I came up with the idea of the Bird Table project as it harked back to the Secret Garden that I created in 2009 in which we had a birdhouse with a radio in playing birdsong. It also linked with the notion of home with 42nd Street moving to new home/building but also harked back to the Secret Garden project.

• Each group was given a bird table. They were all identical.
• Instructed to build the table (they came flat-pack) but leaving off the ‘house’ on top.
• Explore the idea of what kind of ‘house’ would represent the group.
• Create a ‘house’ on the bird table.

Groups involved:

• 42nd Street Drop In
•  Young Disabled People’s Forum
• Swinton Young Parents
• HMP & YOI Hindley

Can you guess which is which?

This work has been created as part of the Planet Art project that was funded by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and has been a partnership between 42nd St and box of frogs.

I visited the group while they were on residential at Bowley Scout camp. We looked at ideas for the interview rooms. We discussed how ‘calm’ and ‘zany’ can be interpreted visually and created designs on acetate along these themes and displayed them on the window. We looked at what mood each design said to us before asking the person who designed it what their intentions were. It was interesting how mixed the responses were and showed the fine line in design interpretation; how the same shape but in a different colour can say something very different.

After the summer, box of frogs and I ran some drop in sessions at 42nd Street creating fabric wall hangings for the interview rooms using the designs from the residential as a starting point. Hopefully you will be able to spot these as you explore the building.

We also looked at sensory ideas for the Disabled Meeting room. The group made flowers from a range of fabrics with different textures in bold contrasting colours. These were attached to a grassy rug with some additional bath scrunchies to create a very bright tactile wall hanging. I also added some little fabric creatures from IKEA to add some humour. These were repeated in the room to look like they had escaped. Some of the flowers were also attached to furry green cushions to be used elsewhere in the building to connect the spaces and give a feeling of life & growth.

We also explored the idea of house & home to create ideas for the Bird Table project to be exhibited in the foyer at the AGM & opening event. The group wanted modern high-rises which lit up. We aslso included a party on one of the roofs.

I also created the two chairs in response to ideas that came out of the sessions. One is covered in maps representing the places and journeys that are very real & important to the young people. In contrast the other is pure fantasy.

This work has been created as part of the Planet Art project that was funded by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and has been a partnership between 42nd St and box of frogs.

Listening to the CD of stories from residents, there was a real pride about the fields overflowing with different vegetables particularly lettuce and a sadness at the decline in farming not due to lack of quantity, quality or hard work but because of restrictions brought in by Europe . I wanted to explore the change in use of the land on the Moss and get the young people to think about what it used to look like and be like to live & work there. I chose to use puppetry to help the young people to explore the characteristics of people who are very different from them in age and experience. It also helps those who feel shy about performing as they have a puppet to hide behind. Everybody got involved in making the scenery. They each designed and made a puppet which they performed with to each other & for the camera to create the story on film to share with the rest of the school, the other schools involved in the project and online. A few members of the class were selected to record the narration. The film created by E. Bradley can be seen here on Vimeo.

Designed to be used as part of the Drink, Drugs, Sex and Anger programme following the success of the STI masks for the Sexual Health programme. It is a performance and education programme for 12 to 25 yrs, that explores and promotes understanding of addiction, personal safety and emotional literacy.

Drink, Drugs, Sex and Anger uses masked performance to interactively engage with difficult topics in a fun but challenging way. The masks bring the subject to life and enable the young people to talk more freely amongst their peers about the meaning and significance of the mask (as a metaphor). In doing this they are able to explore points of view different to their own. The masks allow this difficult material to be accessible to all ability levels, embracing active and emotional learning styles through physically and visual activities.

Please contact Tom Hogan at Aqueous Humour if you are interested in booking workshops.

Aqueous Humour was commisioned to work with the M6 Youth Theatre to create a piece of street theatre for the Carnival of Cultures in Rochdale under the title “Where Memories Meet Dreams”.

We explored what the phrase meant to the group. One recurring theme that came up was acheivement and reaching of goals. Being World Cup year, we started to look at dreams of football whether it be scoring a goal yourself or your team winning something. The biggest football memory is still England winning the World Cup in 1966 even though nobody in the room had been born. The dream of England winning again was alive at that point this summer but has had to be put aside for another 4 years. As there were nearly 20 young people involved, we felt the football theme would be good to go with using formations and celebrations as a starting point. We created a team of football trophies dressed in gold. The teams created new trophies either individually or collectively on various found plinths around the town centre.

The project was directed by Tom Hogan, Artistic Director of Aqueous Humour.

Aqueous Humour were commisioned by Rochdale Council HMR department to work with the Langley community to create a spectacular performance featuring life in a place where everything is changing. In a backdrop of dereliction we would bring the memories of times past together with the memory of now and contrast the pessimists memory to that of the rose tinted memory and the ultimate dream. We hoped to get people from various sections of the community involved in the creation of this piece including a choir who would perform in the finale.

Over Easter I worked with two groups of teenage girls and a young mothers group at community centres in Langley & Hollins to create golden masks for the choir. The theme for the masks was fire and sun linking in to both the destruction happening in the area but also the new dawn of regeneration. Unfortunately the main show had to be cancelled but the choir hoped to perform at future events in the area.

Devised & Directed by Tom Hogan

Created/Performed at Richmond Centre Pupil Referral Unit, Longsight

Project Manager: Graeme Urlwin

Workshop Leaders: Kate Goodwin & Tom Hogan

I approached the design of the project more like a piece of tv/film than theatre for schools. Having a dedicated space at the PRU was a wonderful opportunity. I was able to spend time turning an unused classroom into a realistic flat for the whole lifespan of the project. As the audience at times were going to be in the set not just sat watching it as if on a stage, there was a great deal of pressure to get the detail right. Thankfully I had taken time over the small things as well as the overall look as the group had an impressive eye for detail. This was particularly clear when we would go back & replay scenes as they would be able to tell us where everything belonged and would pick us up if our continuity was out at all.

I created a working wardrobe for each character so that they could mix and match to give different looks for each episode but with continuity of basic pieces.

A basic outline was created for each episode before the start of the project so that I could get most of the props and costumes sorted in advance. I was required to act as stage manager for each episode plus often had to shop for extra props between episodes as the story developed through the interaction of the pupils.

I was asked to create a set of masks to represent a variety of sexually transmitted diseases. These were to initially be used for a drama project with young men in Middleton and then for use in sexual health workshops around the area. Director Tom Hogan often uses bouffant techniques within his work & wanted the masks to have a commedia feel to them giving each disease its own personality. As part of the project, a show was developed featuring 2 professional actors as the couple. The young men played the STIs wearing the masks & matching pyjamas. I created a simple set representing a bedroom with various points which the STIs could lurk & pop out from including trapdoors in the bedspread. It could be toured in an estate car and put up & taken down quickly. It was first performed at Touchstones in Rochdale.

Follow the success of this project I made another set for Aqueous Humour. I also created a display board representing the bed from the show with panels which lift up to reveal information & photo of mask matching each disease. These can be used at events or for workshops. Please contact Tom at Aqueous Humour for more details.

(Detailed photos of the masks can be found in the painting & props section)

I worked with Bury Met’s Theatre Arts & Performance Project to create the props & costumes for their spy project for Garden of Delights directed/choreographed by Clare Fildes. They created strolling work either on there own or in small groups as well as a static movement piece which involved all of them. The strolling work was also performed as part of Rochdale Carnival & Bury Street Festival.

Directed by Dinos Aristidou

Lighting design by Chris Hooley

Ziggurat was a devised project on the theme of communication based on the story of the Tower of Babel. Over 100 children from schools around Manchester were involved. Artists from the Lowry’s partner companies: Halle, Opera North, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Rambert Dance, worked with groups to create this piece of dance and music theatre to celebrate the Commonwealth. I worked closely with the project director as the design had to be completed before the devising began but did not want to restrict the devising process too much.