benchtours'
Community outreach goes from strength to strength
Mayhem was born from a desire to create a show that could involve people of all ages, abilities and experience. It would offer opportunities to develop skills in acting, dance, music, film, design and costume - something based in and about East Lothian, but not a historical document; something that could be created by, with and for however many people who wanted to get involved. It seemed reasonable to call such a thing 'Mayhem'.
| Involving around 100 people, the project attracted participants from Mansfield Road and Port Seton Day Centres, the Brunton Youth Theatre and East Lothian Dance Group, as well as members of the wider community, some of whom had appeared in the company’s Peer Gynt the year before. Development work began over a year ago with a series of workshops benchtours ran in conjunction with the Brunton Theatre and East Lothian Council. This involved putting together a mixed-ability adult drama group supported by specialist sessions in the participating day centres. |
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The rehearsal period itself was much shorter, going from public launch to opening night in just over seven weeks. Undoubtedly at times the title seemed a hostage to fortune – but not that often. The massive commitment, generosity and good humour of all involved clearly saw to that.
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Mayhem received three public performances at The Brunton Theatre and played to a total audience of 804. The project succeeded in breaking down barriers in enabling new and diverse people to participate in the arts. |
Their experiences have been captured in a dedicated video documentary which clearly highlights the advantages of the mixed ability model. Feedback received from participants, audience members and the press was unanimously positive and has confirmed benchtours’ position as a leading provider of community and disability arts in Scotland.
Marketing strategies included a schools drawing competition, talks with local history groups and fly-posting Musselburgh High Street. The most successful activity, however, was the 'phantom race' organised at Musselburgh Racecourse to film a crowd scene for the final scene.
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This event was publicised in the Edinburgh Evening News, on benchtours’ website and by word of mouth, culminating in a crowd of around 200. The coverage and goodwill generated from this unusual event naturally had a direct effect on sales. |
There has been keen interest from everyone involved in the project in keeping activity going. This will involve the two day centre groups continuing to meet every week. The mixed ability drama group, which formed the core company for the production, will seek ways of continuing the group and explore the possibility of future workshops and a smaller scale production in 2006. The band has also expressed a strong interest in continuing to play together and the possibility of this happening at The Brunton is currently being explored.
benchtours’ commitment to the region will continue through the innovative new Partners residency programme, funded by a Scottish Arts Council National Lottery grant with partnership funding from East Lothian Council. This opportunity is particularly exciting for benchtours, as it will enable the company to develop a long-term relationship with its local communities and will hopefully mark an end to the tradition stop-start funding of outreach work which is frustrating for all involved. Based on Explorers – the company’s acclaimed disability project in Aberdeen – the programme will comprise three separate artists’ residencies in multi-sensory installation, film and music. It will run from August 2005 until March 2007.
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For more details on Partners: Scotland's Artist Residency Programme fund, visit the funding section of the website.
For further details benchtours' projects and more visit benchtours' website. |
Supported by the National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council |