Welcome! Asta#Plays works in three main domains - find out more below. 

EDUCATION

Ventures in education include provision for tiny learners, older children, and adults. Promoting creativity is at the forefront of Asta#Plays' vision for education, be it creative development through music lessons or strengthening creative approaches for teachers.

COMMUNITY

Shakespeare suggested that music could be the food of love - let's play on! Asta#Plays endeavours to foster communities, bringing joy and healing - perhaps to those who didn't realise they needed it. Singing, drumming, and musical storytelling are the tools with which I cultivate love, acceptance, and togetherness in any community.

BUSINESS

The sky's the limit when it comes to your business. Book a truly meaningful, effective, and cohesive activity for your staff which engages employees in drumming, songwriting, or singing. Studies show that synchronising musically increases cooperation, empathy, and sharing capacity, as well as securing emotional bonds. P.S. It's great fun, too!

Why Play?

"We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing."

Charles Schaefer

"Play is the foundation of learning, creativity, self-expression, and constructive problem-solving."

 

Susan Linn

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity."

Carl Jung

Asta#Plays believes play is the gateway to potential. Through play we explore, embark on journeys and adventures, destination sometimes not yet known. We take risks and discover all manner of worlds, places and experiences previously hidden. When playing we have fun - fully engrossed, and in flow - fostering the imagination which drives innovation. The process, allows for self expression as well as collaboration. It is an independent yet social activity.

 

In cultural disciplines and creative pastimes we play with sound, we play on stage, we play with words, emotions, balls, instruments, colours...Cultivating, nurturing, and channelling the innate human play instinct through musical ventures with a view to enhancing lives, ability, and relationships is the aim of Asta#Plays.

 

Join me on a musical venture designed for you - come play with me! 

REFERENCES

  1. Schaefer, C. E., & O’Connor, K. J. (Eds.). (1993). Handbook of play therapy (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons. Charles Schaefer was an American psychologist whom many consider to be the "Father of Play Therapy"
  2. . Susan Linn is an American psychologist who specialises in play, and the impact of marketing and media on children. See more at Community Playthings.
  3. Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types: Vol. 6. The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press. Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist, who founded analytical psychology. He viewed play and creativity as vital expressions of the unconscious that enable psychological growth and self-discovery.
  4. William Shakespeare - The famous opening line to "Twelfth Night" ("If music be the food of love, play on...") introduces the play to which themes such as love and friendship are central. However, just like real life, confusion and trauma also present themselves. I use this quote to highlight the need for love and relationships, contrasted with the reality of lived circumstance.