An archive & performance project
What is Forty Years On?
Eastern Angles Theatre Company and Vivacity's Archive Service are about to embark on an exciting new project entitled Forty Years On.
And we need your help!
Combining historical detective work with the preservation of vital documents, in-depth interviews with Peterborough residents and the creation of some fascinating theatre work, this project will require the help of over 100 local volunteers.
Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the ambitious three-year programme of work will be inspired by the city of Peterborough and its ever expanding population!
Between 1968 and 2008 Peterborough underwent a huge growth spurt developing from a small historic Fenland city into the modern, culturally-diverse commerical centre we know today.
Initially the city's development into a New Town was overseen by thePeterborough Development Corporation. Its task was to provide homes, work and a range of services and recreational facilities for thousands of new residents.
The City's Archives Service holds the letters, committee minutes, photos and designs that go to make up the Peterborough Development Corporation's vast archive collection. For the first time, Eastern Angles and the Archives Service can explore this mass of historical material with volunteer support so that the real story behind Peterborough's forty-year transformation can be revealed!
Get involved...
Are you interested in exploring Peterborough's history?
Can you help us answer the questions?
How and why did the city expand? Where did all the people come from?
We are looking for over 100 volunteers to help catalogue and conserve precious archive material from the Peterborough Development Corporation archive.
Participants will help make sense of the material, keep an eye out for important clues and flag-up interesting documents.
We are also seeking interviewers to collect oral histories from the people who have poured into Peterborough over the past forty years from Putney and Pimlico to Pakistan and Poland. It is this diversity that gives the city its character...and it's their personal stories that need to be preserved.
Once the evidence has been collated Eastern Angles' playwright Kenneth Emson will start creating a documentary-style play, The Peterborough Effect which will be performed in the city in Autumn 2012.
This will be the volunteers chance to see their hard work transformed into an entertaining and illuminating piece of live theatre!
If you would like to take part in the Forty Years On project as a volunteer archivist or interviewer contact our Forty Years On Project Manager, Tina Bramhill on 01733 864298 or email Tina.Bramhill@vivacity-peterborough.com
And there's more...
As a climax to the Forty Years On project, the Arts Council's Grants for the Arts scheme are funding a massive Community Play which will be staged in Peterborough in 2013. This play will be written by Eastern Angles' playwright Tony Ramsay and performed by a huge cast of local community players.
As well as needing volunteer performers Eastern Angles will be looking for people to work backstage and in stage management. This will be an amazing opportunity to get involved in a unique arts event that will bring the people of Peterborough together to celebrate their city.
For more information about how to get involved in the community play contact: Tina Bramhill, Forty Years On Project Manager, on 01733864298 or email Tina.Bramhill@vivacity-peterborough.com