CONTENT WARNING: This piece contains themes of mortality and illness and is based on real life testimonies from front line NHS workers during the Covid 19 pandemic.

China Plate worked with local writer and director Rochi Rampal, actor Urielle Klein-Mekongo and researchers at Coventry University to facilitate an innovative arts-based research workshop, as part of Humans Not Heroes.

The workshop provided a space for a representative group of healthcare workers (from Coventry and elsewhere) to reflect on and explore their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic via creative methods, including creative writing.

Working with Sound Designer Charlotte Bickley we created an audio recording that gives a truthful account of the narrative of healthcare workers during this crisis, whilst also being a point of stimuli for discussion and debrief after the pandemic for healthcare workers, informing the development of additional resources to help healthcare workers reflect and recover.

Threshold will feature as part of the Coventry Creates online digital exhibition - an initiative funded by Coventry University and The University of Warwick for Coventry City of Culture 2021.

Written and Directed by Rochi Rampal
Performed by Urielle Klein-Mekongo
Sound design by Charlotte Bickley
Research Team: Kerry Wykes, Dr Sally Pezaro, Dr Liz Sparkes
Produced by China Plate Theatre

A special thank you to our healthcare worker participants, whose stories were fundamental to the creation of this piece and who are co-creators of this work.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LISTENING:

The piece is emotive, it is designed to be an intimate listening experience, so we suggest you listen to it somewhere quiet, ideally with headphones. Dr Liz Sparkes (Mindfulness & Compassion at Coventry University) recommends these three steps to release tension and engage with feelings of wellbeing and compassion, before/during or after your listening experience:

1. Notice what is happening around you. Allow yourself to acknowledge what it is that is happening that is disturbing you. Not trying to change it in any way. Perhaps label it.

2. Locate where the experience is felt within the body. Where do you feel the discomfort in the body? Perhaps the sensations are in one area, or possibly across several sites. Just notice.

3. Begin to breathe into the area where the tension or discomfort is felt. Moving out of the mind and into the body. Just direct the breath into the area that feels tense, bringing a sense of softening. Also placing a hand on the heart area will bring a softening and soothing to the difficult experience.

SUPPORT INFORMATION:

If, after listening to this audio recording, you need to talk to someone about your experiences or someone you care about, there is advice and emotional support available from The Samaritans www.samaritans.org or call 116123 for free advice.

If you are a healthcare leader or manager, and want more advice on how to support your team, go to: www.supporttheworkers.org or contact us if you would like to use this resource with your healthcare team.

More information, please visit our website:
chinaplatetheatre.com/whats-on/curre…ns-not-heroes/

Thresholds

All the talks from both Open House events held in the Old Fire Station, Oxford (13 February 2018) and HOME, Manchester (20 March 2018).

Open House - Emma Rice - Director

Open House - James Dacre - Royal & Derngate Artistic Director

Open House - Jeremy Spafford - Old Fire Station Director

Open House - John Gilchrist - HOME Executive Director

Open House - Introduction From Paul Warwick

China Plate is one of 138 organisations across the theatre and live performance sector that sponsored a freelancer to be part of the Freelance Task Force; which was initiated by Fuel Theatre in response to the current Covid -19 pandemic and its impact on freelancers with the theatre/live Arts industry.

Central to China Plate’s mission is supporting the continued development of the independent sector in the Midlands. It was therefore essential for us that we sponsored a freelancer based in the Midlands, and we were delighted to appoint independent theatre producer Rafia Hussain.

This is an audio version of an open letter to self-employed and freelance theatre and performance makers in the UK. 

For more information, please visit: https://fueltheatre.com/freelancetaskforce/

Audio by Sarah Niles, courtesy of Fuel Theatre.

An Open Letter To Theatre And Performance Makers in the UK

CONTENT WARNING: This piece contains themes of mortality and illness and is based on real life testimonies from front line NHS workers during the Covid 19 pandemic.

China Plate worked with local writer and director Nick Walker, actor Bharti Patel and researchers at Coventry University to facilitate an innovative arts-based research workshop, as part of the ‘Coventry Creates’ initiative funded by Coventry University and The University of Warwick for Coventry City of Culture 2021. 

The workshop provided a space for a representative group of healthcare workers (from Coventry and elsewhere) to reflect on and explore their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic via creative methods, including creative writing. 

Working with Sound Designer Charlotte Bickley we created an audio recording that gives a truthful account of the narrative of healthcare workers during this crisis, whilst also being a point of stimuli for discussion and debrief after the pandemic for healthcare workers, informing the development of additional resources to help healthcare workers reflect and recover.

Written and Directed by Nick Walker
Performed by Bharti Patel
Sound design by Charlotte Bickley
Research Team: Kerry Wykes, Dr Louise Moody, Dr Sally Pezaro.
Creative Team: Andrea Pieri Gonzalez, Ed Collier, Susan Wareham (China Plate Theatre)

A special thank you to our healthcare worker participants, whose stories were both humbling & hopeful – this piece was created from their testimonies.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LISTENING: 

The piece is emotive, it is designed to be an intimate listening experience, so we suggest you listen to it somewhere quiet ideally with headphones. Dr Liz Sparkes (Mindfulness & Compassion at Coventry University) recommends these three steps to release tension and engage with feelings of wellbeing and compassion before/during or after your listening experience: 

1. Notice what is happening around you. Allow yourself to acknowledge what it is that is happening that is disturbing you. Not trying to change it in any way. Perhaps label it.

2. Locate where the experience is felt within the body. Where do you feel the discomfort in the body? Perhaps the sensations are in one area, or possibly across several sites. Just notice.

3. Begin to breathe into the area where the tension or discomfort is felt. Moving out of the mind and into the body. Just direct the breath into the area that feels tense, bringing a sense of softening. Also placing a hand on the heart area will bring a softening and soothing to the difficult experience.

SUPPORT INFORMATION:

If, after listening to this audio recording, you need to talk to someone about your experiences or someone you care about, there is advice and emotional support available from The Samaritans: https://www.samaritans.org/ or call 116123 for free advice.

For more information, or to explore the Coventry Creates online digital exhibition, please visit https://coventrycreates.co.uk/project/boats-on-an-ocean/

Boats On An Ocean

A Royal & Derngate, Northampton and China Plate co-production

GIN CRAZE!

Book & Lyrics by April de Angelis
Music & Lyrics by Lucy Rivers

A booze soaked love ballad from the women of Gin Lane.

Two lovers, each with hidden secrets, struggle to prosper as gin hawkers. At a time in the 18th century when the average Briton drank 1.5 litres of gin every day, women were being locked up in cells to sober up and disorder was breaking out on every street corner, panic spreads among the upper classes who look to the magistrates, the Church and even their tipsy Queen to restore sobriety.

This raucous satire invites you down to the gin dive! Come on a journey through the joyous excesses of Hogarth’s Britain in this anarchic, ingenious and irreverent new musical.

In partnership with English Touring Theatre.

This song is by Mary to her baby, when she is homeless and desperate. 

Performed and composed by Lucy Rivers.
Recorded and mixed by Dan Lawrence.  

Gin Craze! is premiering at Royal & Derngate, Northampton from the 17th - 31st July 2021. 

TICKETS NOW ON SALE: https://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/whats-on/gin-craze

China Plate

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