Play in a Week February 2008

There are all sorts of things going on in the theatre at the moment. We have rehearsals for The Caretaker, Up Against the Wall is running and audiences seem to be really enjoying the night plus we have activ8's Play in a Week in the BNT. There is always a buzz when the young people are in the theatre and they are lucky enough to be working, not ony with the fantastic activ8 team, but also our new Artistic Director, David Thacker.

Play in a Week, this time, is focusing on the work of another Bolton institution The Bolton News. The young people have looked at the news over the last week in Bolton and are bringing some of the stories to life with the power of theatre. One of the Play in a Weekers has taken on a Communications role (hi Lewis!) and it has been his job to draw some designs for the programme cover and provide a little commentary to go with them. Below you can see the outcome of some of his efforts and also get a quick look at some of the stories that have been inspired by features in the paper. I have to add that the images and the scenes in the play used stories they found as a basis but there is both poetic and artistic licence involved in their development....


Story 1: Two people went to a newsagent to buy a paper. They saw a house that they liked in the paper and went to see it. But (dum dum duuummm) the house was haunted by Lewis (you can see the poetic licence coming in here) the mad scientist. The couple then went back to the agent to feedback their spooky findings and they all went back to the house together to check if it was just a hologram...and they were never seen again!

So let that be a warning to you house buyers, if the house is haunted probably best not to revisit it...!

Story 2: There was once a lady. She had a car crash because she was on the wrong side of the road. The kids managed to get out and called for an ambulance. Unfortunately, the ambulance came but couldn't get her out so they called a fire turk. The fire truck came to the rescue and cut her out of the car and into the ambulance.....


Story 3: There was an old mosque where people used to worship and that was used in the war for people to hide from soldiers. One day while on a walk with his dog, the dog ran off and into the mosque. The dog saw an old man reading the Koran.

The owner of the building wanted to turn it into flats but the dog owner wanted it left as it was a used for its original purpose. He commented 'It was used as a mosque, so let it be a mosque again'. A public meeting was called to decide the outcome of the meeting. Everyone came and argued.

I walked in and said 'Let's have 3 different parts. Leave the top floor as it is, ahve the middle as flats and have the ground floor as a mosque'. And they all agreed....

Well done Lewis for skilled and productive negotiation.