October 10, 2023
Down by the sea
By
bwinger
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ClientCatherine Wheels + Make Space
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Year2020
Project Preview
During the first lockdown in 2020, Kerry Cleland and I were lucky enough to be recipients of the inaugural Make Space development funding from Catherine Wheel’s Theatre company.
We wanted to create a theatrical community treasure hunt that built on the increased sense of community spirit brought about by the pandemic.
Project Details
We started with different provocations and playful installations on our street. Seeing how people would interact with them, and what sort of responses we might get. We were really keen to look at ‘whole family’ play and how people might begin to break and bend rules again after such stringent lockdown requirements.
After that, we spent some time in Catherine Wheels’ unit working with Gill Robertson to develop some narrative and structure for the treasure hunt and came up with the Character of Mr Yellow and The Colour Suckers. We were enlisting the community in the fight to reclaim our colour.
Project Summary
The Hunt took place over a weekend in September, with the phonebox shack arriving as if by magic in the darkest night hours. Participants were required to solve a series of clues and find numbers that, when combined would give them the phonebox telephone number. They spoke to Mr Yellow and were presented with the next colour that needed saving to display in their window. We invited 6 families at timed intervals to ensure social distancing and other Covid-19 measures were in place.
PS...
For those who might find it interesting. Kerry and I submitted a video application for the Make Space fund. I’ll be putting up applications (both successful and not) for archive and sharing purposes. You can watch it below.
