Woven Nest Theatre Company
The Woven Nest theatre Company were funded by Well Newcastle Gateshead for a drama project with unpaid carers and older people living in care homes called Who Cares?
Who Cares? engaged with three intergenerational groups across three months to design and develop characters and story for an original play set to tour next year. Who Cares? dared audiences to see the world differently, to recognise what carers and those who are cared for have to offer, in a way that their stories aren’t often told.
Award: £1,000
Areas: 2+ areas
Beneficiaries: 8 young carers and 14 residents at Laurels Care Home; 30 audience members took part in the post-show survey.
Digital Story: Woven Next Theatre Company presents Writers Who Care
Project Aims
To improve the overall happiness and wellbeing of unpaid carers.
To promote positive attitudes towards ageing.
To improve levels of confidence.
To reduce social isolation and feelings of loneliness.
To develop skills in resourcefulness through problem solving techniques linked to drama practice.
To develop skills in peer support, social interaction and listening skills.
To create a supportive environment where participants feel comfortable in sharing their experiences.
To connect the group with other members of the unpaid carer community including opportunities for intergenerational relationships to be built.
To promote a greater sense of identity as an unpaid carer.
To engage the group in weekly creative practice and further develop their skills in creative writing and drama.
To include them within a creative process ending in a professional piece of theatre being created.
To instil a sense of pride an accomplishment through completing the course.
To develop a sense of place – the participants will be coming together from different areas in the North East. By connecting with others from different locations we hope that this reinstates a sense of belonging and identity linked to place.
"When we first began working with Woven Nest, I was very apprehensive. They had mentioned drama and storytelling and we had never done anything like that with our residents before. I wasn't sure how our residents would respond. I was so surprised to see our residents engaging with the activity. We had a total of 14 residents sat in the session and some of our residents who can be quite difficult to engage with were contributing. They absolutely loved helping to create the character Penelope and some of them still talk about her to this day! It was also fab when [Woven Nest Theatre] came in with the musician to play some of the music that had been created. They loved having a sing song and we discovered that one of our residents was quite the singer! Again we were unsure about how they would react listening to the new music from the play but that started such a lovely conversation about care and family and one of our residents became emotional listening to 'Worlds Apart' Thank you so much for letting us be part of this process!"
- Lorraine Petre, activity coordinator at The Laurels Care Home