Archive for: theatre
Call out to theatre projects engaging with poverty, inequality and economic justice
Click here for a Portuguese translation of this post Click here for a French translation of this post Click here for a Spanish translation of this post Are you a theatre-maker or theatre organisation addressing poverty, economic inequality, or engaging with economically hard-up groups? What methods and approaches of theatre-making, participation […]
‘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 […]
Pop up paupers, pathways and pauper mice at the Workhouse, Southwell
Post by Jenny Hughes On Sunday 24th August I went with Carran Waterfield from Triangle Theatre to the Workhouse at Southwell (Nottinghamshire). The workhouse was bought by the National Trust in 1997 and renovated with loving care and no expense spared to a condition as close to the original as possible, opening […]
Introducing ‘The House’
Post by Jenny Hughes I have been working with Carran Waterfield from Triangle Theatre, to begin to develop ideas for a solo piece of performance (to be devised and performed by Carran, with a premiere in October 2015). We’ve provisionally entitled this ‘The House’. The performance will make use of […]
The (neo)liberal politics of applied and social theatre – critiquing ‘self-help’ and ‘self-entrepreneurship’
Post by Jenny Hughes I’m putting a health warning on this post – it’s more relevant to readers interested in applied and social theatre, rather than theatre and poverty more generally – it comes out of some research I’m doing for a chapter in a book called Critical Perspectives in […]
The only way is Rochdale (3)
Post by Jenny Hughes To return to the records of entertainments taking place in Dearnley workhouse in Rochdale during the final third of the 19th century (see previous posts – The only way is Rochdale 1 and 2). I found at least one entertainment for each month of the years […]
The only way is Rochdale (2)
Post by Jenny Hughes I’ve been looking at records of entertainments in Dearnley workhouse in Rochdale, from its opening in 1877. This has meant looking at huge, heavy, dusty, crumbling minute books kept by the Board of Guardians and various workhouse committees – minute books are full of beautiful handwritten […]
The ethical value of theatre
Post by Jenny Hughes The editorial page of the Guardian newspaper on 31st January 1890 gave a brief account of a debate amongst the Poor Law Guardians of Bolton on ‘the ethical value of theatre – especially, of course, in its relation to the future welfare of pauper children’. Mr […]
Love on the workhouse stage
Post by Jenny Hughes The Pall Mall Gazette on 6 June 1900 included a slightly ‘arched’ report on the extraordinary care for the ‘aged poor’ in a workhouse in Copenhagen, who are provided with ‘a theatre of their own to which they may go in the evening’. To ensure readers […]