'I will be EVERYTHING', Peterborough Pilot Workshops

Hi, I'm Holly and I’m excited to say that I’m the new intern for NIE. As part of my placement I’ll be mainly focusing on the Peterborough-based projects that NIE have planned for this year.

Last week we were working in primary schools round Peterborough picking on some exciting young minds for ideas to turn into a new show, ‘I will be EVERYTHING’. The workshops focused on the world of the future, fast-forwarding students to  2063 and the terrifyingly old age of 58 and asking them to explain a little more about their new world! Discussion included the new and exciting and also the scary and worrying things that the 2060s have in store, with students presenting their thoughts to their classmates.

Amongst our 58 year old participants we had a monkey, a ninja, a few dentists, quite a few footballers and one ghostbuster. We were told of several new inventions, including flying cars, houses that can get bigger and smaller and a newspaper that has tomorrow's news.

Even new words, ‘Catadogo’ anyone? Someone from 2063 could tell you that it means, ‘I like your pet’!

It wasn’t all happy news though, in 2063 everyone has red eyes and there is a worryingly growing population of giant ants...

Thank you to all the kids and teachers and West Town, Middleton and The Beeches primary schools for all your help and enthusiasm, we can’t wait to starting using your ideas in ‘I will be EVERYTHING’!

Holly Sharp - NIE Intern

Hansel and Gretel and Past Half Remembered

After wrestling with fake snow, tree trunks and blowing up hundreds of balloons, sadly, the first show I worked on during my work placement with NIE has come to an end at the Key Theatre in Peterborough. However, we will be back at the Key in May with North North North so we look forward to working with them again. Hansel and Gretel has been great and I have been able to work closely with Cat and Sarah, the Producer and Assistant Producer, which has given me a real insight into what it takes to make a show happen. Hopefully the show will be back at the end of the year, so watch this space!

So onto the next show! We are very excited about our first ever appearance in Wales and one night in Reading with award winning Past Half Remembered. The show will start in Reading on the 26th March at the South Street Arts Centre and then travel over to Cardiff to the Sherman Cymru Theatre for the 27th- 28th March. Ticket are available and it looks to be a brilliant show.

Katie White

Hansel and Gretel shows and art installation

We've had a brilliant time in Peterborough with Hansel and Gretel playing at the Key Theatre this February half term. Here are some of the audience responses to the show: Alongside the production, we have been working in collaboration with Metal, Vivacity and artist Robyn Woolston to create an artwork in response to the show. Robyn has worked in 3 local Primary schools (The Beeches, Hampton Vale and St Thomas More) to help generate the material, and ran craft workshops over each performance day at the Key Theatre. The result was a beautiful installation picking up key words and phrases from the show, and bringing the forest into the Key Theatre foyer:


 


Thanks so much to the Key Theatre, Vivacity and Metal and the audiences in Peterborough for making this a really special week!

Cat Moore - UK Producer

Hansel and Gretel in Peterborough

We have been working on projects in Peterborough for many years now in collaboration with Vivacity. This has included our site specific show Tales from the Middle of Town co-produced with Eastern Angles which transformed a former Waterstone's store in Queensgate shopping centre and was a walkabout show using young people as our co-creators,with the material generated through storytelling workshops in 12 Primary schools.

 

 We are really pleased to be back in the City this week with family show Hansel and Gretel which performed to family audiences at The Junction (Cambridge)in 2011 and has just returned from a seven week sell-out run at the Tobacco Factory Theatre (Bristol). This is the first time we have played the show outside of a christmas season, and we opened yesterday at the Key Theatre to very excitable half-term audiences.

 We have four more performances to take place and had some great responses from audiences so far:

"a wonderful, funny show, that I would have been very sorry to miss" Juliet Lee Catch it while you can! Cat Moore, Producer

Pirates, Princesses, Robbers and Monsters!

On Tuesday Hannah Whelan led more story writing workshops in schools in Peterborough with some of the NIE artists in tow. The workshops were fantastic and involved children of all different ages and backgrounds. Games were played and many stories were written. We now have lots of stories to help with the show so the next day we took a closer look at them.

On Wednesday Elisabet, Lenka, Unai, Carly, Tom and Ellie presented stories one by one to the rest of the group in promenade style performances around the Quaker House where we have been rehearsing.

Unai was a boy about to go on his first date, but he turns into a monster in the shower and can’t go. Elisabet became a young girl who buys a Princess dress for her mothers wedding but the Pirate that sells it to her rips it. But it’s ok they remain friends and get married when she’s older. Tom was a nervous young boy who had to judge a Police line up after his tictacs and water that he bought from the shop were stolen. Lenka told the story of a thief who stole chocolate from a local shop. Carly had us running around the Quaker House trying to escape from a very angry woman who’s shop we had just robbed and Ellie told us the charming story of Adam and Eve and the tale of the venue we were in. The stories were all written by children as part of the workshops. It was interesting to work with stories that follow an adult logic to an adults and it will be great to see how these stories affect the development of the show.

Then it was time for more music, out came the violin, guitar, accordion and drum (accordion case) and folk songs from Spain, Norway, Czech Republic and UK filled the corridors of the Quaker House.

Check back in the next few days for more about what we are getting up to in Peterborough.

written by Tom (Gideon) Womwell

The arrival of the New Arrivers

We have touched down in Peterborough to begin work on our exciting new site-specific show in conjunction with Eastern Angles, Arts Council and Peterborough City Council. The new show is called New Arrivers and will open in Peterborough in the Autumn of 2010.  You can find out more about the show by visiting the mini site at www.nie-peterborough.webs.com.

On Monday Alex, Cat, Tom (Gideon), Lenka, Elisabet, Carly, Hannah, Unai, Tom Anderson, Ellie, Marie and our intern Izzy descended on the Quaker House for the first day of work.

We kicked off the day by talking about the project and how we will be using stories written by school children as part of NIE workshops as inspiration for the show. The show will be performed in a disused shopping space in Peterborough city centre, therefore we have lots of stories about shops and many of them were written by children who’s first language is not English so that is interesting.

Then came everyones favourite part. LUNCH! Cat prepared a wonderful lunch which was all devoured very quickly. The afternoon saw movement work with big wooden canes and a trip up to Lincoln Road. This road is amazing, the streets are lined with shops and businesses from Czech Republic, Poland, Asia and lots of other places, it’s a real mix of cultures which is great to think about for the New Arrivers project. We ended the day with a coffee in a portugese café…. Unai had a beer.

Next up we will be holding more workshops in schools and going through the stories that have been written so far…..oh and we will be playing instruments too!

written by Tom (Gideon) Womwell

New departures / New arrivers

We have now left Norway but not without a hint of northern light. Driving back to Oslo on Thursday night after dinner at Kjell and Iva's house, the sky was green. And not some weird bluish green, proper grassy green. It didn't move, so it wasn't as spectacular as you'd expect from the Northern Lights, but to see them this far south is unusual enough for me.
So, moose and northern lights on one tour: it can't get more Norwegian...

When we left, Anna gave me this for the van:

A small guard dog.
So if you have anything you think would look cool in the cabin of our new van, please bring it along to wherever you will find us. I want to turn the van in a mini museum of our travels.

Today is the start of a new project in Peterborough. The New Arrivers have arrived there last night and I have asked Elisabet to keep us updated. I'm not there myself, as I have some extra travelling to do in order to get to Graz on time with all of our possessions - in our new van.
(Is it clear how excited I am about our new van?)