Making Manchester is a multi-media performance exploring real-life stories of migration to the UK, as told by 60 pupils from Dean Trust Ardwick (DTA) secondary school in Manchester. Using live music, poetry and physical theatre, the work explores how these unique family histories, and communities’ shared experiences of migration, are woven into the socio-cultural fabric of the city and its people.
Performances:
27-28th June 2019, 7:30–9pm (pre-show talk 7:15pm)
Niamos Centre
PROJECT TEAM
Partner School: Dean Trust Ardwick
Director: Emma Doherty
Producer: Jo Yee Cheung
Poet: Shamshad Khan
Composer: James Whittle
Electronic sound artist: Hayley Suviste
Musicians: Kabantu and Vonnegut Collective
Movement director: Tilda O’Grady
Actors: Dom Coffey, Mithun Gill, Sameena Hussain, Zoe Katsilerou
Videographer: Adam Blyth
Graphic Design: Max Thomas and Chia Chia Lee
Research and development for Making Manchester began as early as November 2017, with meetings between Olympias Music Foundation and historians from Our Migration Story. Both organisations were winners of their respective categories at the national Community Integration Awards 2017, where they met in London.
In June 2018, Olympias Music and Our Migration Story received funding to conduct 6 weeks of oral history, interview and writing workshops at Dean Trust Ardwick secondary school, led by Sundeep Lidher (Cambridge University; Runnymede Trust), Prof. Claire Alexander (Manchester University; Our Migration Story), Jenni Vickers (Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust) and Helen Pidd (The Guardian). 95% of the pupils were from BAME backgrounds. The result was 60 unique family histories, researched and written by the pupils there.?
In May 2019, Olympias Music was awarded £22,650 from Arts Council England towards the next stage of Making Manchester – developing the musical substance of the work, through workshops with the pupils at DTA, alongside Manchester poet, Shamshad Khan, critically acclaimed Manchester five-piece, Kabantu, contemporary music group, the Vonnegut Collective and composers, James Whittle and Hayley Suviste. Two performances of the work will take place at The Niamos Radical Arts Centre on 27th and 28th June.
Tickets are available from Tickets For Good and Skiddle, and on the door.
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