(Image Description: An audience gathers in the theatre space, with glitter ball lighting and you can see the back of Jade & Amy looking at them, wearing Doorstep T Shirts which say the following text: ‘We all make the story happen’).
Burnt Out in Biscuitland – A reflection.
By Jade
After having had a week to reflect I feel ready to write a little reflection of our experience of Burnt Out In Biscuitland. Co-Producing the Torbay, Doorstep Arts leg of the tour, I feel hugely privileged to have been able to work closely with Touretteshero and Local Associate Artist, Charlie Fitz, to make this experience as joyful and as inclusive as possible.
Before the event:
Our journey first started by trying to find a suitable venue with a baseline requirement for accessibility. Torbay has a lot of old buildings, small amounts of creative infrastructure and not much money generally. So Mair and I worked hard to find the most appropriate space. After lots of conversations and hard graft we eventually found the Riviera Conference Centre, which had some, but not all of the specific requirements. The team were amazing, responsive and super helpful all the way through the project and were really on board with what we were trying to achieve.
Food:
At Doorstep Arts we love to hand out food to our audiences, so we asked the wonderful Big Bakes Bakery to make some individually wrapped cookies to hand out to our audiences – see below. They were so tasty.
(A Box of individually wrapped cookies with a Big Bakes Bakery label on them)
The event:
The event itself was so powerful, joyful and thought provoking. Jess Thom is incredible, hilarious and an innovative artist. The audiences were a joy and we had really rich conversations in the Q&A.
Learnings:
One of the many learnings for us was about the Relaxed Performances. Both events were Relaxed with flexible seating – bean bags, cushions and a place to lie down. We had a chill out space too. The audiences fed back how they loved that we moved chairs to where they wanted to sit and could feel free to move around when they needed to.
(Image description: Jess Thom on stage in her wheelchair with her knitted balaclava on her head, You can see the backs of the audiences heads).
Our Local Associate Artist:
Working with our Associate Artist was also a total joy. Charlie Fitz created the most beautiful short film and an exhibition of the art she created throughout the process of making it. See the image below of a self portrait and the paper puppet she made to be part of her film.
(Image description: Close up image of a self portrait of Charlie Fitz)
(Image Description: Seagull paper puppet hanging)
(Image Description: Seagull walking through the entrance of the venue).
Macrame Working party:
We are a Participatory Arts organisation first and foremost, so we always find ourselves offering lots of wrap around activity for all events we put on. For this event we ran 2 macrame working party sessions with anyone who wanted to help – they were wonderful. Different people from across the Torbay community came and shared their expertise or learnt new skills with Erin. We made them to hold tin cans to make planters, with the same can designs that Touretteshero used for their film. We gifted them to our audiences with seeds, instructions and a cookie. Jess created an online ‘Design your own can label’ pdf, with Mair’s instructions for the macrame cans and a cookie recipe. This was emailed to the live stream audiences ahead of the event.
We had such a wonderful time, we learnt a lot. We are really pleased to announce that we have received Claire Milne funding for a bespoke Disability Insights Training program for our team and trialing a Creative Enabler within our sessions. We want the learning from our experience with Touretteshero to permeate though everything that we do. This training and the supportive documents – such as the visual story we aim to use in future events.
Check out more images of the event below:
(Image Description: Homemade Macrame plant holders with tins in them)
(Image description: Wild flowers outside)
(Image description: The audience in the lobby at the end of the event)
(Image description: Marie and Polly stand smiling at once another).
(Image description: Jade and Mair talk to one another whilst striking the exhibition by Charlie Fitz).
(Image Description: Audience sat watching the film. You can see the backs of the audiences heads).
(Image Description: Close up of the film and stage with the Kieth Chegwin Shrine to the left, a fridge with tins in to the right and a free standing stage door to the right).
(Image Description: Tables in a room with pens, post it notes and paper, glasses and bottles of water – waiting for the TASN group to arrive ahead of the event).
(Image description: The theatre space with 3 audience members just arriving – lots of empty seats and bright lights).
(Image description: Mini iced cupcakes in a tray with a ‘3’ candle in the middle).
(Image description: Front of house team posing at the entrance after the event)