This summer, the Belgrade Theatre celebrates its 60th anniversary in true artistic style - with a mini performance festival staged in a rather unusual space.
The Coventry Evening Telegraph (CET) building has been one of the city’s iconic landmarks for many years, and is soon to be transformed into a boutique hotel. But before that happens, and thanks to a collaboration between the Belgrade and the city’s Mercurial Dance company, the former publishing hub will this month be used as a temporary performance space in which its history and its stories will be explored.
In Retold, one of two interactive productions, Mercurial Dance will blend dance and spoken word to interpret memories sourced from locals. Audience members from each performance will also be invited to submit their own stories - resulting in the show being an amalgamation of improvised parts and rehearsed work.
“What we really want to do throughout the whole piece is explore the idea of the Telegraph as a vessel for telling people’s stories,” explains Mercurial Dance Artistic Director Oliver Scott. “It’s important to us to find a structure that allows people’s everyday lived experiences to be given validity, to be cherished and retold.”
The company’s second immersive production takes audiences on a journey through the CET building, with a different performance by a different youth or community group at each stage. Entitled City Final, it is led by the Belgrade’s Community & Education department, and sees performance groups presenting pieces based on a major event covered by the Coventry Evening Telegraph. These include the Willenhall plane crash, issues surrounding racial integration and stories from the popular Locarno Ballroom in the 1960s.
“This is a hugely exciting and ambitious project for us, offering 100 intergenerational performers the chance to create an inspiring site-specific work,” adds City Final’s producer Hannah Barker. ”It’s been a great way to connect people, deepen an understanding of inclusivity, research Coventry’s rich history and develop the next generation of artists.”
Innovative use of the space and context of the CET building will allow both productions to play out like a trip down memory lane.
“Having this building as a starting point is really powerful,” says Oliver Scott. “All of these pieces are responding directly to what happened in this building, so to be using it as a canvas gives it a richness and an authenticity.”
Scott had the idea for Read All About It! almost as soon as the newspaper staff had stepped out of the building for the last time. He was able to move forward with the project thanks to help from the Great Place Scheme, under which the Coventry City of Culture Trust falls.
“The whole thing started as an idea I had probably as far back as 2012, when the Telegraph first moved out of the building. At the time, I was passing it every day on my way into work, and thinking about what an interesting space it would be for a performance. So I wrote up this idea for an immersive environment piece and submitted it to the Great Place Scheme. Later on, I joined up with the Belgrade, and that’s when we thought it would be great to bring in the community groups as part of a tapestry of performances throughout the building.”
It’s not only the pieces, performance spaces and funding partners that are firmly rooted in Coventry soil, though. A lot of the performers are from the local area too, with many students from local colleges and universities fully committed to the project.
“What I love about Coventry is that it has a really thriving independent sector,” he says, “albeit one that’s perhaps unsung in many ways.
“We’ve got artists who are really proactive about making work happen. I think it’s something that’s in Coventry’s DNA, and I think it’s part of why we won the City of Culture bid.”
One of those artists is Mercurial Dance’s Coventry-born Ashley Jordan, who voiced why it’s vital to keep the project local: “It was important to have Coventry-born-and-bred dancers in our show, Retold. We know the city and are familiar with its history and landmarks, so we have those points of reference when we’re working on choreography. For me, Retold is really nostalgic - it's about and for the people of the city, which gives the piece a really personal edge. Coventry is blossoming! I’ve seen how much the city has developed over the last few years, especially in the arts sector, and I’ve been able to be part of its growth. Unlike other, larger cities, where opportunities to grow and develop in your practice are almost saturated, Coventry offers space and opportunity for artists to make their mark and put their stamp on the city.”
Read All About It! takes place at the Coventry Evening Telegraph building from Tuesday 10 to Saturday 14 July.
Tickets are available via the Belgrade Theatre HERE
This summer, the Belgrade Theatre celebrates its 60th anniversary in true artistic style - with a mini performance festival staged in a rather unusual space.
The Coventry Evening Telegraph (CET) building has been one of the city’s iconic landmarks for many years, and is soon to be transformed into a boutique hotel. But before that happens, and thanks to a collaboration between the Belgrade and the city’s Mercurial Dance company, the former publishing hub will this month be used as a temporary performance space in which its history and its stories will be explored.
In Retold, one of two interactive productions, Mercurial Dance will blend dance and spoken word to interpret memories sourced from locals. Audience members from each performance will also be invited to submit their own stories - resulting in the show being an amalgamation of improvised parts and rehearsed work.
“What we really want to do throughout the whole piece is explore the idea of the Telegraph as a vessel for telling people’s stories,” explains Mercurial Dance Artistic Director Oliver Scott. “It’s important to us to find a structure that allows people’s everyday lived experiences to be given validity, to be cherished and retold.”
The company’s second immersive production takes audiences on a journey through the CET building, with a different performance by a different youth or community group at each stage. Entitled City Final, it is led by the Belgrade’s Community & Education department, and sees performance groups presenting pieces based on a major event covered by the Coventry Evening Telegraph. These include the Willenhall plane crash, issues surrounding racial integration and stories from the popular Locarno Ballroom in the 1960s.
“This is a hugely exciting and ambitious project for us, offering 100 intergenerational performers the chance to create an inspiring site-specific work,” adds City Final’s producer Hannah Barker. ”It’s been a great way to connect people, deepen an understanding of inclusivity, research Coventry’s rich history and develop the next generation of artists.”
Innovative use of the space and context of the CET building will allow both productions to play out like a trip down memory lane.
“Having this building as a starting point is really powerful,” says Oliver Scott. “All of these pieces are responding directly to what happened in this building, so to be using it as a canvas gives it a richness and an authenticity.”
Scott had the idea for Read All About It! almost as soon as the newspaper staff had stepped out of the building for the last time. He was able to move forward with the project thanks to help from the Great Place Scheme, under which the Coventry City of Culture Trust falls.
“The whole thing started as an idea I had probably as far back as 2012, when the Telegraph first moved out of the building. At the time, I was passing it every day on my way into work, and thinking about what an interesting space it would be for a performance. So I wrote up this idea for an immersive environment piece and submitted it to the Great Place Scheme. Later on, I joined up with the Belgrade, and that’s when we thought it would be great to bring in the community groups as part of a tapestry of performances throughout the building.”
It’s not only the pieces, performance spaces and funding partners that are firmly rooted in Coventry soil, though. A lot of the performers are from the local area too, with many students from local colleges and universities fully committed to the project.
“What I love about Coventry is that it has a really thriving independent sector,” he says, “albeit one that’s perhaps unsung in many ways.
“We’ve got artists who are really proactive about making work happen. I think it’s something that’s in Coventry’s DNA, and I think it’s part of why we won the City of Culture bid.”
One of those artists is Mercurial Dance’s Coventry-born Ashley Jordan, who voiced why it’s vital to keep the project local: “It was important to have Coventry-born-and-bred dancers in our show, Retold. We know the city and are familiar with its history and landmarks, so we have those points of reference when we’re working on choreography. For me, Retold is really nostalgic - it's about and for the people of the city, which gives the piece a really personal edge. Coventry is blossoming! I’ve seen how much the city has developed over the last few years, especially in the arts sector, and I’ve been able to be part of its growth. Unlike other, larger cities, where opportunities to grow and develop in your practice are almost saturated, Coventry offers space and opportunity for artists to make their mark and put their stamp on the city.”
Read All About It! takes place at the Coventry Evening Telegraph building from Tuesday 10 to Saturday 14 July.
Tickets are available via the Belgrade Theatre HERE