How we made it: Hidden Winter
SBC’s Artistic Director, Rosie MacPherson, discusses remaining agile and responsive in lockdown.
Hands up if you’ve made/planned 17 versions of the same project this year?!
Stand & Be Counted in association with The Herd Theatre is about to launch our latest piece, Hidden Winter, supported by Bradford Producing Hub, Theatre in the Mill, Oldham Coliseum, Hull Truck and Arts Council England.
It’s a project that entirely sums up what making work in a pandemic is. We pitched an idea way back in July as part of Bradford Producing Hub’s Make Work scheme. SBC have been big fans of The Herd for a while now, their touring theatre for children is so unique and adventurous and we have been keen to do more to include the whole family in the work we do with people seeking sanctuary. The Herd was keen to connect with families new to the UK so it was a collaboration of dreams!
Pitching a new show in a lockdown is messy, it was Lockdown 1 at this point so we were allowing ourselves to imagine it would all blow over fairly soon BUT from an application point of view were writing three versions of every project because every commissioner, funding body, opportunity giver was approaching the current and future state of things differently.
Bradford Producing Hub is a special breed, they reached out and made it clear they wanted our dream scenario and would work with us further down the line, if we were selected, to reimagine it for whatever scenario we found ourselves in. Were Tiers a thing at this point? So much is a blur now.
We submitted a co-created outdoor family adventure with interactive installations and flash mobs and tour guides and multiple location points and, even as I write this, I’m just imagining how much disinfectant we would have needed.
Needless to say, that is not the version we are launching on the 19th of February.
We’ve pushed this work back a couple of times, we originally wanted it to take place on the 21st of December, the shortest day of the year. But every time it came to make the call, Bradford was being landed in whatever the tightest restrictions were. We toyed with making it all about the workshops with children, we were all having so much fun on Saturday morning zooms, building pillow forts and inventing characters that, perhaps we buy ourselves more time doing that?
But.
That would totally negate the point and value of this type of work. These families don’t engage with theatre because it so rarely acknowledges their experiences or existence. We need to ensure that their ideas and talents are front and centre and very, very public.
There was no way we were letting a little thing like a pandemic stop us.
I say that flippantly but something that has become so clear to us in the last year is that, whatever the situation, we cannot pause, we cannot cancel because we cannot disappear. So much support for refugees and asylum seekers was cut during the pandemic, the measly £36.95/week that asylum seekers (who the UK government does not allow to work) receive was raised by only TWENTY-SIX PENCE. Our most vulnerable and isolated communities were utterly abandoned this past year. Charities across the UK have scrambled to protect and along with them we have ramped up and reimagined every way we can ensure the wellbeing and safety of our participants (such a formal word, permission to change to pals?)
So, a city-wide tour where you touch a load of set and mingle in a crowd of performers was not happening. Activity would continue as workshops whilst we plotted a digital promenade piece. We would still try to stage a takeover of Centenary Square in Bradford with children’s imaginings playing out on the big screen and maps painted on the floor to lead you to different (socially distanced) points in the adventure. We had a display piece planned for TiM Square, QR codes for more digital content, hidden treasure… and then we went into lockdown so…
Next idea, please!
And now we are here. With what I honestly believe is the best iteration of this project we’ve come up with. Something that comes up a lot for people seeking sanctuary, particularly newly placed families and individuals is the issue of getting to know your new area when you don’t know anyone and you don’t speak the language and making friends at work isn’t an option. The feeling of being trapped and isolated is an ongoing issue for these communities, they’ve been dealing with it long before lockdowns were a thing. We knew we needed to create a version that enabled families in their allotted one hour outside to explore what’s on their doorstep. The storyline that the children had created in workshops was all about making new friends and challenging yourself, finding understanding, and learning new things. It’s a heartwarming story of discovery.
An interactive audio adventure was the only way to tell it. Audiences can press play at home and join in with Hiba’s adventure to find new friends. They venture to their local park and overcome different challenges with her. What is initially Hiba’s story becomes their story.
We hope what we’ve made with these children can offer a new twist on a well-trodden route for everyone who takes part. And for everyone new to the area, we hope you feel the understanding and guidance of 8-year-olds who have been in your shoes and know exactly how you feel.
We’ve never done anything like this before but what a way to skill up...we’d never made a documentary or computer game before Covid-19 either! We are so grateful to all our co-creator families, the imagination, excitement and persistence is inspiring. Thank you so much to our partners for giving us the freedom to make it happen no matter what. Thanks to them, audiences in Oldham and Hull can now join in on the adventure too… and share it with a friend on the other side of the world if they want, why not? This is theatre for the internet.
Credits
Made by
SBC Theatre and The Herd
and
Yalin, Yara, Huweida, Maduk, Ahmed, Tarik, Jenika, Jenny-Beth, Aya, Rehana, Husaifa, Farud, Yasa, Shaymaa, Ahlam, Razi, Gihad, Zakrit, Iman, Mostafa, Mohammed, Vasilis and Stanley.
Narrator - Firas Chihi Hiba - Frieha Warburton Writers - Rosie MacPherson and Sam Caseley
Directors - Hannah Butterfield and Ruby Thompson. Producer - John Tomlinson
Web Designer, Graphics and Photography - Smart Banda. Illustrator - Lucy Bingham
Sound Designer - Ed Waring. Composer - Sam Caseley. Translators - Firas Chihi and Kafa Zizi
Trailer - Pishdaad Modaressi. Access Consultant - Daniel Watts
Special thanks to - Rich Warburton, Jenny Harris, Lisa Mallaghan, Ben Pugh, Ruth Vassallo, Basema Hashas and Munya Redman-Bayasi
Supported by and in association with - Bradford Producing Hub, Theatre in the Mill, Cast, Hull Truck, Oldham Coliseum and Arts Council England.
