Project aim
An opportunity for LGBT+ writers to create short plays based on real life stories shared as part of an award winning archive.
About the project
In Other Words is a Vital Sparks funded project being created by the LGBT community in Plymouth, in association with We'll Meet in Moscow and Pride in Plymouth, which has involved to the date the commissioning of five Plymouth based LGBT+ writers. These writers will shed new light on underrepresented and vital LGBT perspectives in response to Plymouth's nationally award winning archive.
The Plymouth LGBT Archive shines a light on the rich life and histories of the Plymouth LGB and T communities past and present. Gaining a prestigious national award from the Community Archives and Heritage as the "Most Inspirational Archive" of 2012. The archive was born from the Heritage Lottery funded Pride in Our Past project which launched in 2011 to investigate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history in Plymouth. Working in collaboration with the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office and Plymouth University to create an archive to access, frame and interpret this often unconsidered aspect of Plymouth history.
We'll Meet in Moscow is a response to the banning of Gay Pride in Moscow for one hundred years. As we celebrate equal marriage here in England and Wales, LGBTQ rights are being diminished elsewhere in the world. In a way that is unimaginable. We hope to make work that is beautiful and resonating, to tell stories about falling in love and the struggles that can face LGBTQ people when doing so.
The coming together of these two projects has created the In Other Words project in which five writers will respond to the archive materials to creat ten minute plays. This oppotunity will provide them with the opportunity to visit the archive and work with the archive coordinator, Alan Butler, as well as attend workshop sessions with writer Natalie McGrath and dramaturg/director Josie Sutcliffe.
Monies raised from this campaign would also allow for those writers to work in a professional setting with actors and a director to prepare this plays for public performance.
The five plays with premiere with a public reading of the plays at the Barbican Theatre, Plymouth as part of the From Devon with Love festival in January 2016 and a further rehearsed reading, as part of LGBT history month, in February 2016.
"I can't believe it's actually here. I never expected to see my history represented in the city"
- A visitor to the Pride in Our Past Exhibition.
"It feels like we're making history . . . and it feels great"
- A member of the Out Youth group who contributed the archive.