Over 40 members of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s resident Young Company and Elders Company have joined forces to create a new show inspired by the way music connects us.
Following the closure of theatres last month, the team behind the Manchester venue’s annual inter-generational show made the decision that the show would still go on, but in a very different form.
The result, CONNECT FEST, will receive its world premiere next month and features twice the number of participants as usual with the youngest aged 14 and the oldest aged 82.
Running on the Royal Exchange website from 11-15 May 2020 with a new episode released daily at 11am, the innovative work is directed by Young Company programme leader Nickie Miles-Wildin and has been written by award-winning rapper, beatboxer and theatre-maker Testament.
Commenting on the project, Miles-Wildin said: “We had always planned to make a piece of interactive work about the feeling of music, the impact it can have on our lives at different times. Then lockdown happened.
“What became apparent was how music is used to connect people – choirs singing over Zoom, music on balconies across Italy, Spain and here in the UK communities coming together to clap, bang pots and pans for the NHS. Over Zoom we have had the opportunity to be together and create new work.
“From listening to various songs to developing characters and devising scenes, Testament has created a wonderful thread of stories each with connection at their heart: an 80s band wanting to reform, a family Zoom that doesn’t go according to plan and a long-lost love being found over the internet. At a time when we are all socially distanced our wonderful Inter-gen Company make us feel more connected than before.”
Testament added: “My work is all about connecting to others – politically spiritually, and socially. Music is one of those connectors that can transcend our backgrounds, social environment, present difficulties and perhaps even time itself.
“Working online is new for most of us but has given us a chance to see how theatre and music can work across digital platforms. Given the current self-quarantine that much of the world is under, even the process of making the show together has brought the very thing the show celebrates – a sense that we are not alone.”
Billed as a ‘theatre show, a music festival and a soap-opera rolled into one’, CONNECT FEST features five different groups of people with different tastes, passions and favourite bands all making their way to a music festival.
Young Company member Carmen Fyfe Paulo commented: “With all of the craziness going on in the world right now and everyone being on lockdown, I think it’s awesome that we’re still doing this Intergen Project! We’re managing to stay connected with a huge range of people who all have different stories to tell, and we’re navigating theses weird coronavirus times together in a fun, creative way.”
Angela Thomas
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