Safe Browsing
Over the coming months, we’ll be growing our list of Partners In The Arts, working alongside them to take the fight against domestic abuse and sexual violence into every industry. We’re so pleased to announce our latest partner, Futures Theatre, who are already doing fantastic work in using theatre and the arts to combat inequality and injustice.
In their own words…
Futures Theatre uses theatre to directly challenge disadvantages faced by women and girls; to raise awareness of injustices faced by women and to engender social change. We bring art to communities who are socially or economically excluded from traditional theatre experiences.
Our recent tour of Offside (2018), by award winning writers Sabrina Mahfouz and Hollie McNish, used the history of women’s football as a lens to examine inequality in a dynamic and physical production.
As a company which chooses to celebrate and promote women, specifically women who have little to no voice, we are frustrated at the unfairness still faced by so many women in the UK. To address this we deliver targeted creative engagement programmes with marginalised women in our community. We work in partnership with vital front line organisations and bring top female artists to enable women participating to create their own body of work.
We are in a unique position as a touring company to amplify the voices of our beneficiaries to a nationwide audience. Our productions are directly informed by our engagement work with marginalised women and girls. Never Vera Blue by Alexandra Wood (Edinburgh Festival 2018) is the second commission from our programme ‘An Alternative Life 2015 – 2017’ and is inspired by the stories and experiences of women who have survived domestic abuse. Over a year, we worked in partnership with The Gaia Centre (run by Refuge) to reach women who were accessing their service. As well as creating their own work the women who engaged in the project talked about the importance of their stories and the challenges they face being shared widely in Futures productions:
“Definitely, it needs to tour, it needs to be on the radio, it needs to be in theatres, it really needs to get about. Because I think once you’ve come to the end of that you will have a sense of what it’s like to live, to grow up in that situation.” – Participant following the reading of Never Vera Blue, 2016.
The women who informed and inspired Never Vera Blue have joined us on the journey of this production from the first read-throughs of the script to previews and we are proud to share their ideas with our audiences:
Follow Futures Theatre on Twitter or Facebook, and find out about their upcoming shows and tours here.
Interested in becoming a partner?
Are you or your organisation interested in becoming a partner of the UK SAYS NO MORE campaign? We want to hear from you! Email Partnerships Manager Sarah Winterflood at Sarah.Winterflood@hestia.org for more information.
