Post written by: Erin Walcon
The spring festival has just finished, and we managed to draw a collective breath, and then, post-breath, we’re leaping into the Summer Term. We’re mid-swan-dive. And while we’re careering through the air into our next adventure, I thought it would be nice to reflect for a minute. To celebrate, to revel.
Because this festival we run, it takes a lot of work. It’s a hefty thing to get rolling, and this season, for the first time, we felt like we had the right size team all pushing the thing together.
There is a special joy in collaborative working. Where you know that if you don’t know the answer, someone in the room will. In this collaboration, we are stronger together.
Over the last four years in Torbay, this team has assembled gently, organically, slowly. In the best sense, it is a web of people who want to make things better. And what I valued the most from this last season, was seeing the diverse strengths that each person brought.
We’ve already begun planning for Autumn… our next festival will be from 1-5 November, and will feature three beautiful shows from Battersea Arts Centre, as well as a local Scratch night and several SW-based companies featuring new work.
We can’t wait… but there’s much to be done this Summer Term. We are in the very first stages of assembling the team of young people who will be writing an original musical with Doorstep Youth Theatre, working together with the Palace Theatre on programming, and visioning for a lantern procession later this year.
The thing with a strong team is… it gives everyone the energy to do the work with enthusiasm, energy and vigour. It revitalizes and feeds. It makes you feel a part of something important. Something vital.
We all make the story happen.