Blog
Temperance drama and the poor
Post by Jenny Hughes I’ve been looking at temperance entertainments in a Rochdale workhouse in the 1880s – as part of a broader project to explore what can be learnt about the early histories of ‘social theatre’ or ‘applied theatre’ from theatrical engagements with the poor in 19th century workhouses […]
Making theatre in the midst of austerity – SYMPOSIUM
A symposium on theatre, poverty and inequality Wednesday 4th November 2015 Martin Harris Centre of Music and Drama, University of Manchester (UK) Including the premiere of The House, a solo performance by Carran Waterfield, Triangle Theatre Call for contributions Deepening economic inequality has been identified as one of the most […]
A list of resources useful for beginning to think about a theatre commons
This is the final of 4 blog posts on the theatre commons, written by Jenny Hughes. This one is a list of resources … Commons on the net David Bollier’s blog The Commoner On the Commons Howlaround – a commons by and for people who make performance International Association for the […]
8 steps towards a theatre commons: 5 to 8
This is the third of 4 blog posts on the theatre commons – written by Jenny Hughes Here’s the next post about a ‘theatre commons’ – ‘8 steps towards a theatre commons: 5 to 8’. See ‘Towards a theatre commons’ and ‘8 steps towards a theatre commons: 1 to 4′ for the first two. 5. […]
8 steps towards a theatre commons: 1 to 4
This is the second of 4 blog posts on the theatre commons – written by Jenny Hughes Here’s a second post about a ‘theatre commons’ – ‘8 steps towards a theatre commons’. I am posting the first 4 steps only here and 4 more will follow soon. See ‘Towards a theatre […]
Towards a theatre commons
This is the first of 4 blog posts on the theatre commons – by Jenny Hughes ‘The commons’ is a term that describes things that are organised in ways that hold them open and make them available for common use. Commons can be material (places, people, things), social (relationships, networks), cultural (values, […]
“This is ours”
Post by Jenny Hughes (fire letters created by pa-Boom – see artist credits below) ‘This is ours’ – the final image from the Everyday Heroes outdoor performance held on Heginbottom Crescent and the green space on Smallshaw Lane opposite the Crescent, on 27th September 2014, in Ashton-under-Lyne. The performers led […]
Gaffs, dukeys, geggies and penny theatres
I invited Ann Featherstone, Victorian theatre researcher and novelist, to write a guest post on penny gaffs (partly in response to the ‘Beggar’s theatre’ post – see September 2014 archive). Here it is! Penny gaffs, penny theatres, penny dukeys, geggies were all slang words for unlicensed entertainment spaces in […]
‘The Beggar’s Theatre’ (1931)
Post by Jenny Hughes Somebody recently showed me an interesting account of a poor theatre from a book about theatre audiences published in 1931. The book, called Gallery unreserved written by ‘A Galleryite’, offers a series of revelatory anecdotes about the views, feelings and experiences of those who queued for the ‘cheap seats’ in […]