Outdoor theatre in Barking Town Centre
What is this project?
Studio 3 Arts reached its funding target to produce a re-imagination of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice for a modern Barking and Dagenham audience. It aims to use the town centre and high street as a stage for the outdoor play.
Barking’s town centre is full of hidden spaces and well-known landmarks. The group will create a route that celebrates the town centre as a creative place. They propose to open the play at the Town Quay and travel towards the centre, with scenes in shops, restaurants, the Abbey leisure centre and the Barking Learning Centre, finishing in the courtroom scene performed in the Council chambers.
Barking has high levels of poverty and unemployment. But it is also a hugely diverse area, with over 100 languages spoken in its schools, active communities and lots of small business start-ups. Studio 3 Arts uses these themes of race, economics, enterprise and religion in its production. It aims to put Barking and Dagenham on the map, with a creative a work that celebrates the town and its people.
What will this project do?
This creative, local production will:
- engage with local people – culture fans and those who are new to the arts – to promote the arts and community pride
- use important local landmarks as a stage, encouraging residents and visitors to explore the area
- put the borough on the map as a place of creative ambition, community activism and a place where diversity is celebrated
Find out how this funding was achieved and what the ongoing plans for Barking Town Centre are.
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