And so we enter yet another year, one that may – perhaps – be our busiest for some time.
Our first job is to complete our Colwick Woods Audio Guide project, which has been funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. We’ve already carried out 17 full length oral histories which have been transcribed and are ready to be deposited with Nottinghamshire Archives, and are now poring through these as we start work on creating the texts of what is currently looking like three discrete audio walks for the site. One of these will tell of the history of the woods, and will be a directed walk; one will blend stories and thoughts about the ecology, past and present of the site, to accompany any kind of wandering route that the listener wishes; and the last (if we can stretch the budget this far) will be specifically for younger people.
The work will be launched later in Spring, accompanied by a series of walks, talks, and a small exhibition to which everyone will be welcome.
March will see us working with the Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum on a rehearsed reading of ‘Riot Act’, a script that Andy originally wrote for the Nottingham Playhouse. It’s a raucous play that explores the myth of the Nottingham Luddites (with an eye to the present) with live music and song and we’re currently looking to bring together a cast for this.
Hopefully by then the Wellingborough Black Heritage Arts Trail – for which we made an audio guide (built around this set of audio stories) – will be up and running, and we will have a clearer idea of two projects that we hope to start work on later this year. We can’t say too much about those (and we don’t want to hex them) but one will be another audio project for a much loved Nottingham venue, and the other a site specific community play in a location with a connection to one of our most spectacular shows.
It’s only January, so hopefully more ideas will start to bubble up but in the meantime do keep an eye on what we’re up to.