Target reached!
At the moment our budget only covers the basics. So anything extra is a massive bonu...
Joy Unspeakable - The Final Hurdle
Bolton, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Aim
A theatre show inspiring hope for recovery from eating disorders, touring to theatres and schools in Bolton, Salford, Wigan & Manchester
We need your help to raise £2000 to unlock the financial support of Arts Council England and make our project a reality.
We have been offered £45000 by Arts Council England to tour Joy Unspeakable to theatres and schools in Greater Manchester. But without your help, we won't be able to use it.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Joy Unspeakable is a new piece of verbatim theatre for women, girls and their allies. It explores disordered eating - why it is all about food, and nothing to do with food. It presents the testimonies of four women, each with a different eating disorder, and each at a different stage in the process of recovery.
Using these true stories, four brilliant actors and original folk and punk music, we are creating a theatre show that will amplify hope of recovery from eating disorders. Joy Unspeakable will tour to Bolton’s Octagon Theatre, the Edge Chorlton, Wigan’s Turnpike Gallery and Salford’s Pendleton College as well as 4 secondary schools across Greater Manchester.
You can hear more about the show in a video we made in 2021 during a research and development residency at Bolton's Octagon Theatre.
Ordinary Glory is a Greater Manchester based theatre company that makes theatre for social change. With Joy Unspeakable, we will be creating positive social change through education and community support building around mental health related to eating disorders.
WHY NOW?
Eating Disorders present a significant health problem in society. Data from leading eating disorder charity BEAT shows up to 3.4 million people are affected nationally. Locally, Wigan & Bolton’s Young People’s Community Eating Disorder Service has experienced a significant referral increase since 2019: 496% increase from 2019 - 2022. This is part of a national trend. Additionally, most eating disorders develop during adolescence with an average onset age of 16-17 years old. Amongst psychiatric conditions, eating disorders have the highest mortality rates, but the earlier that eating disorder treatment is sought, the better the sufferer’s chance of recovery.
This piece of theatre is important because it will educate and inspire hope, ultimately opening-up pathways to recovery and support.
At the heart of our project lies the profound desire to use theatre and creative activities to connect people to the services and support networks in their community to improve mental health. We aim to benefit over 1500 people locally via our activities, including 15 young people in participatory theatre workshops, 1000 students aged 13-18 years old through school performances and post-show discussions, 15 adult volunteers in self-care pack creation workshops, 500 audience members in our arts venue performances and post-show discussions, 48 local adults in creative-skills workshops, and 10 teachers in a Continuous Professional Development workshop. We also plan that every person that we reach through the project will receive a creative self-care pack designed by local artists with lived experience of mental health problems.
WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP
We’ve been planning all of this since 2020. And we are so close to making it happen!
We have already raised approx. 85% of our total budget which included a previous crowdfunding campaign in 2023 (you can view that here).
But we still need to raise 15% of our budget to make it all a reality.
Without this final piece of the budget then we will not be able to make the theatre show and tour it to theatres and schools with the array of activities we have designed to deepen people's understanding of eating disorders, related health issues and the support available in their local community.
Raising this final 15% is crucial. And that is how you can help.
We need to raise £2000 through this crowdfunding campaign. Your money, alongside other funding we have applied for, will enable us to unlock a £45,000 grant that the Arts Council has offered. We cannot access that money until we have finished fundraising the rest of our budget.
Therefore, your money will directly support paying all our artists and staff for making the show. It will help us to pay for all the community activities we have planned, the creation of education packs for school teachers, the running of workshops with young people in Bolton, teacher workshops on how to support their students to talk about eating disorders, travel costs for all our staff, consultation fees with mental health professionals and experts, the production of our on-stage designs, and the marketing of the project to audiences and community. Basically, your money right now will help with EVERYTHING.
We know times are tough for people right now. But if you can, please support us by donating, and sharing to your networks. Join a growing community of artists and mental health activists who are working together to create positive change in this area.
This project successfully funded on 7th May 2024