New R&D collaboration will bring Earthfall and Geese Theatre into the Re-Live mix!

We are delighted to have been awarded a Research and Development grant from ACW to explore the impact of trauma in collaboration with our veterans and families group and a team of invited practitioners.

Words are sometimes not enough to convey the true impact of war. Memory is stored in the body. This R&D period is called "The body keeps the score" and will provide an exciting opportunity for us to explore the potential of incorporating movement and physicality into the truthful challenging life story theatre Re-Live has become known for.

We have chosen to work with practitioners whose artistic vision excites us and who have experience of working with people who have been traumatised or experience complex mental health issues. Earthfall will be our key movement partners, bringing their experience of working with complex material and vulnerable individuals such as their work with the Centre for Survivors of Torture, combined with the innovation of their recent immersive work, Stories from a Crowded Room. This will be a new collaboration for us which we are excited about exploring. We will develop the working partnership we have recently established with Pauline Down, singer and musician who will lead the choir development, she is a leader in the field of Arts and Health and highly experienced in working creatively in mental health. We will strengthen and develop an emerging partnership with Geese Theatre from Birmingham who will bring their award-winning practice in maskwork and movement combined with 25 years experience of working with men and women who have experienced trauma. Gilly Adams will bring her vast experience of working with rites of passage and will act as an advisor to the emerging dramaturgy. We will continue and enrichen our partnership with award-winning filmmaker Mike Barnes who collaborated with us on Abandoned Brothers. Mike will help us explore how film and still image can work alongside movement and choral sound to create a landscape for the stories and sensations of the impact of war, the weight of memory.

All of these artists have outstanding track records and their previous work demonstrates artistic integrity and ethical practice. They will work with Re-Live to ensure that this is a research and development period of the highest quality. Cathy Boyce, Theatre Programmer at Chapter will act as critical friend during this period