Title
Talking Tales
Year
2017
Location
Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, Cumbria, UK
Description
A multigenerational project conceived by Jenn Bell to creatively capture the stories held in the memories of the volunteers who had worked at Theatre by the Lake's predecessor, The Blue Box theatre. The Blue Box was originally constructed as a mobile theatre which toured to remote towns in post-war austerity Britain. Dame Judi Dench and her late partner and actor Michael Williams were big supporters of the much-loved theatre.
Many of the volunteers went on to work at the new Theatre by the Lake, which opened in 1999.
Jenn trained 8 young drama theatre members in oral history to record the histories of the volunteers. I was commissioned to help the young people get to know the volunteers in the interim, and to produce several illustrated panels evoking both the project and the storied that had been recounted.
'Over the past three weeks both the adults from the Talking Tales Creative Committee and the young people have been working with local artist Celia Burbush. Celia has been commissioned as an illustrator to create visual work for the oral history exhibition in July. In addition to this, and perhaps more importantly, I wanted the young people and adults to go through a process of being able to get to know each other without any pressure of microphones and lots of questioning. By adding a totally different stimulus into the mix I hoped that richer connections might form between members of the group that go beyond what might have been a series of formal interviews.
The sessions with Celia have interpreted memories (personal and theatre related) through the creation of imagery and pastel drawings and by exploring the mechanics of how to draw people and ‘characters’. Each pairing invented a ‘scene’ using their bodies to form still images. In the final session we used the memories, drawings, images and characters to decorate a huge piece of canvas using paints and 3D materials. The artwork took on a life of its own and started to resemble a stained glassed window. It’s been an extremely interesting process. I think everybody involved, including myself, has been placed out of their comfort zone – meeting strangers, teenagers sharing stories with older adults, drawing each other!' Extract from Jenn's blog
Many of the volunteers went on to work at the new Theatre by the Lake, which opened in 1999.
Jenn trained 8 young drama theatre members in oral history to record the histories of the volunteers. I was commissioned to help the young people get to know the volunteers in the interim, and to produce several illustrated panels evoking both the project and the storied that had been recounted.
'Over the past three weeks both the adults from the Talking Tales Creative Committee and the young people have been working with local artist Celia Burbush. Celia has been commissioned as an illustrator to create visual work for the oral history exhibition in July. In addition to this, and perhaps more importantly, I wanted the young people and adults to go through a process of being able to get to know each other without any pressure of microphones and lots of questioning. By adding a totally different stimulus into the mix I hoped that richer connections might form between members of the group that go beyond what might have been a series of formal interviews.
The sessions with Celia have interpreted memories (personal and theatre related) through the creation of imagery and pastel drawings and by exploring the mechanics of how to draw people and ‘characters’. Each pairing invented a ‘scene’ using their bodies to form still images. In the final session we used the memories, drawings, images and characters to decorate a huge piece of canvas using paints and 3D materials. The artwork took on a life of its own and started to resemble a stained glassed window. It’s been an extremely interesting process. I think everybody involved, including myself, has been placed out of their comfort zone – meeting strangers, teenagers sharing stories with older adults, drawing each other!' Extract from Jenn's blog
Partners and coverage
Theatre by the Lake, Friend of Theatre by the Lake, Heritage Lottery Fund. Archive held at North West Sound Heritage and Carlisle City Archive. Jenn created a blog of the project, and an exhibition at Theatre by the Lake and film by Joel Baker also formed a legacy of the work.
