Conversations, dispatches and ideas from the Bush Theatre.
Our Community Producer, Amanda Castro, updates us on our community company.
It’s been a month since we brought together a diverse group of people from the local community to devise and perform in The Neighbourhood Project, the Bush Theatre’s first community theatre production created with theatre company Look Left Look Right. Over six months we built a company of performers that shared stories, played games, and created a unique piece of theatre based on their experience of life in Shepherd’s Bush.
While the performances are now over, the company are definitely not! They have kept working together independently ever since and last week I had the privilege of visiting the Elgin Close Resource Centre to see a new performance they had created for the residents there, as part of the Hammersmith & Fulham Arts Fest. Their show involved singing, dancing, spoken word, acting and presentation, all influenced by the different cultures the group had grown up in. The mayor of Hammersmith & Fulham came and joined in with a bit of African dancing!
Production photo from The Neighbourhood Project by Helen Murray
It was incredible to see the group, many of whom had never performed before The Neighbourhood Project, creating and performing work on their own and witnessing the strong bonds they’ve made with each other – it’s the perfect legacy.
