TOWN SQUARED: DOVER - PUBLIC PERFORMANCES & REPORT
Town Squared Dover is Barrel Organ’s ambitious civic participation project, designed to address community cohesion, isolation & arts access. Through the delivery of 16+ workshops w/ Dover smART, Future Foundry & Samphire Project, we’ll make 4+ brand new short plays of theatre on the theme of “Dover: Past, Present & Future” which will be performed at Maison Dieu. The process will be followed by extensive evaluation and a sharable output on the Town Squared model.
“Fun, creative and, for some, an opportunity to step outside their comfort zone in a safe, supportive environment”
Town Squared participant
Why Town Squared?
Over the past decade or so, local and community arts spaces and services have been slowly eroded and stripped of their resources due to a reduction in both local and national arts funding. In years gone by, towns large and small were home to small repertory companies, acting as both an outlet for citizen creativity and a training ground for local talent. As arts provision and facilitation becomes more centralised and well-catered for in larger cities, there is a concern that towns up and down the country will be forgotten. In the wake of Covid, it is England’s smaller towns which will struggle the most to rebuild. As businesses migrate out of high streets and more everyday interaction happens online, town and community centres must be reinvigorated as a place of leisure, creativity and play. In this context, a local, place-based approach is going to be more important than ever, and it is important that every town, no matter how small or remote, has access to the rich tapestry of forms which theatre has to offer.
The Project
Town Squared takes Barrel Organ’s unique brand of theatre-making to culturally underserved towns, collaborating with communities to make live relevant work which speaks to the present moment. In each location, the project begins with a series of workshops with citizen writers who, with Barrel Organ team members, explore the process of creating and shaping a script for performance. Having discussed and considered the form and possibilities of live performance, the citizen writers are supported to write and create their own short plays.
These scripts are then rehearsed with a hybrid team of professional and citizen theatre-makers, and presented in open, accessible performances to build civic pride and enable citizens to see themselves on stage.
The first iteration of Town Squared took place in Leighton-Linslade in 2022-23, and saw nearly 200 people collaborate together over the course of the year. Participants included children from the age of six to the age of eighty six, encapsulating market stall conversations and open-access creative workshops. We worked with local youth centre TACTIC, a group of older women, a Mencap group, an open access cohort and the local Fun Palace event to create half a dozen short plays which were presented by professional actors at three separate events over the course of the year, reaching 500+ audience members.
Since the project concluded, there have been growing calls for more arts provision in the town, with local councillors playing a larger role in culture locally. Similarly, one group of citizen writers we worked with continued to meet to develop collectively written radio dramas.
Each participant we engaged with described how the workshops allowed them to feel more creative and improved their mental wellbeing, as typified by these three responses:
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“A lovely friendly group of people where it is safe to come up with ideas and provides the opportunity to be creative.”
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“It has made me feel part of something in the community. I have developed in confidence in terms of my writing ability and creativity and I have enjoyed the collaborative aspect of the writing.”
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“I really enjoy expressing myself through a keyboard - I find it so much easier than in conversation to really clarify what I mean - the thoughts flow more easily through my fingers than from my mouth.”
The Pilot
The Workshops
The workshops we host are creative, accessible and responsive. They are structured to enable participants to feel a part of the creative process by responding to exercises, telling stories, creating characters and designing spaces. The key is that anyone can get involved and offer their ideas, no matter how they wish to do so, and even sometimes without realising it.
Some exercises we use are:
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“Map of my world” - where participants choose various places on a world or national map, place themselves there, and describe why
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“Freewriting” - citizen artists are challenged to write instinctively for a set period of time about a particular subject or theme
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“Character creation” - responding to a series of prompts, either alone or in groups, participants generate characters out of nothing
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“Two truths and a lie” - participants share two facts which are two and one which is a lie, encouraging the generation of fictional ideas and imagination
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Group discussion to filter ideas and decide on structures
We have already held a number of creative workshops with Dover residents at Dover smART, Access Arts & Adventures, and Dover Youth Festival. Some key moments include:
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An older resident drawing a picture of “Dover Theatre” when asked the question “What does Dover need?”
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A group of disabled participants imagining a steampunk, sci-fi future Dover in which there were no barriers to accessibility
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Queer citizen artists generating non-binary characters with fascinating backstories
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Maison Dieu volunteers recounting stories of relationships made and key milestones celebrated at the historic venue
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Local professionals asking if our workshops would enable them to build confidence and get better at public speaking
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Young participants expressing a desire to make immersive and/or digital performances
The Performances
A key part of the success of Town Squared: Leighton-Linslade lay in the public performances of the work which was made by citizen artists. After each performance, participants reflected on how validated they felt by having their work presented to an audience, and understood better the centrality of craft and editing to their work. No matter how empowering or fulfilling the creative workshops are, without this vital part of the jigsaw puzzle the project is not able to reach its full potential.
We have found that the public performances:
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Increase civic pride, by enabling a community to see itself reflected on stage
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Build the confidence of each participant
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Enable participants’ work to be seen by a wider range of audiences
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Develop a sense of community in the citizen artists, by asking them to build something which will be seen by others
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Demonstrate professional processes and good working practices
At the moment, all of our workshop work in Dover is fully funded. However, we currently have limited resources for any kinds of public performances, and require Arts Council England funding to make this happen.
Public performances as part of the Reawakening festival at Maison Dieu (pictured right, under refurbishment) will reach many more people than may otherwise be reached, will help to fill the venue with new stories for its next chapter, and provide a beautiful backdrop for the stories our participants want to tell.
"This is a brilliant group. We need more opportunities as adults to get together and use creativity and playfulness."
This work has been funded by grants from a National Lottery award from The National Lottery Community Fund, Kent Community Foundation, and Henry Smith Charity.
