Past Productions

Fairymonsterghost

In The Beginning

Storyshed

Students and adults from many cultural backgrounds worked with leading media artists to create an interactive installation of digital stories in a bespoke shed, designed in association with Somerset Wood Recycling. Storyshed went on a miniature 'world tour of North Somerset', transporting visitors into other realms with personal stories that surprise and enrich - a celebration of home and away and a crossing place for both. Storyshed highlighted and celebrated cultural diversity in North Somerset.

Local inn-keeper, Bella Venezia, is convinced that she is the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world. Her customers are quick to agree with her… especially if they want to avoid a whack from her wooden spoon. But could it be that Bella’s own daughter, Bianca Rosa, is fairer by far than she? And what’s the best way to get rid of a rival who lives under your own roof… Imprisonment in a tower? Murder in the woods? Or maybe a visit from a hairdresser who specialises in poisoned combs…

Drawing its inspiration from a traditional Italian folktale, Bianca Rosa & The Seven Robbers was a darkly comical weaving of spoken and sung text, theatre, dance, costume and live music exploring themes of beauty and celebrity. This lively community show for family audiences involved performers of all ages, and was co-devised by members of the newly-formed Bournville Community Theatre Company along with director Angie-Athay Hunt, professional actor Vincenzo Pellegrino and musical director Sarah Moody. Bianca Rosa & The Seven Robbers was performed in July 2010 at the Healthy Living Centre in Weston-super-Mare as part of Theatre Orchard Project's community engagement programme, ROOTS.

Persephone

Persephone and her mother Demeter don’t always see eye to eye, but then that’s hardly surprising for a teenage girl and a single working mother. When Persephone slams out of the house one rainy night, she winds up at the doors of seedy nightclub The Underworld, owned by her uncle Hades. This is the start of a quest of mythical proportions that will change their lives forever…

Following on from their first community show Bournville Becomes Electra in 2007, Theatre Orchard Project returned to the Weston’s Bournville estate to create a modern take on another classical Greek myth. Persephone was the dramatic tale of one girl’s journey to the Underworld and the fiery love between mothers and daughters - told in words, movement, song and music.

Persephone was co-devised and written by a group of Bournville residents and director Angie-Athay Hunt, featuring professional actor Joe Hall (Hades) and live music by Sarah Moody. Persephone was performed in December 2009 at the Healthy Living Centre and Weston College as part of Roots - TOP’s ‘community cohesion through the arts’ strand.

“What do I want? I want more confidence in large groups and with people I don’t know, I want to learn new skills – to sing, to act, to dance - and I want to achieve a performance I can be proud of. When do we ever get a chance like this?”

This film is 54 MB.

Theatre Orchard Project produced two new shows, Still Voices and Chime Child, performed in and around local heritage churches during North Somerset Arts Week 1-10 May 2009, and co-funded by Find Your Talent to enrich young peoples’ cultural experience in N. Somerset. Both shows will go on to tour the region in their own right in 2010, after being ‘seeded’ by Theatre Orchard Project.

www.findyourtalent.org/pathfinders/north_somerset.html

Still Voices

An evocation of the haunting landscape and legends of old Brockley performed by professional storytellers & musicians, the Bristol Feral Choir and music students from Backwell School. Created by storyteller Michael Loader, and performed at Brockley’s atmospheric medieval church of St. Nicholas.

“Still Voices was an exhumation of haunting tales from Brockley, poetically meandered through by Michael Loader to the accompaniment of voice, harp and harmonium. A choir of young songsters from Backwell school sung like angels, while ivy-clad members of the Bristol Feral Choir added a deadpan touch of mischief by wandering the aisles intoning epitaphs. This was an other-wordly evening where story, music and song met each other in a beguiling space. Magical stuff out in the sticks.” ****
Venue magazine

Chime Child

Somerset storyteller Jane Flood collaborated with musicians Fiona Barrow (fiddle) & Martin Solomon (harp) to awaken the wealth of songs, stories and music hidden in the landscape, performed at Puxton’s magical medieval ‘leaning’ church.

“Jane Flood’s Chime Child was performed by flickering candlelight in Puxton’s gem of a church, stunningly bedecked with wildflower wreaths and bundles of willow wands, with the sell-out audience crammed into tiny wooden pews. To a backing of harp and fiddle from multi-instrumentalists Fiona Barrow and Martin Solomon, and with curious snippets of old Somerset lore delivered theatrically from the pulpit, this masterful storyteller created a living landscape of words and music that connected on a heart level. The show ended with the audience encircling the church at sunset, before untapping a keg of finest local scrumpy while the fiddler played a jig. Magical stuff out in the sticks.” ****
Venue magazine

“A magical night with a timeless, other-worldly atmosphere”
Venue magazine on Jane Flood’s Whispers in the Wind
www.janefloodstoryteller.co.uk

Wisht Night image by kind permission of John Caple (artist) and John Martin Gallery, London.

Festival of Eight

During the summer of 2007 Theatre Orchard Project produced FESTIVAL OF EIGHT, theatre professionals worked with local communities to create eight new performance events that took place indoors and outdoors in North Somerset.

“Theatre Orchard Project would like to thank Liz Milner for use of visual images and photos from Festival of Eight.”

NAILSEA / BACKWELL
Nowhere
The story of a little village that changes into a new town, told in words, projected images and song, devised by people of all ages from Nailsea & Backwell.

PILL
Meet on the Green
A fete of scenes, stories and incidents from Pill’s seafaring past, with live music, dance, sea shanties and a Maypole, performed on the village green.

YATTON / CLAVERHAM / CLEEVE / CONGRESBURY
The Hill
A contemporary Mummer’s Play with song, live music, dance and willow art installations, performed atop Cadbury Hill by the ‘four tribes’ of Yatton, Claverham, Cleeve and Congresbury.

WESTON-SUPER-MARE
The Visit
A surreal multimedia comedy made by vulnerable adults in which three aliens from the Planet Silica land in Weston and wonder: do I belong here… and do I want to?

PUXTON / HEWISH
Whispers in the Wind
A journey into the magical landscape of Somerset to unlock the stories contained in an ancient apple ritual, told in poetry, story and song.

CLEVEDON
Changing Faces
Waves of colour, sound, poetry, mime and music performed on Clevedon’s historic seafront.

WESTON BOURNVILLE
Bournville Becomes Electra
A contemporary Greek tragedy exploring ancient themes of conflict, loss and identity, devised by young mothers from the Bournville estate.

PORTISHEAD
The Whispering Post
A timeless tale of love, betrayal and longing for a lost past created by fourteen writers from the community.