. A report by the US-based Natural Resource Defense Council shows that tar sands imports could skyrocket from about 4,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2012 to over 700,000 bpd in 2020 as a result of pipelines that are planned or under construction in the US and Canada. These imports would undermine the Fuel Quality Directive's aim to reduce fuels emissions by 6%. Friends of the Earth is calling on the European Commission to finally implement a strong Fuel Quality Directive to keep the most polluting fuels out of Europe. Text by Martin Galea De Giovanni First delivery of devastating tar sands arrives in Europe Dutch playwright to hold workshops at Teatru Salesjan Stella van Lieshout Stella van Lieshout (1988) graduated as a playwright in 2012 at the School of the Arts in Utrecht. She recently finished her studies at the London Metropolitan University, reading a Master of Arts degree in the Creative Industries. Since 2008 she has been working for a Dutch organisation 'Young Art' and their annual 'Young Art Festival', an organisation that tries to enable young people between 15 and 30 to explore their creativity, provide a stage for emerging artists and inspire young audiences to experience art through different forms. She started working with Young Arts as a theatre programmer. She later became Associate Artistic Director, guiding several young people and their artistic ideas while working on an event for young debutant writers and mentoring a 'guerrilla art' group. In 2011 she also developed the educational program for youths and their first experience with creating their own work through the use of several art forms. Stella van Lieshout