When I set out to create a full length play based on my concept about Almira a refugee girl who saves two warring tribes from destruction, my purpose was to gather together a group of young people from around Trowbridge, Bradford on Avon, Box, Corsham and Frome and put them together with a professional team to produce a show in a small-scale Theatre. The result was a year long process, culminating in 3 performances at the Arc Theatre, Trowbridge in March 2010, and the entire journey is recorded on the project blog which you can read about here.

Everymans Land Blog

WHAT I SET OUT TO DO

Primarily, I wanted to build on what I had achieved over the last two years when I had worked with composers and children in schools, to produce two huge music projects in Wiltshire and Bristol. I wanted to work with a smaller group of young people, to explore further the themes within the piece, and produce a two act play which would be based on the story line, and incorporate the songs that came out of the music projects. The storyline, involving the laid-back, lazy Redbacks, the stressed-out, fast-moving Bluebacks and the refugee girl who saves them, offered much scope for expansion, and an opportunity for young people to create their own versions of these strange creatures and their worlds. And have a lot of fun, as well as explore the themes around Almira’s rejection for being different.

My other main objective for this project was to produce high quality workshops and performances that gave the young people involved a real showcase for their talent and also exposed them to the issues within the piece-celebrating and accepting diversity, and working together to create a more peaceful world. Naturally, I also wanted to develop as a writer and producer.

My vision was to  achieve my objectives by working with an existing youth theatre group at a small scale theatre in the region, in weekly sessions over 5 months (two ‘old’ terms).In reality, we had to establish a new group. This group were to be involved in every aspect of the production from thinking about the themes in the piece and offering up their own experiences, to creating characters and developing the story line for the piece. In addition to, taking on their individual parts, building on their characters and learning new songs and dances.

I was lucky enough to get on board The Arc Theatre, Trowbridge as my partner, and although the project would be part funded by the fees from the participants in the theatre group, it soon became clear we would need more funding and support if my vision of the piece was to succeed. That’s when I approached TheatreWorks.

BACKGROUND

TheatreWorks initially helped me get ‘Everyman’s Land’ off the ground in the early days when it was primarily a music project. I had originally written the piece for performance at The Wembley Conference Centre in May 2005 by 1000 children, but next wanted to develop the story and produce it around Wiltshire. TheatreWorks were instrumental in helping me find the partners that led to school workshops and performances at Wiltshire Music centre and Marlborough College. I then went on to write a new version for Bristol which led to a performance at The Colston Hall. This project was shortlisted in 2009 for a national children and young people’s award under the arts and culture section.

Everymans_Land_shortlisted_for_Children_and_Young_Peoples_Now_Award

GETTING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD

Encouraged by the success of the previous music projects, I contacted TheatreWorks again to ask for their support in my latest venture, to turn ‘Everyman’s Land’ into a Two Act play. Their support helped me forge a successful partnership with The Arc, with advice on all the crucial elements including drawing up a realistic budget, recruiting the appropriate professionals and funding. They also gave me some leverage funding to get things going. Their advice on my funding applications helped me to secure a grant from Arts Council England which meant the project was well and truly on its way.

Next I set about the long process of recruiting 35-40 young people aged between 10-14 who would form the main core of the group. I visited over 20 schools and talked in assemblies, and took in flyers to theatre and venues all around the region. The Arc also marketed the project to their mailing list.

Once we had the main core of the group on board, we decided to give opportunities to older students to act as mentors. The mentors were vital for the successful running of this project. The objective was to have a group of slightly older young people aged from 15-17 who could assist the director and creative team with the process. In addition, we wanted one technical mentor to assist us. In return they would also have parts in the play and their participation would be free of charge. Again I targeted various schools in the area and talked to drama teachers about suitable candidates.

We ended up with 7 wonderful young people -all reliable individuals with a passion for theatre.  Dominic from TheatreWorks offered to do a team building/leadership skills workshop and make them aware of how to deal with potential difficulties when working with the younger children. As well as their role as described above, in Term 1 they actually proved themselves to be able assistant directors on the project.

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BUILDING THE TEAM

Throughout the months it took to get the participants in place, we were also busy recruiting the professionals who would bring the process to life.

We conducted a series of interviews with directors, and TheatreWorks helped with this process by being on the panel.

Tim Prior came on board as director. He had experience in working in directing youth projects with organisations including Travelling Light Theatre Company. He was also an actor, and I felt that he could bring much to the piece, as he shared my passion about the themes within it, and was keen to work on an exciting project that involved devising, as well as directing. Our relationship was extremely collaborative, which was crucial to the success of our work together, particularly in Term 1, which was devoted almost entirely to devising.  Tim was joined in Term 2 by Ben Hughes-Games and Lucy Howell, experienced Musical Director and Choreographer respectively. Rob Dicks was hired as set designer, and was assisted by Natalie Rose Ball, and Tim Bartlett was brought in for lighting design.

DEVISING and WRITING THE SCRIPT

All the devising work was recorded on film, so that I could go away and transcribe ideas from film to paper and start developing them for the piece. This process was invaluable to me as a writer, as I wanted the script to spring out of something ‘real’ and build on the participants’ own ideas and experiences.

This was my first time writing a play, and also witnessing devising work. Before I started the project, I imagined myself working separately from the director to some extent, thinking that he would run the devising sessions and I would take notes. In reality, it was much more of a  collaborative process,  and because our technical mentor, Rose Johnston, was able to film all the work as it was being created, I was able to work alongside Tim, sometimes feeding in to the devising work with my own questions that needed answering. Sometimes I would use a second camera to film a process, whilst Rose was elsewhere with another group.

The result of this in-depth involvement with the group meant that I was easily able to extract what was important from their work and incorporate it into my writing. This was truly an exciting process for me, as I would literally be watching back some of their work, and an idea sparked by something they had done would lead me from the screen to my computer, where sometimes dialogue would almost ‘write itself’!

It was my intention to write the entire script in one go over two or three weeks, during the Christmas holidays, once Term 1 devising had finished; in reality I started piecing together the script towards the end of the second month, which meant that before the term ended, I was able to present a draft script to the group, and Tim could conduct a reading. This meant Tim and I could get on with casting and tighten up the script over the Xmas holidays.

One of the most important devising sessions in this project was led by The British Red Cross who came in and worked with the participants in a special role play session designed to help them understand what it's really like to have to flee your country, and face the problems of getting through immigration to be accepted into a new country.(Pictures above) What the participants learned in this session had a direct impact on what came out in the script, and did much to increase their understanding of what it was like to be an asylum seeker, which was one of my objectives.(see blog entry here:)

Everymans_Land Blog Entries 2009/10/13

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

When we were part way into the second term and rehearsing the script, we realised that we probably hadn’t allowed ourselves enough time! We had allowed 15 hours for looking at the issues and devising, and 30 hours to rehearse and get the project up to performance standard. Two weeks before the show, we really couldn’t see it coming together, but because of some additional funding gained from other organisations, we were able to offer 2 more rehearsal dates without asking parents for more payment into the project.

Due to some intense marketing I am delighted to report that I was able to fill the 161 seat theatre on all three nights. I didn’t underestimate the need for a strategic marketing campaign which included around-town promotion featuring characters form the show, visits to schools, articles/listings in the press, and targeting people by phone/email and word of mouth as well as featuring prominently in The Arc brochure  and on their website. Facebook was also used to promote the show and we had a presence on the TheatreWorks and Theatre Bristol websites.

However nothing was to prepare me for what happened on opening night when my son aged 15 was rushed into hospital with a suspected emergency appendicitis!

But as they say, the show must go on, and it did, because fortunately my husband was there with Dylan when he went into theatre, and I spent most of the next 3 days by his bedside which certainly took the pressure off me worrying about the show!

 

WHAT CAME OUT OF IT?

To sum up, this was a successful project with some initial teething problems. The main challenges were working with so many young people with different needs, in a relatively short space of time in an effort to produce satisfying workshops and three high quality performances. Overall I think that we overcame these challenges, and in fact the constraints of time and working with large numbers of different people  served to spur us on for the best possible outcomes, both in terms of nurturing and  advancing the group’s learning, and producing a show that people would want to come and see.

Many writers, teachers and directors have fed back to me on the show, and overall this feedback has been positive. One person has commented that they expected a more in-depth exploration of the themes; I agree that given more workshop time and a group bias towards older participants, the treatment may have been somewhat different, but we worked with what we had and judging from comments from participants and audience members we seem to have got the tone right.  Furthermore, we were creating a piece that had songs already in existence and the treatment had to be in keeping with these. That is not to say the writing could not be improved upon, and I am in the process of re-evaluating the script at present.

The project has delivered on its objective to leave a lasting legacy in this area, as I have already conducted outreach work in line with my proposal, and the Arc group were invited to sing at a local ‘International Day’ event soon after the show.

In addition, I have had interest from several schools to stage the show, one in a 300 seat theatre. I am also looking for another Theatre Youth group to stage the show so it can continue to grow and get better. There will probably be many re-writes along the way!  (Do get in touch if your Youth Group would be interested in putting on ‘Everyman’s Land‘moira@everymansland.com) Ultimately, I would like to see it produced with a professional cast.

Future plans also include developing further the ‘Everyman’s Land’ outreach’ as well as establishing a regular theatre group with the participants from this project, and getting the script and CD published as a package to be used nationally by schools. I also have a picture book and Young Fiction (8-12) books in development.

All in All, ‘Everyman’s Land’ at The Arc Theatre, Trowbridge was a satisfying and rewarding project and I learned so much along the way. TheatreWorks were pivotal in helping me to achieve my vision, and I would be more than happy for them to be involved in its future development in the next phases. If anyone wants to know more about the project, and follow the blog, pleas do go to the website www.everymansland.com

Moira Townsend Williams

Everyman's Land