Joined Up
Joined Up was a five week research and development project exploring separation between two very different generations. Our starting point was letter writing.
Joined Up
Working with Whitehall Primary School and Eastside Community Trust we learned of the great love of personal letters across generations. We also rediscovered the joy of unopened letters, were reminded of the generosity of a class of children and uncovered the beauty, emotion and history held within a letter. We asked, could we bring letter writing back in a modern way, not as an elite literary activity but as a place for stories, creativity and song?
The research led us down two pathways both of which were shaped and informed by the generosity of our participants.
The Concert
We asked pupils form Whitehall primary school to write to a future audience at the Bristol Old Vic.
We asked them to share their lockdown experiences.
Our plan was to place these letters on the auditorium seats, one for each member of the audience.
A personal letter about a shared experience from a stranger. But we couldn’t have an audience.
So instead we started exploring different ways of performing the letters. We discovered that songs honoured the words. These songs were strange, random and sometimes moving.
We developed them further with sound designer Sam Halmerack and performed a live concert for the class on zoom.
Song Collection
Joyce’s Writing Shed
Joyce was brought up by her grandparents on a sugar estate in Jamaica. Her mother was in the UK and kept in touch writing regular letters until Joyce came to Bristol when she was 14. She loves letters.
They are a beautiful thing
A thing someone has spent time on.
It is something we should not lose.
Joyce suggested we create writing stations and they could pop up anywhere. They would encourage people to sit down and write a letter. We gave this idea to designer Mary Drummond and she created Joyce’s Writing Shed. Inside would be a writing desk like no other. A desk to inspire the letter writer in all of us.
Credits
Director
Emma Williams
Producer
Jenny Farmer
Sound Consultant
Sam Halmarack
Movement Consultant
Laura Dannequin
Design Consultant
Mary Drummond
Photography
Mark Dawson
