Grant

Awards for Emerging

Community Theatre Artists

The Chris Johnston Memorial Fund today announces its first four annual
£1,000 awards. The successful projects are located around the country and
include a piece drawing on UK refugee and migrant experience in the UK based
around the common experience of ironing (South East); the developing and
performing of a short play by prison inmates for their families (South West); the
establishment of a community theatre group in a deprived inner-city area (North
East); and the creation of an interactive production examining modern slavery in
a nail bar setting, complete with complementary audience-member manicure.
(Midlands). All of the projects will culminate over the next 12 months.

The recipients are:

• Sara El Sheekh (Alleyway Radical Theatre) for Ironing Out
• Beth Fiducia-Brookes for work with inmates and their families in HM
Prison Erlestoke
• Agnes Orban for the establishment of a community theatre group in
Byker, Newcastle
• Holly Taylor and Lydia Markham (of Planet B, a Rose Bruford College
graduate company) for Traffik

Saul Hewish, trustee of the fund said:
“We were really impressed with the range and breadth of project proposals we
received. The four projects represent a diverse mix of both artists and participants,
as well as a range of theatre forms. However, at the core of all of them is a
motivation to explore how improvisation can be used to address issues of social
justice. Chris would be proud to be associated with all of them.”

About the Fund

The Chris Johnston Memorial fund was established in 2017. Its purpose is to
support the professional development of new theatre makers whose interests lie
in the creation of work with and/or for communities. The fund is held by
Rideout (Creative Arts for Rehabilitation) and administered in association with
Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance.

Background

Chris Johnston was co-founder and co-director of Rideout between 1999 and
2017 and a passionate exponent of theatre and social justice. Through his work
with Fluxx, he was a pioneer in the development of longer-form drama
improvisation strategies (‘Citizen Theatre’) to help communities explore themes
of local and national concern. The theory and practice of his work are explored in
his books; House of Games, The Improvisation Game, Drama Games for Those
Who Like to Say No, and Disobedient Theatre.

For more information, contact: Saul Hewish, Saul@rideout.org.uk 01782 325555