Plays For The People

Join acclaimed theatre maker Andy Smith and award-winning applied arts practitioner Lynsey O’Sullivan for a day of play, discussion, and action.

This day will see three performances of plays from the ongoing project PLAYS FOR THE PEOPLE: A CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY, HOW CAN WE BE MORE ANTI-RACIST? and THE ACTIONS. These plays tackle the climate emergency, inequality and political activism. They are plays designed to be read aloud together and then discussed. They are plays where the people in the room play the people in the play. Plays that ask questions of acting in both a theatrical and ethical sense.

Audience-participants for this special event will each be given a copy of a new publication containing the plays. Over the course of the day, through the activity, they will be trained in how to undertake performances themselves. Following it, they can then organise them for their own communities and constituencies, free of any charge.

All are welcome. Lunch will be provided. We’d like people from diverse places to join us – arts and educational institutions, community and grassroots organisations, freelance artists and interested individuals. For this reason, tickets are being offered on a pay what you can afford basis between £15 and £45.

We suggest a price of £15 for freelancers and individuals, £25 for teachers, youth workers and those representing smaller arts organisations, and £45 for participants representing bigger institutions such as arts centres and universities. Please do consider paying what you can, as it will allow us to offer bursary places and support for those who for whatever reason are not able to afford to attend. If you are interested in coming along and would like to talk to us about one of these places, please visit Andy’s Website.

‘[…] the brilliance of A CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY is the way it structures discussion around the subject by asking questions of how we can act and cleverly casting the audience as actors in the unfolding story.’ – Lyn Gardner, The Stage

This day has been supported by the Impact Support Fund at The University of Manchester.