Village Halls Week 2023 starts today, and runs until this Sunday 29th January. Together with ACRE we are celebrating the many ways these volunteer-run rural community buildings support local residents, groups and businesses, particularly during difficult times.
To help raise awareness of the brilliant work that Village Halls do, and the amazing art they bring to their communities, every year ACRE hold #VillageHallsWeek at the end of January and as they are so important to Rural Touring, we think it’s vital that we show our support.
This year we are asking you to send us a 15-20 second video clip sharing your favourite moments from visiting or performing in a Village Hall, or telling us about how they have impacted you.
You can send your clips to us in advance via wetransfer.com or tag us in them on social media this week. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter andInstagram, and make sure to include #VillageHallsWeek and @ACRE_national in your tweets.
We can’t wait to see what you have to share. For full details about the event, you can read ACRE’s press release here
Pentabus’ Autumn 2022 tour ofLittle Bits of Ruined Beauty by Tom Wentworth was designed to offer our audiences a fully accessible production. Creative captions were integrated into its design, pre-show navigation of the space and touch tours were offered to blind, visually impaired and neurodivergent audiences and audio description was available on the Pentabus website to help set the scene for audiences before their visit.
If you would like to learn more about the process of creating accessible theatre please join us for one, or both, online discussions.
Join the creative team behind Little Bits of Ruined Beauty to discover what was involved in creating this accessible production and the practicalities of touring accessible theatre to rural venues. Following the discussion there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
Panellists include:
Nickie Miles-Wildin – Director Joseph Brown – Actor Ben Glover – Video Design and Captions Steph Hinton – Village Hall promoter
Facilitator: Alexandra Whiteley
Directing Accessible Theatre
Date: Thursday 26 January
Time: 7pm – 8.30pm
Where: Online via Zoom
Join our panellists for a discussion that explores the experiences, creative challenges and learnings from directing and creating theatre with access at its heart. Following the discussion there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
Panellists include:
Nickie Miles -Wildin – Director, Little Bits of Ruined Beauty Indiana Lown-Collins – Theatre Director
Facilitator: Alexandra Whiteley
Access
Discussion and Q&As will be BSL interpreted and use autogenerated captions, and all panellists will offer audio description of themselves.
Live Capture Release
These events coincide with the online release of the recording of Little Bits of Ruined Beauty. Produced by Pentabus. Commissioned and supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from Arts Council England.
The live recording of Little Bits of Ruined Beauty is being released as part of Village Halls Week on Monday 23 January 2023. The live capture will be available to watch until midnight on Sunday 5 February 2023.
Produced by Pentabus. Commissioned and supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from Arts Council England.
Applause Rural Touring works throughout Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Essex as well as further afield to ensure communities access professional theatre, music and other performing arts.
About this role at Applause
We are looking for a pro-active person to manage and develop our established outdoor touring programme. Applause runs an extensive outdoor touring season of over 100 dates sending out its commissioned performances to a range of commercial and voluntary led hosts.
This fixed term post will develop our outdoor touring model and requires a pro-active approach, a high level of accuracy and good communication skills. Our office base is currently in Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, with a pending move planned and likely to be in the immediate area. You will oversee research into the business potential for our outdoor commissioned performance offer whilst building our programme to secure both commercial and subsidized outdoor performance bookings.
Hours of work: 35 hours per week (full-time)
Salary: £ 23,000 pro rata
Contract: Fixed term until October 2023
Deadline to apply: Thursday 12th January 2023
Click on the link below for full job description and information on how to apply.
Applause Rural Touring works throughout Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Essex as well as further afield to ensure communities access professional theatre, music and other performing arts.
About this role at Applause
We are looking for a dynamic individual to work alongside the Applause team developing our community and audience engagement programmes. Working closely with communities across the Applause network in the South East (but with an emphasis on our priority areas within the counties of Kent, Medway, and Essex) the postholder will help drive our core programmes of work in the first 6-12 months as well as lay the ground work for future participation programmes.
You will be working with communities, artists, creative and non-creative networks and organisations supporting our strategic aim to widen participation opportunities for and with individuals and groups in rural and underrepresented communities.
Hours of work: 35 hours per week (full-time) evening and weekend work will be required.
Salary: £ 27,000 pro rata
Contract: 3 year post
Deadline to apply: Monday 23rd January 2023
Click on the link below for full job description and information on how to apply.
This short form is designed to help you asses whether or not your show is Rural Touring ready. We take you through the very basic needs of rural touring and give you a list of things to consider. We also point you to other helpful resources and pages along the way. Please note this form is NOT a way of submitting your show to be considered for touring but should be used as a tool to equip yourself with the knowledge you need to approach schemes.