Bradford performance makers awarded grants to develop and showcase the City’s creativity

Nine local artists and companies have been awarded grant support to develop and showcase exciting new performances. Make Work aims to support and showcase Bradford’s creative voices – reimagining the city as a thriving hub for performance

Head shot Carlos Pons Guerra

The Bull and The Moon

By Carlos Pons Guerra and DeNada Dance Theatre.
Themes: Dance-Theatre Outdoor, Gender Identity, Family
Strand: Playing Out

“The Bull and the Moon is a story that is very close to my heart. I hope that this work can help families understand gender as a diverse spectrum.”

On a bright starry night, hiding between rose bushes, a little bull watches the Moon dance beautifully across the sky.

Amazed by the sight, all he can think about is wearing her shiny shoes and flowing skirt to dance onstage, even when the other farm animals laugh at his dreams, and tell him to join the bullfights, as all bulls do. Will you join us on this exciting adventure to help the bull become as beautiful a dancer as the Moon?

Directed by Spanish choreographer Carlos Pons Guerra, and set in a Picasso-esque Spain- including fun and fiery flamenco music! –  this outdoor dance theatre production is about the importance of dancing to your own tune, regardless of gender. Coming to Bradford in summer 2021, this heart-warming new show will be for families with children aged 3+.By

Parade with ballons

Hidden Winter   

 

By SBC Theatre and The Herd
Themes: Children’s adventure
Theatre, Co-creation Sanctuary seekers
Strand: Playing Out

“This is such an exciting opportunity to reimagine Bradford in the winter months, through the eyes of children new to the city.”

What do you think when you think of winter?
Bradford Children are teaming up with artists from SBC Theatre and The Herd to think about what winter means to them. What stories do we tell at this time of year? What songs do we listen to? What food do we eat? And how different might our answers be?

Thoughts, stories, songs and memories will be transformed into a live experience for Bradford families in the heart of the city centre this winter. A brand new collaboration between SBC Theatre and The Herd, co-created with children from Bradford’s Sanctuary Seeking community. 

Gigantic puppet of a seahorse

A compendium of Mythical Beasts

By Cecil Green Arts
Themes: Outdoor, Puppetry, 
Family, Bradford stories, Heritage, Community Cast
Strand: Playing Out

“This project is a wonderful chance to upscale our vision and working with the community stretching ourselves creatively.”

We will also be working with masters in the field of giant puppet making, benefitting from their knowledge and experience, we can’t wait to get started.

The mythical beasts of the ‘Bradford Bestiary’ have been slumbering since their stories were first told. They have slept through all the stress of twentieth century hectic city life and have been awoken by the eerie silence of empty streets during the initial Covid 19 lockdown. Where is the constant hum of the traffic? The incessant noise of voices calling out?
Woken by the silence of lockdown they have come to life in a changed world. How will they react?

Head shot of Natalie Davies

Full English

By Bent Architect in Association with Natalie Davies
Themes: Studio Theatre, Verbatim, Bradford stories, Modern, 1 woman show, Mixed race experience
Strand: Your Idea Your Way

“We have big ideas, big dreams, and support to celebrate the creativity and drive of Bradfordians.”

Working with our Associate Artist, Natalie Davies, Bent Architect will create a new theatre show – FULL ENGLISH. Using firsthand stories, FULL ENGLISH will be a poignant, funny and life-affirming homage to the strength of women who raised the first generation of mixed-race children in Bradford in the 60’s. It will explore our shifting sense of identity – as Bradfordians, as mothers and daughters, and as women who exist on the boundaries of cultures and race.

Because, let’s face it, who is full English anyway?

Head shot of Kauser Mukhtar

Kooghi

By Kauser Mukhtar
Themes: Indoor small scale, community venue, Song, Puppetry, story telling
Pakistan / Azad Kashmir heritage
Strand: Your Idea Your Way 

” I hope Kooghi will bring joy to the hearts of many people, particularly those of my father’s generation who arrived in the UK in the 50s, 60s and 70s.”

Kooghi aims to celebrate the literature & Culture of Azad Kashmir, an area of Pakistan from which most of the British Pakistani population of Bradford originated, including myself. I want to bring a part of the Saif ul Mulook to life so its beauty and poetry can reach a new generation that no longer has the language skills to read or listen to the poetry of Mian Muhammed Baksh known as Rumi of Kashmir.

Decorative image

Intercultured

By Mussarat Rahman, in collaboration with BIASAN 
Themes: Mini-Festival, Co Creation, Verbatim, Asylum Seeker and Refugee communities
Strand: Test It R&D

“The fight still continues, to breakdown negative stereotypes, social stigmas, and outdated cultural representation which is widespread to this day.” 

Working hand in hand with the myriad of displaced communities in use with Live Art, we aim to capture stories of sanctuary seekers, told in their own voices, of their intrepid journeys of having found themselves stateless to then rebuilding their lives in a foreign land. A narrative of human lives. 

We will be exploring with Biasan, and sanctuary seekers communities, themes of Journeys, Home, social connections, our collective culture.

We aim to have something to show later in the year 2020.

old newspaper image

Destination Bradford

By Adam Hughes and Margot Przymierska
Themes: Bradford Stories, immersive theatre, Eastern European experience, verbatim, heritage and modern
Strand: Test It R&D

“Destination Bradford will give voice to a vastly underrepresented part of British society; one that needs to be heard. – Margot Przymierska.”

Destination Bradford is an immersive theatrical experience which takes its audience through the history of Bradford’s Eastern European community, sharing the stories of those who came to the city and made it their home. The project will span an entire century, from the first wave of immigrants in the early 1900s all the way through to those who still arrive to this very day. Each story will be a verbatim piece, based on the real-life accounts and experiences of Eastern European Bradfordians. The piece will be performed in a bespoke venue in the city and offer a previously unheard insight into a culture which helped make Bradford the place it is today. 

Girl on the other side of a window

Thyme Café

By Kerry Wright
Themes: Small scale comedy drama, Verbatim, Experience of prison system
Strand: Just R&D It

“It means the world to be able to tell my story without restriction and explore significant social issues such as the welfare state, class division and the prison system. “

 

Kailey meets her mum, Shaz, for coffee every week. This is the only time they can catch up. When she leaves, her mum stays.
Based on true events, Thyme Cafe is a comedy-drama that explores the struggles of Kailey navigating life alone whilst her Mum is caught in the prison system. 

Landscape of city of Bradford

A Love Story on Leeds Road 

By Kamal Kaan and Dominic Leclerc
Themes: Bradford stories, theatre and film
Strand: Just R&D It

“This project will also allow me the time to explore what it means to be a Bradford based artist and being inspired by the multitude of stories we have around us in our own city.”

The project will explore a love story on Leeds Road. This is a place in BD3 that sits as the spine of the city and goes through it. Along its course, there’s a collision of people, restaurants, mosques, churches, temples, clothing places, ice cream parlours. It’s where people come together. So what happens if two people fall in love in this melting pot of a place? 

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