Plymouth Open House 2023
On Friday 7th July we held an Open House event at The House in Plymouth. The event was an opportunity for us to showcase an evening of insights into all of Beyond Face’s programme of work. You may or may not be aware that we have 4 key areas: Young People, Artists Development, Productions and Regional Voices. Each strand offers different things to people of different ages and backgrounds. Since joining Arts Council England’s National Portfolio, we recognise the importance of being clear and transparent about our offerings. It is also important to us that people know about all areas of our work and and to also know we have been established for eight years!
The evening offered an array of performances and mini films sharing our work, which are now available on our Youtube. The Beyond Face Youth Company kicked off the evening brilliantly with three extracts of performance that had been written for them by some of the writers from our We are Here to Write artists programme. The Youth Company created character profiles which were sent to the writers who then wrote short scenes for the young people to perform. We were blown away by the confidence and talent of these young people and are excited to start working with them again very soon!
We were then treated to performances from our Artists Development strand, with two fantastic solo snippets from Eggy Ray and Shy Pen. These two artists applied under our We are Here to Share offer, which is a chance for artists to share early stage work in front of an audience. We have had many wonderful evenings of We are Here to Share events in Cornwall, Exeter, Taunton and Bristol. We have more of these coming up so keep an eye out for callouts and dates of upcoming events.
After the interval we shared a video of our productions which showcased images and footage of our performance work over the last 8 years, including several film projects as a result of the pandemic.
We were then treated to Moth Play by Kayleigh Mai Hinsley from our We are Here to Write group performed by Emile Clarke, Corinne Walker and Kerry-Ann Waison. We have worked with Kayleigh on this play over the last year through our We are here to write scratch evenings. Moth Play is a darkly comedic exploration of structural discrimination through the metaphor of moths and a centipede.
We ended the evening with our Regional Voices strand. This is our newest, evolving strand of our work. We have worked in partnership with Exeter Northcott and Devon Development Education for the last two years. Through this work we have been working with adults in Exeter from Caribbean, Hindu and Polish communities and Beyond Face have offered workshops in storytelling and creative writing. Our Regional Voices strand seeks to engage people who don’t view themselves as ‘artists’ but have stories they want to share. Krish and Anne’s performances from that evening highlighted the power of storytelling, showcasing the simplicity and significance of stories that have been passed-down to us. Regional Voices will continue to evolve and offer spaces for storytelling and connection where the outcome isn’t about performance but about being heard.
A moment of joy was that after the performances had concluded, I looked across at Anne’s table and saw her surrounded by the youth company, who were all in deep discussion about ingredients and dishes that their own families make as inspired by Anne’s story. The evening was so much more than performance, it was about connection, it was about sharing stories and feeling seen and heard, but most of all it was about community.
We are really excited about what we have in the pipeline, we are still learning and listening to where there are gaps and how we can support and offer more opportunities of engagement and employment for Global Majority artists across the region. We are a small team with big ambitions and we endeavour to continue with our offers for the community with care always being at the heart of what we do.
The Youth Company speaking with Regional Voices participant Anne
P.S
So much of what makes a community is about advocacy and standing alongside one another in tough times as well as times of celebration. There has been a lot of loss over the last few years in many ways and within the arts sector we are continuously hearing of arts organisations and artists struggling to remain within the industry. I want to take this moment to acknowledge the sad news of the closure of Theatre Bristol, they have been a close friend of Beyond Face over the past few years and we are incredibly grateful for the support and advocacy they have shown us and many other artists throughout their 18 years existence.
Theatre Bristol are also collecting TB story’s from over the years. Did you ever have an artist support session with them? Attend on of their events? Work with them? Collaborate with them? Tell them how TB has been a part of your life here: https://tinyurl.com/4ebumy4m
