Building Partnerships to make theatre support our communities

John Frankland, 17 July 2012

John Frankland called the session. It was a question that followed on from the Shop For Theatre project in Falmouth where original writing was performed in local shops with one of many objectives being to support the businesses in the High Street. I wanted to explore that question and whether it was valid.

Participants: Franki Anderson, Lorenzo Bocchese, and a gentleman whose name i didn't register! sorry. Joined by Jane

So we began with talking about the role of Art/Theatre to support business, taking in the Shop for Theatre example and bringing in the Mary Portas initiative to revitilise the High Street.

This led to discussion of Theatre happening in different spaces and its purpose in doing that.

This was catapulted with Lorenzo taking us to Palermo and the fact that there in the main square is a Theatre space not a church as a means of bringing together very diverse cultures. They could not share a church space but they could share a Theatre.

This led to a discussion of when does a community see itself as a community? With an agreement centring around the importance of stories and that Theatre is the catalyst that makes a community. We felt that like a bakers every village needs a theatre space in order to reflect the community.

We ended with a thought that current society has taken away the theatre from the community (maybe it is perceived as dangerous to the “rulers”) through the process of rewarding success with funding that demands that you are taken away from the community.

We ended with an Action point to create a Cornwall Community Theatre Research Group.

How exciting is that! If interested in joining please let me know.

Tags:

Community, Theatre Space, community, Shop for Theatre, Community Theatre Research Group