And have a peek at the review of Avon Calling in The Guardian here.

Or check out the feature about the show in The Independent here.

The show has been picking up some great press and online attention. Check out our review on A Younger Theatre’s website and The Guardian’s Theatre Blog on our Press Page.

This weekend’s shows are part of CPT’s Sprint Festival, and next weekend we’re being hosted by artsdepot. Click here for further info and links to book.

The tour continues from March, heading to London (CPT’s Sprint Festival & artsdepot), Oxford Playhouse, Harrogate Theatre, and ending at Wales Millenium Centre’s Blysh Festival in July.

Further dates & locations in May & June are also about to be announced.

Click here for more info about dates and booking

We are currently making two new Bandstand Audio Experiences for the bandstand in West Park, Wolverhampton. We are working with our commissioning partners Black Country Touring to develop and promote these new works.

I’m Katherine Maxwell-Cook, and I’ll be writing the story and the text for the experiences. One will be for a solo listener/participant/audience member, and one will be written for a pair to experience together.

I’ve been looking at old black and white photographs of the bandstand in West Park and trying to imagine what it was like to be there in a bygone era. The Black Country website (http://blackcountryhistory.org/) is an amazing resource of historical pictures, pamphlets and articles from the region. It looks like the actual layout of the park hasn’t changed much since it was originally landscaped in the 1880s.

But a photo of the bandstand from 1994 looks rather miserable and decrepit in comparison to the restored glory in which it now stands, with its red and white striped pillars like old Victorian sweets along with the refurbished roof and floor. How it looked and was used in 1948 when part of our story is set, still remains somewhat of a mystery.

Questions I am asking…

What was it like in the park after World War II when much of it had been turned into allotments for the war effort? Were bands playing on the bandstand during this time?

How will the male and female sides of the story differ?

What effect did the war have on the relationship between the man and the woman?

What is it about the bandstand that is so alluring, even today?

I enjoyed reading this description of the Black Country from the mid nineteenth century, ‘The appearance of the country around Wolverhampton and Bilston is strange in the extreme. For miles and miles the eye ranges over wide-spreading masses of black rubbish, hills on hills of shale, and mashed and muddled coal dust, extracted from beneath and masking, as it were, the whole face of nature.” (http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/articles/Parks/Parks.htm)

It reminded me of the importance of public parks in the industrial heartlands; even in the last century they were weekend sanctuaries; an opportunity to stroll on the green grass, go boating or picnic under the sheltering trees. Somehow I’ll try to weave this sense of escape into the stories I’m writing.

Katherine Maxwell-Cook

We’ve been selected to present our Bandstand project as part of the Ideas Summit at the ISAN Biennial Conference in Glasgow on 16th November. Its a chance to let national outdoor programmers know about our plans for the project, and opportunities for them to get involved in co-commissioning new content for the platform.

She’ll also be at the Hello Culture Conference in Birmingham on 17th November on the Mobile, Location and Games panel.  The one day event will explore how the cultural sector can exploit digital technology.

We’ll be performing Complimentary, which takes place at the bar.

Click here for info & to book (free!) tickets for the event

We’ll be sharing a tiny nibble of our new project ‘Bandstand’, a locative audio theatre experience.

For more info see the flyer below.

We’ll be performing just 3 times on 23rd, 24th & 25th August at 7pm. With just 10 places for each show do book tickets early to avoid disappointment.

Click here to view the e-flyer with info about booking

Click here to view the video trailer

Seeking ‘Audience Members’ for film of Avon Calling

• Are you interested in the work of The Other Way Works?
• Do you have a background in acting?
• Are you free this Sunday afternoon from 12-6pm (26th June)?

Then we’d love it if you could join us as we film Avon Calling, in the starring role of one of six ‘audience members’.

We’ve just finished a successful run of Avon Calling in association with mac Birmingham. Our next job is to create a film of the piece that we will use to promote the show to encourage future bookings.

As you may know, Avon Calling is a show performed in audience members’ own homes, in their lounge, and takes the form of an Avon Party. Its very participatory.

In order to properly reflect this, we need an ‘audience’ of six people to appear in our film of the piece – and this is where you come in. We have found from past experience that when it comes to filming, our audience members need to have the ability to act – you’ll need to act surprised, or amused etc even on the third or fourth take!

It would be great if you were able to spend the afternoon with us on Sunday 26th June to be in the film. You’d also get to see most of the show, as it gets filmed. And we’ll all go out for a curry (on us) afterwards to say thanks.

Details:
Sunday 26 June (this Sunday)
12pm – 6pm
House on Stirchley/Kings Heath border, Birmingham
Wear what you’d wear to go to a friends house for an night with friends

If you would like to take part, please email info@theotherwayworks.co.uk ASAP.

Many thanks in advance.

Katie Day, Artistic Director, The Other Way Works
www.theotherwayworks.co.uk