I'm a firm believer that the arts are for everyone and love nothing more than seeing firsthand the transformative effect they can have on those who engage with them. I am most interested in engaging people who don't usually access theatre and may not think it's for them due to a lack of opportunity, financial, physical, and societal barriers. I rarely just make a show and most projects include wrap-around work to reach whoever will benefit it most. Selected examples are below.
POSITIVE STORIES FOR NEGATIVE TIMES
Positive Stories for Negative Times is an international participatory project by Wonder Fools in association with the Traverse Theatre. I co-designed and managed Seasons 1 - 3. Now entering it's fourth season, the project has engaged 8747 young people in 17 different countries and commissioned 22 new plays by some of the UKs best artists including Tim Crouch, Robert Softely Gayle, Leyla Josephine, Bryony Kimmings, Hannah Lavery, Sabrina Mahfouz, Douglas Maxwell, The PappyShow with Lewis Hetherington, Sara Sharaawi, Stef Smith, Debris Stevenson, Chris Thorpe, Bea Webster, Wonder Fools and Traverse Young Writer Ellen Bannerman. Season 3 in summer 2023 culminated in four new youth theatre festivals at the Traverse Theatre, Ayr Gaiety, Eden Court and Perth Theatre produced in association with Youth Theatre Arts Scotland. All three Seasons of the PSFNT have been published by Methuen Bloomsbury.
DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY YOUNG COLLABORATORS
This an ongoing project co-created by Wonder Fools and a group of young people 16 - 25 from Dumfries & Galloway. They were found through a series of school workshops with hundreds of young people across the region around careers in the creative industries, and then taken on as paid apprentices on our production of And Then Come The Nightjars. We then worked with them over two years to create a new professional production centered entirely around their ideas and research of local stories in their community. This will be The Kelton Hill Fair and is currently in development.
ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVES
Through my work with Wonder Fools I've created two audio archives, both supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The first accompanied our production of 549:Scots of the Spanish Civil War and includes interviews with family members and neighbours of 40 of the 549 men and women who left Scotland to fight in the Spanish Civil War, as well as accounts from historians and verbatim texts performed by actors. It was also presented as an interactive AI installation at your venues.
The second accompanied a production of And Then Come The Nightjars about the 2001 Foot and Mouth Crisis. The show was relocated to Dumfries and Galloway, one of the worst hit regions in the UK. We engaged and trained young people to interview local residents including vets, farmers, councilors, and members of the community about their experience of the epidemic. We also encouraged public submissions adn received everything from stories to poems and music inspired by the epidemic. This was also presented as an AI installation to accompany the show.
NO WAY BACK
No Way Back was created by Frantic Assembly and commissioned by Made by Many (Corby). The project included taster sessions with community participants including schools, youth theatres, over 50s, amateur dramatics, and disability and rehabilitation groups to find a community cast of ten ranging from 16 - 80 years old. They were joined by 6 professional cast and a professional creative team to devise a show in 15 days. The production was performed at Corby Cube. My work included everything from coordination of community workshops and liaising with groups to producing final production.