N E W S
06.04.22
First review is in!
A huge thank you to Your Harlow for visiting us at the Harvey Centre over the weekend and reviewing our show.
Read the full article here. For now, here is a snippet from the lovely review…
“To be honest it was near perfect. Not just in the technical side incorporating lighting, colour, narration and film but in how it made this reviewer think and feel.
This reviewer hopes to see more immersive theatre such as this but the bar has been set very high.”
Don’t miss out, we are still coming to Chalkwell, Basildon, Chelmsford and Colchester!
introducing…
THE IN HER SHOES CAST!
We are delighted to announce the cast for the In Her Shoes installation and tour!
We’d like to thank all the amazing people who have been involved in our research and development, from way back in 2020 and up to this point.
The cast for the installation and tour includes:
Kate Millner as Joan
Florence Jackson as Isobel
Michelle Barrington as Peggy
Chloe Lee as Chloe
Eleanore Frances as Betty
Anne Odeke as Kudiwa
Jo Melville as Marie
and
Cara Dawson as Margaret
Preview and tour dates will be released very soon! Check back in for updates.
14.09.2021
IN HER SHOES: UPDATE
We are delighted to announce that the build and final development of In Her Shoes has been supported by Arts Council England. We are over the moon!
The development, design and build of the installation alongside our amazing collaborators will be kicking off at the start of November and will be previewing from January 2022. We cannot wait to get stuck in and make this thing a reality!
Raise your hand if you’re coming to see it next year!✋🏻
For more information on the support Arts Council England can offer, visit their website www.artscouncil.org.uk
25/01/21
ACE GRANT
We are over the moon to start our next phase of ‘In Her Shoes’, this time with the support of Arts Council England!
Blood, sweat and tears went into this one and we are extremely grateful to have been awarded this grant (especially in these particularly tough times!)
Huge amounts of love and thanks go Alison Garner, Roxanne Carney and our super mentors The Paper Birds who helped us every step of the way.
LETS GET TO WORK!
MERCURY CREATIVES
In October 2020 we were awarded a place on the Mercury Creatives programme, led by the Mercury Theatre in Colchester. This provides us with professional support for a year including one to one mentorship from the amazing team at the Paper Birds. We are super excited for what this year will bring us!
ESSEXISM
We were recently lucky enough to be photographed by the wonderful Mark Massey for his ongoing project ‘Essexism’.
In his introduction, Mark details his thinking behind the project’s origins.
The Collins Concise Dictionary in my local library defines an ‘Essex Girl’ as “a young working-class woman from the Essex area, typically considered as being unintelligent, materialistic, devoid of taste, and sexually promiscuous.” Other dictionaries there have similar definitions. It’s a stereotype based on a mixed bias of gender, social class, and geography, dating from the early 90s and more recently perpetuated by the TV series ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ (TOWIE).
As a lifelong Essex resident with a working-class background, I am challenging this pejorative, stereotypical portrayal with this ongoing series of portraits of real ‘Essex Girls’. I’m father to two young daughters, and wonder whether the stereotype will still persist by the time they become adults.
Each portrait is a collaboration and I encourage suggestions on location, themes, pose and dress etc, so that sitters are projected in the way that they would like to be portrayed.
All participants have a connection to Essex, and I aim to include a diverse range of backgrounds, age, abilities, class, ethnicity, body shape, sexuality, geographical locations etc.
To view the rest of the project and learn more about Mark’s work, click here.
24/05/20
WHERE’S NESSA?!
We’re part of the virtual treasure hunt called “Where is Nessa?!” launching on 25th May. If you want to join in head over to www.showupproductions.co.uk. It’s free to play but any donations are split with Southend Emergency Fund www.southendemergencyfund.org.uk, a charity set up to help people from Southend affected by COVID-19.
06/04/2020
A little note and update from us during this very strange time...📝
We were due to begin our next stage of Creative Development March 2020 with plans to have a brand new piece of theatre to show you all in the Spring. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are having to follow suit and put this on hold in order to keep safe and healthy. We are gutted by this but it is in no means going to stop us from creating and planning for when things will be back to normal again and we urge all our creative, artistic friends to do the same. We shall continue to create and support other artists through this crazy time.💡
Sending love and good health to you all. 💜💖🖤
OUR RESIDENCY AT METAL SOUTHEND HAS BEGUN…
Our Research and Development project My-Dentity has launched as we’ve started our months residency at Metal Southend. We are loving our time here already and have some exciting workshops coming up over the next month so watch this space.
Thank you to the wonderful team at Metal who have awarded us this beautiful space and have made us feel so welcome here.
My-Dentity is supported and funded by Arts Council England.
20/11/2018
we need some time and space…
We are incredibly excited to announce that Southend arts organisation Metal have awarded us a Time & Space Residency for the duration of April 2019.
We will be using this time to develop our new work. For our next project, we want to explore what it is like to be a woman in the 21st Century by speaking to women from all walks of life.
Our research will include visiting and speaking to women of all ages, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, disabilities, with different backgrounds to hear their stories. Blown Fuse Theatre’s aim is to then develop our research and findings into an interactive and promenade piece of theatre.
We’d like to thank the team at Metal for giving us this amazing opportunity and supporting our work. We’re so excited to be working amongst other inspirational artists working on their own practice.
You can read more about Metal and Time & Space Residencies here.
