An ambitious theatrical project in North Belfast is giving voice to the local community.
This daring two-year residency, hosted by theatre company Green Shoot Productions, is based in the interface area of Tiger’s Bay. The Community Relations Council is supporting the project with funding through its CR/CD Small Grants Scheme.
Martin Lynch, artistic director of Green Shoot Productions, said: “It’s one of the most exciting community theatre projects Green Shoot has ever been involved with in its 20-year history.”
Working class theatre
Green Shoot launched the project on Saturday 19 February 2022 with a star-studded gala event that included comedy from Tim McGarry (Give My Head Peace), May McFetridge, Irish and Ulster-Scots music by The Rogues, as well as celebrated playwright Martin Lynch and poet John Campbell. Over a hundred people attended the event in the MacRory Hall on Duncairn Gardens in the north of the city.
“Many people from working class areas seldom if ever go to the theatre, never mind making theatre,” Martin said, “so having performers they could relate to was very important for kicking the project off. We also wanted it to be a celebratory night with plenty of laughter.”
The project, as well as committing to deliver two new plays, also includes free theatre skill workshops that will tackle difficult Good Relations subjects, such as identity, bonfires, sectarianism and interface issues.
Community development and pride
Martin Lynch started Green Shoot 20 years ago to provide a platform for working class and other minority voices in the theatre.
He said, “At the heart of what we do is a strong cross-community, anti-sectarian community engagement approach, ensuring that these voices are listened to at primary source level.”
Over the upcoming two-year period, the project will aim to deliver 18 workshops across 10 community venues for the benefit of 180 local residents from Tiger's Bay and Lower North Belfast. The norm for similar projects is usually less than two months, but Green Shoot felt they needed to do more.
Martin explained: “We believe a two-year project offers the chance to do something really substantial and hopefully leave a legacy that will carry on in the community concerned.”
A legacy for the community
There will also be an intensive programme of free theatre skills workshops, one-to-one mentoring on subjects such as set design and directing, a series of theatre visits for local residents and the publication of a book of social history, written by members of the community.
“What we know from previous community theatre projects,” Martin said, “is that there is always a huge uplift in personal and community development and pride. People, who have never done any kind of workshop in their lives or never set foot on a stage, can very rapidly develop confidence in their own personality, whether it is acting out a scene in front of other people or writing a scene that other people perform.”
And this can have a hugely beneficial knock-on effect to participants well beyond the initial workshops.
“We have found that community theatre is particularly productive when it comes to personal development for women,” Martin said. “There is significant anecdotal history of women who once saw themselves as housewives suddenly feeling empowered to think of themselves as something else entirely and going on to achieve things in other aspects of their lives.”
Tiger’s bay residents represented
A unique aspect of the project involves creating a 12-strong Steering Committee composed of both local representatives and Green Shoot staff.
“We don't believe in a community theatre project that is run by a professional theatre company alone,” Martin said. “The project must be accountable to the participants and the wider community, hence the very first thing we did was meet loads and loads of individuals and groups, presenting the project and ascertaining the responses to it.”
This ensures that residents are represented and that over the course of the project they will be directly involved in important decisions to guide the overall direction of the project.
The Half Moon
Up next for the project is a new play by Alice Malseed entitled The Half Moon which follows the lives of four generations of women from the same family. The play will open in Tiger's Bay by the end of March 2022 and embark on a cross-community tour of Belfast Community Centres before ending up in The MAC Theatre for a full week of performances.
“Our Workshop Programme will run throughout and continue to expand its participant numbers as the weeks and months progress,” Martin said. “We are also exploring the notion of developing a new peripatetic theatre piece that will move around the streets and be performed over the summer months.”