A SEAT AT THE TABLE 🪑
2024
‘A Seat At The Table’ is a theatre project inspired by and made with residents connected to the Community Hubs that sustain many neighbourhoods across County Durham. Through collaborative workshops and powerful performances, the project gives voice to the challenges and triumphs of these essential community spaces.
With the first part of the project having taken place, with a well received performance delivered by professional actors and welcoming a brilliant community cast to Newton Aycliffe’s The Big Club (WMC) in May 2024, the project producers Mustard Stories are now looking to further expand the project across County Durham.
Photo credit: Rachel Deakin, 2024
Working with the communities that inspired it, 'A Seat At The Table' culminated in a sold out first staged reading of a play that tells a feel-good story exploring the reality that the County’s Community Hub face, and the brilliant people that keep it going.
“This is a perfect example of community theatre created with and for the community it works alongside. The use of professional creative team working with people who may not have experienced theatre created a piece of work that was meaningful and is a testament to the times we find ourselves living in.”
Photo credit: Rachel Deakin, 2024
Mustard Stories Co. Directors (left to right) Natasha Haws, Eilis McGowan and Elijah Young.
The process:
Over the course of 3 months, Mustard Stories ran story collection workshops at Community Hubs including Junction 7 at the Ark in Newton Aycliffe, PACT House in Stanley and Stanley Young People’s Club in Co. Durham, creating a script inspired by service providers, service users and members of the public that they encountered.
“Our focus is telling people’s stories and we have found through our previous projects that the most authentic way to do this is different forms of story collection.
“This might be creative writing, writing responses to a series of prompts, scribing for someone or recording relaxed conversations. We continue to try to find effective and accessible ways for people to share their stories.”
— Mustard Stories
Photo credit: Rachel Deakin, 2024
“Wonderful to watch the communities working together showing the true soul of the community projects. I felt quite emotional in parts. The young people were extra fantastic, their confidence and courage was astounding, knowing that their involvement in such a project could change their future. They will always remember this from their youth. It could well shape their lives going forward.”
Project partners:
— Commissioned by No More Nowt, created by Mustard Stories
— All of the local participants
— Junction 7 at The Ark in Newton Aycliffe
— PACT House Stanley
— Stanley Young People’s Club
— The Mustard Stories team
— Rachel Deakin
— The Big Club (WMC) in Newton Aycliffe
