Our Arts Council funding has enabled us to do several things we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford to do, like, for example, run activities for local communities as we passed through. One of those activities was a Creative Writing Workshop at Stoke Bruerne Museum on Wednesday 19th July for which were able to book prize-winning poet and performer, Emma Purshouse – Emma’s experience as a boat owner meant she was especially qualified to join Heather Wastie as tutor, and because of the funding, we were able to offer the workshop free of charge.
So, on a pleasant Wednesday morning, four people joined us – two boat dwellers, two landlubbers; two writers with creative writing experience, one who had written a great deal but never had the courage to share it with strangers before and one who had no experience at all. We found inspiration by walking around the area outside the Museum, particularly the lockside, and by visiting the Museum itself.
We started with group poems, everyone contributing single lines and discussing how best to arrange them, then went on to set various tasks which each writer responded to in their own way. Emma and Heather were delighted with the results and asked each participant to choose something they would like to share with others after the workshop. Click here to see some of the poems. You can also hear three of the writers reading their own work on our new Soundcloud page https://soundcloud.com/alarum_theatre.
After the Recreating the Journey tour is over, we will be organising more creative writing workshops. If you are interested in hosting one or can suggest who else might be interested, please get in touch.