Hark! An Ark!

I have recently been involved in a fabulous project bringing together Bridgewater Hall, Chetham’s School of Music and Manchester Cathedral for a production of Benjamin Britten’s community opera, Noye’s Fludde to celebrate his centenary.

The ark had to be assembled and dismantled quickly and smoothly onstage during the performance. Adults on rehabilitation programmes with Back on Track Manchester are met every Friday to create the ark with me at Grumpy Creative Spaces. We used bamboo, wood, paper, postage tubes, cardboard and a lot of glue and gaffa tape. It was really good seeing it take shape over the weeks.

I ran workshops with school children in three primary schools and with choristers from Manchester Cathedral to design and make the 56 pairs of animals. Children worked with Bryony Bell from Bridgewater Hall to learn the songs and create movements to represent the animals and the storm.

There were only two performances of Noye’s Fludde at 1.45pm and 4.30pm on Saturday 23 February, both at Manchester Cathedral. I am looking forward to seeing the photos taken during the show and will share them with you in the portfolio section of my website.

Noye’s Fludde is generously supported by the Booth Charities, Salford and the Britten-Pears Foundation.

*UPDATE*

• More photos of the ark in progress can be seen here.
• For information and photos of the mask making workshops for this project, visit their own page.