On 2nd April 23, we held our first in a series of community performances at Parr Boxing Club. This was the first outing of the short play with music that the students from St Helens College have been working on with direction from Roger Hill. The play sprung out of ideas from an original screening of The Houghton Project and focused down on celebrating what is amazing about St Helens today.

A key feature of the play is a song composed by some of the students and a dance developed by others that the audience are encouraged to copy and share.

Performing in a boxing club was actually a lot of fun – and the students used the boxing ring as a backdrop to the piece, creating another sense of surrealism

We had a good turn out – lots of families and young children who took advantage of the print workshop we ran in the foyer pre-show. This print making workshop was another opportunity for some of the design students from the college to get hands on experience of delivering workshops in a community setting. Led by their tutor Mark, the session used block printing letters to create fun artwork around the themes of the play.

We also used this an an opportunity to invite the audience to the ‘Amazing Day’ planned for 29th April as well as promoting the wider project showcasing some of the material we’ve already collected.