“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”
Women & Theatre, in partnership with the Amirah Foundation in Sparkbrook, worked with female community participants over two months in summer 2017 to devise, write and produce a new theatre piece. The women wanted to share the real voices and stories of local women – to challenge sterotypes and preconcetpions. The resulting production, Open Doors, was an uplifting and inspirational play in which a street comes together by opening its doors. Rooted in the voices and experiences of real women, the production included a diverse range of stories, some recorded and some performed live, including bi-lingual sections. Open Doors was premiered at mac birmingham on Sunday 9th July 2017.
In October 2017 we delivered 4 free workshops for women’s groups across Birmingham. These featured extracts of the Open Doors performance as well as creative activities for participants to develop their own characters and stories.
So beautiful to see such a diverse cast & audience and for theatre to touch on our local stories, communities & experiences
So precious that the women felt secure to share their stories in development and then were brave enough to perform – top quality and really made me think
CREATIVE TEAM:
Writers: Janice Connolly & Paven Virk
Director: Caroline Wilkes
Set Design: Emma Thompson
Sound: Duncan Grimley
Production Assistants: Rachael Mainwaring, Cassandra Wiggan (ASTONish)
Cast: Women from the Amirah Foundation
PARTNERS & FUNDERS:
Partners: Amirah Foundation, Year of South Asian Arts
Funders: Birmingham City Council, The Rowlands Trust
