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Em Whitfield Brooks: Between the Salt Water and the Sea Strand
Em was commissioned to create a new play with music, the title of which is taken from a line in the well-known folk song, Scarborough Fair, and, though the play is set in the present, there are ghosts and echoes from the fair’s heyday, together with stories and voices from 1914, when Scarborough was bombed by the Germans at the beginning of World War 1.
“I want to write and direct a play with songs, exploring a process of devising and scripting a distinctive music theatre piece featuring community performers in Scarborough, and in partnership with Stephen Joseph Theatre.”, Em Whitfield Brooks.
The play had a public read-through on 26 November in the McCarthy Studio at the Stephen Joseph Theatre (SJT) in Scarborough, following earlier devising sessions in September and rehearsals in November. Beginners Call, a group of local amateur actors based at SJT, and members of Scarborough Hip Hop School have been involved in the project.
The Extending Practice/Celebrating Place project, initiated and managed by Chrysalis Arts, was launched in 2010 and offered ten commissions to York and North Yorkshire-based artists working in different artforms, and a number of smaller grants for mentoring and/or marketing development opportunities, to both the commissioned artists and to thirteen other York and North Yorkshire-based artists.
This commission was supported by the Rural Development Programme for England, which is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union. http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/index_en.htm