BLACK COUNTRY TOURING
Big Ideas In Small Spaces
Bringing Theatre & Dance to the Black Country
Taking a look at the new brochure you will see that although it is a bit smaller in size it is definitely not any smaller in stature. It is still packed with exciting new shows as well as some old favourites. We have the amazing Charlie Dark with his show Have Box Will Travel, to remind us of our miss-spent youth in bedrooms listening to music. There are also, two opportunities to see The Man Who Planted Trees by Puppet State Theatre Company. After seeing them at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival a couple of years ago Deb our Administrator has been working really hard to bring it to the Black Country for us all to enjoy.
Black Country Touring and Foursight Theatre in association with English Heritage present The Corner Shop
We have recently been busy with our own production The Corner Shop. Like our previous site-specific performance piece we are working with Foursight Theatre and English Heritage. This will be our biggest project to date and has been thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
As with Apna Ghar, Black Country Touring has trained community volunteers in interviewing skills. They have been busy been collecting stories and memories, from shopkeepers, their families and customers of the shops in the Black Country, ranging from traditional English to South Asian to Polish. Black Country Touring and Foursight Theatre are now creating a new theatre production based on these stories. The production takes place in a disused shop unit in central West Bromwich, just opposite The Public from 26 September – 4 October 2008.
As part of the project we have already worked with two Sandwell schools: Devonshire Junior School and St Philips Roman Catholic School to take the children on a creative journey finding out about their local small shops. In addition to the national archive in Swindon the project will also be archived at Sandwell Community History and Archive Service, Smethwick Library. There will also be a touring exhibition around the Black Country, and possibly beyond, developed by Sandwell Museum Service.
News
reSonAte Programme
Resonate - a celebration of three-years work
(May 2005 to April 2008)
After an initial pilot year in 2004, over the past three-years (since 2005) we have been delivering our South Asian programme by creating more links with companies, producing projects and developing promoters and audiences.
We have just completed a multi-media evaluation of the first three-years of Resonate in partnership with Anouk Perinpanayagam and Sakab Bashir.
Click the link below to learn more about the activities and download detailed information. www.bctouring.co.uk/resonate
News
r:evolve
Over the past few years we have been working with the Arena Theatre and mac, as part of r:evolve, to develop more theatre by diverse minority artists living in the West Midlands. The process is now coming to an end and there are some exciting results of the project to be seen.
Things That Can’t Be Said (a r:evolve and Apples & Snakes co-production)
Things That Can’t Be Said, our first performance poetry production, has finished touring and was warmly received by audiences. Last year we recruited and commissioned 5 spoken word artists: Michéle A.L. Barzey, Marcia Calame, Cheri Gillings, Vincent Gould and Shaun Welch, to respond to the theme of the project’s name.
Evolved – a festival of new work
A range of bright, exciting and emotive work has been produced over the past year, which will be showcased at the festival at Black Country venues as well as the Arena and mac from 4 – 15 March.
Black Country Show Dates
Danger!… Gulaam Fatima
(suitability 11+)
By Ulfah Arts (developing artists);
Shamshad Khan and Black Voices
4 March 7.30pm Bantock House, Wolverhampton (BSL signed)
Joey Boy (suitability 13+)
A r:evolve production in association with Nu Century Arts
6 March 7.30pm Community Action Project, Smethwick
For more information about r:evolve click here
News
A Thin Red Line
A new play, produced in partnership with Birmingham Rep Theatre and Kali Theatre Company after we decided to do something together to mark the 60th anniversary of the Partition of India.
We recruited and commissioned Sonali Bhattacharyya to write a play that explored partition in present-day Britain. Initially we ran workshops with 5 distinct and cross-generational community groups across the Black Country exploring this theme.
The play that emerged is about a relationship between a British Pakistani man and a white woman who fall in love, crossing cultural, religious and social divides. Their relationship is put to the test, when they return home to deal with a family crisis and have to redefine who they are.
For more information about A Thin Red Line click here
News
The Audience Survey
Many people who came to shows in the last season (Autumn-Winter 07) were kind enough to fill out our Audience Questionnaire. The people who filled them out don’t often get to see the results, so here are a few interesting things that came through.
- 90% of you thought the shows you saw were either good or excellent.
- Half of you come from within two miles of the venue.
- For a quarter of you, you only see shows in BCT venues
- 60% of you come because some one has told you about it – never underestimate the power of the spoken word!
- When asked what kind of shows you most liked to see, top came comedy, closely followed by physical theatre and stories from other cultures. So companies out there wondering what to do next, a sure fire winner would be a cross-cultural physical comedy show!
