Ages and Stages

'Our Age, Our Stage' on tour

Our documentary production, 'Our Age, Our Stage', is on tour in North Staffordshire from Monday 2nd July to Wednesday 11th July.

There are performances at Moorlands College (2nd July), the Brampton Museum (3rd July), Clough Hall School (9th July) , Berryhill Retirement Village (10th July) and the New Vic Theatre (11th July). The documentary is verbatim - all the words are from interviews and workshops conducted for the Ages and Stages project.

It is performed by the Ages and Stages Theatre Company, an intergenerational group which brings older participants from the project together with members of the New Vic’s Youth Theatre. The documentary retells some of the many stories that people have told us about their experiences at the Vic, their love of theatre, and their own ageing and creativity.

Each hour long performance is followed by a question and answer session with the cast, crew and research team.'

Rehearsals for 'Our Age, Our Stage'

Ages and Stages Exhibition on show

The Ages and Stages exhibition is on display at the New Vic Theatre until Friday 21st July.

It commemorates the relationship between the New Vic Theatre and people and communities in North Staffordshire over the past 50 years. The exhibition features memorabilia from the Victoria Theatre Collection, alongside items loaned to us by audience members, volunteers and employees who attended a 'bringing in day' at the New Vic in May. Filmed interviews and footage taken on the day is shown alongside the exhibits.

Late Life Creativity Network

Prof David Amigoni (of the 'Ages and Stages' team) and Prof Gordon McMullan (King's College, London) have received funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for a network on "Late Life Creativityand the 'new old 'age'".

The network is organised around four workshops,which will take place between March 2012 and November 2012 at Keele University and King's College, and will focus on: identity; 'late style'; community; and memory.

There is also an interactive network website and blog, which will be updated regularly over the coming months.

Strand 3 Workshop begins

Strand 3 of ‘Ages and Stages’ began this September, with a series of practical workshops exploring making theatre through memory, which will continue weekly until the end of November. A group of around 15 older people (who were interviewed for Strand 2) are attending the workshops, and will later be joined by members of the New Vic Youth Theatre. The workshops are being devised and run by Jill Rezzano at the New Vic, and draw from our research data. From next January, a smaller group will continue working together to help devise the final 'Ages and Stages' documentary. The process is being filmed by Bryn Passant, a film student at Staffordshire University, who will be working with us throughout Strand 3.

Several former and current Vic employees will also be involved in Strand 3. Lis Evans, New Vic Designer, will be designing the documentary set and curating an associated exhibition; Pat Blenkarn, costume manager and long standing employee, will work alongside Lis; Chris Martin, who acted and directed at the Vic for many years, will be working with us to devise the new documentary; and Steven Granville, who was employed as an actor at the Vic for over 20 years, will act in the documentary and is also participating in the preliminary workshops. Steve, Chris, Lis and Pat all worked on some of the original Vic documentaries, and we are delighted to be working with them.