Community, Confidence and Partnership
Over the past 2.5 months, I’ve joined the Haywire team to work on their Community Outreach and Research project which all revolves around Food Insecurity (“Food Poverty”) in the North Wales county of Flintshire. In this early stage, we’d chosen to establish ourselves in community groups already existing in Flintshire, to open dialogue about the pretty troubling topic of food poverty; a not-so-easy task. We wanted to gauge people’s interest, opinions, and comfortability engaging with us, and each other, in order to collect data and trace out a shape of how issues like this affect communities, and likewise, how communities react to these issues. We also established our own small group of theatre-makers, from a range of ages and backgrounds, who had signed up to work with us on writing and devising theatre surrounding the topic too, hoping we might generate, and access, more understanding through arts-based and writing-based activities.
‘…there is a distinct lack of community-feeling,
broadly, throughout the UK.’
I am a community oriented person; I love meeting new people, spending time with people in big groups or one-on-one, sharing thoughts, having fun, creating art, and sharing meals. I’d be shocked if anyone reading this didn’t also enjoy such things to varying degrees. I’m not sure, however, how often people (who aren’t recent uni grads in their mid-20s) might find themselves spending their free-time in groups with lots of new people, taking on novel or challenging tasks, and being introduced to different, unfamiliar perspectives. I’d be surprised if many people felt they were part of a strong community outside of their established Family, Friends, and Colleague circles (and potentially, various online groups). I don’t think this is necessarily through any lack of interest on anyone’s part. I just think there is a distinct lack of community-feeling, broadly, throughout the UK. And as we planned to head to North Wales, I was apprehensive as to the level of confidence the people there would have to begin/continue their involvement in any such thing we might initiate.
‘…shown me that would-be strangers, of all ages,
will come together to share their strife…’
The North Wales region is full of small but generally very interconnected towns. Not long after “you are leaving…” one town, you’re “Welcome(d) to…” another. Working here over the past two-and-a-half months, I was proven somewhat wrong about my theory. Community does exist (in sporadic but very lovely doses). Our work with Mind, the Resilience Project, Outside Lives, the KIM project and many more, has shown me that would-be strangers, of all ages, will come together to share their strife, work on community gardens, or chat over cake and coffee. And even as a trio of recent theatre graduates are introduced, demanding the group play Zip Zap Boing, improvisation games, or to discuss the harsh realities of the Cost of Living Crisis, the community remains.
We went into each of these groups not knowing how we’d be received. In some cases it did take some coaxing to get people excited for whatever art/theatre-based project we’d designed for them, or to feel at ease chatting through the tough stuff. As a team, Liv, Catrin and I worked together to make sure we targeted each group’s, and each individual’s, needs tactfully and dynamically. One woman didn’t think she’d be able to speak in public, and would often shakily “pass” when we requested the circle tell us their weather status (an accessible metaphor to articulate one’s mood). By week 7 she was able not only to give her weather status, but to join the group as an active audience member, chiming in from the sidelines and outwardly enjoying the hilarity of amateur improv. Seeing this development was wonderful for us as being able to help people with anxieties and growing confidence was not something we had originally anticipated would happen - but of course! We were facilitating another layer of depth within the already-standing community group, and individuals were thriving in the process.
‘I felt, over this time, that we were growing as artists,
as confidante’s working as a team.’
By week 5 we had our writing and devising group, aged between 14-50, working on writing tasks suitable for (and coveted from) the second year of our degree-level theatre course. Each member was able to give constructive feedback to their fellow members, and we worked as a cohesive group to sketch out rough plans for a joint production, and 5 individual plays - one for each member to (continue to) write independently.
Our task was to understand opinions and biases towards food poverty, to glean information about those who had experienced it directly, or had fears they might. We were overwhelmed with how positively people responded to the topic time and time again! 14 year olds committed themselves to the task of writing plays about it; drop-in discussion groups took to openly expressing their own issues and adjacent problems. Some people opened themselves up for private, recorded interviews, confiding in us that they had reached a dark point and needed help now (to which we were able to refer them to our partner organisation, Well-Fed, thank god). I was impressed and proud that we had constructed such a connection within the community.
‘… community shouldn’t be left alone to support itself.’
I felt, over this time, that we were growing as artists, as confidante’s working as a team. We learned how to conduct workshops and interviews with potentially vulnerable people, establishing support where it was needed, either with attendees, or amongst ourselves when work inevitably became emotionally taxing. The glowing appreciation shown by the groups was glowing within us too, even on the longest and most exhausting of work weeks. And planning ahead to further work with these groups, to create community theatre, with our newly established community theatre-team, is something we hope to achieve someday soon.
The thing about community is that it helps itself, it is bigger than just the individual and it takes time and effort to curate, organise and keep together. So many wonderful individuals make up what it is; so many organisers keep the machine moving, and endeavour to show those less optimistic that there is something to do outside of your front door that doesn’t cost the world. However rose-tinted this may seem, there is something I feel needs stress: community shouldn’t be left alone to support itself. There are bigger entities out there than us all, and compared to them, even together we are small.
Tanika x