Our Projects
DRAMA WORKSHOPS
In 2023, we collaborated with the Family Connector Project to facilitate drama workshops in primary schools throughout Cumbria.
With originally developed workshops, pupils in Key Stage 2 learned devising techniques, performing skills and team building exercises from professional creative practitioners, which helped pupils boost confidence, creativity and engagement with the arts.
S.T.O.P. - ANTI-BULLYING WORKSHOPS
Throughout 2022, we worked closely with Cumbria Education Trust and Cumbria County Council to run anti-bullying workshops in schools.
Using performance and participation, children age 5-11 in participating schools learned the principles of S.T.O.P. in preventing bullying, and learned how to spot bullying behaviour in themselves and others.
The workshops helped build emotional resilience, teamwork and self-confidence in young people and helped foster a more caring environment in schools.
"I'M NOT GONNA LIE"
Using real conversations with local people, this piece explored how our view of consent and female bodies has changed in the era of #MeToo.
The performance was a one woman show, devised around verbatim materials and presented as a powerful piece of minimalist performance art.
In association with Edge Hill University and SafetyNet Cumbria, the piece is an abstract but sincere examination of serious topics and how we approach them, individually and as a society.
Staged at The Dukes, Lancaster and the Source, Carlisle, September 2021
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S TWELFTH NIGHT
Staged at Carlisle Cathedral’s stunning, historic fratry soon after the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic, this production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” was exactly the return to arts and culture Carlisle needed.
Produced in collaboration with Whistling Crew Productions Co., the show mixed the classical story with exciting, contemporary elements.
Using projections, original live music, and bold styling, the show explored themes of identity, gender and cyberbullying while remaining funny and romantic.
The show was a huge success and received massive acclaim.
Staged at Carlisle Cathedral, August 2021
"AND WE ARE YOUNG AGAIN..."
The final and most ambitious installation in our “Living with…” series about invisible disabilities, “And We Are Young Again…” was an exploration of dementia through performance and multimedia art, created using real interviews, medical research, and reimagined Shakespeare.
WordForWord collaborated with Shakespeare Switched, Patchwork Opera, Minerva Cumbria, Amy’s Care and Cumbria County Council to achieve a bold look at the lives of those living with this condition.
Staged at the Old Fire Station, Carlisle, in December 2018
CELEBRATING AUTISTS - WORKSHOPS AND EXHIBITIONS
In September 2018, we hosted a series of free workshops for artists living with Autism, culminating in an exhibition installation showcasing their unique talent.
Hosted at the Old Fire Station, Carlisle.
LIVING WITH... FIBROMYALGIA
The second installment of WordforWord’s ‘Living With…’ project, raising awareness for invisible illnesses, ‘Living With… Fibromyalgia’ is a performance installation held at the Old Fire Staion in Carlisle and aims to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around Fibromyalgia.
This verbatim theatre piece featured a cast of actors reciting real words of fibromyalgia sufferers and tacked the symptoms and stigma of this widely misunderstood condition.
Staged at the Old Fire Station, Carlisle in June 2018
LIVING WITH... ANXIETY
Part of our Living With… Invisible Disabilities series, “Living with…ANXIETY” was an immersive multimedia exhibition using real stories and experiences to explore anxiety; symptoms, stigma, and support. Following extensive research and interviews, the exhibition mixed sound clips, video projections and live interactions.
The installation took place in the Old Fire Station in April 2018.
"RAIN WILL BE HEAVY..."
In 2015, a ‘once-in-a-hundred-year event’ happened for a second time in less than a decade.
The Carlisle Floods hit the city and soon decimated homes and infrastructure, and two people lost their lives as a result.
WordForWord wanted to use the words of Carlisle and Cumbria citizens to tell the story of the floods. Rain Will Be Heavy was a multimedia, verbatim performance and multimedia art piece telling the story of the flood using real words from interviewees and news broadcasts.
Staged at The Old Fire Station, Carlisle in July 2017