Upcoming
Clowning Around, The Waverley, Weymouth
(Funded by National Lottery Community Fund, Frenetic Fox Productions)
Having secured #CelebrateNationalLottery25 funding from The National Lottery Community Fund Paul will be partnering with East Boro Housing to facilitate Clowning workshops for adults with a learning disability alongside Bianca Bertalot (NOS Three Theatre).
Workshops will be hosted at The Waverley Community Hub in Weymouth. The Waverley is a fun, dynamic and integrated social hub and multi-purpose community resource for adults and young people with learning disabilities, mental health needs, the elderly, carers, parents with young families, socially isolated and lonely people.
eLiGiBiliTy, Space Youth Project, Dorchester (Funded by Wessex FM, Dorset Council & Crowdfunder, Frenetic Fox Productions)
Frenetic Fox Productions were shortlisted for the 'Projects that matter: Dorset campaign!' which is part-funded by Wessex FM & Dorset Council. The company subsequently reached their target through donations via their Crowdfunder page.
Paul will empower and foster the creative potential of LGBTQIA+ teenagers in West Dorset through meaningful creative workshops.
Group members will be invited to suggest a particular artform/medium/discipline they would like to explore and Paul will create a bespoke call out for local, queer artists who can facilitate a series of workshops linked to themes chosen by the young people. These session will be participant led.
Broadwalk Rewind
Upon becoming resident at the former Shoe Zone retail unit at Broadwalk Shopping Centre with Hypha Studios, Paul and Gill stumbled across a box of photos of the shopping centre from the 80s & 90s.
The photos depict seasonal community events throughout these decades. Broadwalk Rewind is a community art project which will celebrate the history of this shopping centre and enduring community spirit of local residents.
We will invite local families to recontextualise these images into 80s/90s style comic-book style narrative form, using the photos as open-ended prompts for creative writing and additional illustration.
We will also offer space to older members of the public to share their stories of the shopping centre, capturing these recollections for legacy purposes through soundbites recorded, making them widely accessible to all via the free Echoes app.
Current
Stockwood Sounds
(Commissioned by Bristol City Council & West of England Combined Authority, Brave Bold Drama, January-August 2023)
Brave Bold Drama have are working just over the border in Stockwood (BS14) to create a playful, celebratory audio trail around Stockwood which will be launched in time for the summer holidays.
Partnering with Young Bristol's BS14 Stockwood Youth Club, young people will help record and edit the audio for the walk, which will feature local Stockwood people telling stories, memories and dreams.
There will also be a visual artist joining the team to lead free workshops for the Stockwood community so each stop on the audio walk can be illustrated by local people.
Stockwood Sounds is part of the Bristol City Council High Streets Culture and Events programme. Much of this project will happen on Stockwood High Street in the Square. People can turn up between 11am-3pm to drop in public workshops on 14th February, 11th & 25th March, 3rd-4th April, 13th-14th May and 10th June.
The audio trail will be launched at another free community event on 22nd July.
Company of International Artists:
Museum Takeover!
(Commissioned by Bristol Museums,
Brave Bold Drama,
January 2022-August 2023)
Brave Bold Drama were commissioned to make brand new creative missions about Bristol Museum & Art Gallery's permenant art collection for families & schools to enjoy, responding to the 6 themes of Grayson Perry's Art Club temporary exhibition (hosted by the Museum between December 2021-September 2022). These themes included
family, nature, food, dreams, work, and travel.
There are three creative missions to complete. They are all free of charge, and encourage children to investigate the art at the museum, and then create new art inspired by the artwork featured in each mission.
Artwork produced as a result of these missions will be showcased both on the Company of International Artists social media, and on big screens in the Museum.
Each mission launch will coincide with a free family theatre/art workshops hosted at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery on the following dates times: Tuesday 11 April (10am–12.30pm & 1.30pm–4pm), Tuesday 30 May (10am–12.30pm & 1.30pm–4pm) and Wednesday 26 July (10am–12.30pm & 1.30pm–4pm).
Arts Award Youth Theatre Course
(Funded by Arts Council England)
Brave Bold Drama are currently running an Arts Award Bronze course in devised and improvised theatre making for young people living in Hartcliffe & Withywood.
A new short-form improvised show by young people, devised in collaboration with Paul and Gill, Expect dangerous doctors, psychopathic patiences and sudden seizures!
Brave Bold Drama are partnering with Bridge Learning Campus in Hartcliffe, and are delivering most of the rehearsals in weekly extra-curricular sessions within the school day.
Paul and Gill are also partnering with Bristol Improv Theatre on this project. The young people will watch and write a review about a show at Bristol Improv Theatre, and will attend a workshop led by Bristol Improv Theatre practitioners at the theatre.
The course will culminate in the young people performing their own devised/improvised show Nightmare on Ward 13 both at Bridge Learning Campus and at Bristol Improv Theatre.
There will be a public performance at Bristol Improv Theatre is on 17th May 2023, 7.30pm.
Previous
Creative Writing Course,
Campus Pool Skatepark Cafe, Bristol
(Funded by Arts Council England,
Brave Bold Drama, January-May 2023)
This course consisted of 8 free weekly evening sessions. During the sessions participants were supported in exploring writing about group member's interests in a relaxed, informal and encouraging group.
The course itself saw group members collaborating on a brand new audio walk covering BS13 (commencing in Bishopsworth and ending in Withywood). Their writing responded to 6 open-ended themes linked to 6 locations along the walk route. The concept of this walk will help people experience what are often dismissed as"ordinary" streets from a new perspective.
The content from these sessions was content was professionally recorded, edited and published as a free audio walk that will be included in Bristol Walk Fest in May 2023.
Spring Time
(Funded by National Lottery Community Fund, Brave Bold Drama, Spring 2022)
Paul and Gill designed and produced a multi-sensory story about a day out in the countryside for people living with dementia and a carer or family member to enjoy together within a care home setting.
Using the Beside The Sea project as the blueprint for this project, Spring Time sensory story kits were first delivered to care homes in Hartcliffe (south Bristol) and Weston-Super Mare in the Spring of 2022.
They included bespoke images by Suzy Furse, immersive soundscapes by Gill Simmons, and sensory items like woodland smell boxes, lambswool and even a dog lead!
The sound design also included covers of "Here Comes The Sun" by the Beatles and "Afternoon Tea" by the Kinks.
Beside The Sea & Remote Audio Stories Project, Bristol, Dorset & Weston-super-Mare (Commissioned by Activate Performing Arts, with additional funding from Tesco Bags of Help Covid-19 Fund & National Lottery Community Fund, August 2020-March 2021)
Commissioned by Activate Performing Arts, as part of their Creative Communities in Quarantine micro-commissions fund, to respond to the impact of COVID-19 on communities throughout Dorset. This project seeks to engage those isolated from their family and friends, who are unable to access pre-existing activities and networks.
Paul & Gill produced a sensory audio story centred around a ‘day at the seaside’ suited to those living with dementia. This was accompanied by a ‘sensory tray’ incorporating a selection of multi-sensory resources, with care staff taking on an active role facilitating the activity - incorporating textures, scents & smells, tastes and visual prompts which compliment the story setting and punctuate specific moments in the audio journey.
Additionally, Paul & Gill collaborated with residents of Weston Super Mare based Care Homes on a completely brand new story or stories. Through phone calls, socially distanced workshops and written correspondence they shaped the audio story with them. Residents were offered roles in the story. We harnessed the record function on Zoom to gather recorded dialogue.
This was a Sister-project to 'Beside The Sea'. We worked with non-dementia residents (65+) to cultivate this new material.
When touring a previous dementia-sensitive project to care and residential settings we encountered many residents not living with dementia that wanted stimulating and meaningful arts engagement. This latter project was born out of this feedback.
Creative Writing Group, Bishopsworth Library/Online, Bristol
(Funded by Bristol John James Foundation & Bristol Library Innovation Fund, Brave Bold Drama,
October 2020-July 2022)
Paul & Gill have made space online and in -person, when restrictions allow, every Monday to explore a wide range of writing styles, build confidence, gain support, meet published authors and have fun at our new Creative Writing Group.
The group is for people who live in BS13 (Bristol) aged 16+ to adult and sessions are FREE to attend. This group provides exciting opportunities to work with published authors. Absolute beginners to more experienced writers are equally welcome.
Sessions explore working in a wide range of styles including: poetry, writing for spoken word performance, scriptwriting, novels in various genres , journalism and song lyrics.
Expanded Performance: Bristol + Bath R&D
(Commissioned by Bristol + Bath R&D/Watershed/Bristol University/Bath Spa University, May-December 2020)
Paul, Gill and, at the time, Bristol University Student Intern Katie Chalk were one collective of the six industry partners selected by Bristol + Bath Creative R&D to run a research project on the theme of Expanded Performance.
Their focus was on whether the use of technology in performing arts opportunities means young people from less privileged backgrounds are more likely to engage. As part of this research they are researching projects from all over the UK that have used technology to help young people engage with performing arts.
The Hive Totem Collective
(Commissioned by B&NES Hospital Education and Reintegration Services, Brave Bold Drama, Summer 2020)
Paul & Gill worked with HERS to create a new digital space to celebrate the creativity of the young people they work with, creating an online gallery that launched in early September 2020.
During a socially distanced Drama workshop the group discussed possible names for this new online gallery and The Hive Totem Collective was born!
The Hive Totem Collective online gallery celebrates the 'expressions of the heart' or creative expression of the young people, and is also be a space for the young people to learn new creative skills from each other.
CIA (Company of Indoor Artists)
(Funded by Quartet Community Foundation and Arts Council England, Brave Bold Drama, April-October 2020)
Between April and October 2020 Paul & Gill worked in partnership with two local primary schools Merchants' Academy and Fouracres Academy in Withywood to support 64 children aged 8-12 who were in receipt of free school meals to enjoy being creative at home.
Both co-designed a range of themed creative activities presented as Creative Missions. These included opportunities to make visual arts, music and creative writing at home. The kit boxes we delivered provided children with all the materials they needed to complete the missions and the missions did not require access to the internet.
Short films to introduce each mission were shot and disseminated. Children without digital access at home were able to watch these films at school, upon collection of their materials, before starting their missions.
The Butterfly Effect
(Commissioned by Ginkgo Projects and Keepmoat Homes, Brave Bold Drama, Autumn 2019/Winter 2020)
This project explored what Hartcliffe residents enjoyed about being in natural spaces. Residents talked to Paul & Gill and designed, built & decorated willow butterflies to express their relationship with the natural world. This expression informed the development of a new natural space to be created within some new housing on a Hartcliffe site.
These butterflies were shared and celebrated as part of a community procession event in February 2020.
Photo taken & Butterflies constructed by
Sophie Howard:
Easter Parade, Creative Workspace, Bristol
(Funded by National Lottery Community Fund, Brave Bold Drama, Easter 2018)
Collaboratively Paul worked alongside group members on their very own reimagining of the lavish Hollywood classic 'Easter Parade'.
Making costumes, choregraphing dance routines, designing show invitations and working on clowning skills, this play-in-a-week series of workshops culminated in a showcase of their devised show for friends, key-workers and family members to enjoy.
Cracking the Egg Conundrum (Commissioned by Parson Street Primary School, Brave Bold Drama, January 2019)
Commissioned to design and facilitate a week-long, pop-up residency in Parson Street Primary School. The school suspended their entire timetable for a week to focus on their creative writing skills. Paul & Gill created a series of walkabout characters who were investigating the sudden appearance of glowing eggs on school grounds, leaving the children to speculate as to what the eggs were and explore this through creative writing.
Facilitator for Say So Drama,
Dorchester Arts Centre
(Employed as a Freelancer, Summer 2014)
Paul faciliated a 'play-in-week' series of workshops inviting people aboard the ol’ ship Blackbeard for 'A Pirate’s Life For Me' a devised, untold story of a crew of bandit Pirates.
Scurvy sea dogs boarded the vessel for a week-long, pirate-themed summer school to search for pirate treasure, mermaids and discover new foreign lands.
Sessions incorporated various aspects of Drama, Dance and Music – including physical theatre, tradtional folk dance and writing & performing original sea-shanties.
A Song for Knowle West
(Commissioned by Knowle West Media Centre, Brave Bold Drama, May-November 2018)
Paul & Gill were involved with an 8-month residency at Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol to collaborate with the community on a song project. Having visited many community groups of all ages in Knowle West to gather lyrics, riffs and rhythms inspired by their experiences living in the ward, this became a new three-part song which we recorded and transferred onto an interactive 'Song Station'. This device enabled people to not only listen to the song, but also remix and upload their own versions to SoundCloud.
Facilitator for Say So Drama, Dorset
(Employed as a Freelancer, February 2013-December 2014)
Paul was a Facilitator for Dorset based arts provider Say So Drama. Say So deliver weekly fun and engaging creative workshops for children and adults with learning disabilities. These workshops are person centred, tailored specifically to meet the needs of the individuals within the group. Providing an encouraging and supportive environment to increase confidence, motivation and self-esteem to all that attend. Paul ran the Wareham and Blandford Forum groups. During this period group members devised/reinvisioned shows based around Commedia Dell'arte, Sit-Coms and Musical Theatre.
During this period Paul also faciliated a 'play-in-week' style Summer school entitled
A Pirates Life For Me inviting participants aboard the ol’ ship Blackbeard for 'A Pirate’s Life For Me' a devised, untold story of a crew of bandit Pirates.
Scurvy sea dogs boarded the vessel for a pirate-themed Summer school in the search for pirate treasure, mermaids and mysterious lands.
The Summer school incorporated various aspects of Drama, Dance and Music – including physical theatre, tradtional folk dance and writing & performing original sea-shanties.