Home from Home - An R&D performance
Home from Home was created with young people from Lowick & Holy Island Church of England First School and award-winning children's author & theatre maker Lisette Auton. Audiences were invited to step into this work –in-progress show which invited kids to imagine, explore, and take part in an intergalactic mission to help the alien find their way home!
This event is now closed.
November Club, Lisette Auton and young people from Lowick & Holy Island Church of England First School worked collaboratively to create Home from Home.
Lisette delivered sessions in school talking about ideas of friendship and feelings which then inspired Lisette to write the script. Designer Amy Watts brought their vision to life in the school gym, creating an out of this world experience for the pupils, who discovered the alien spaceship crash-landed on their school yard!
This was an immersive theatre experience where small groups of children and families stepped into a multi-sensory adventure. With one actor, as the role of the alien, the group played games and explored big feelings - friendship, belonging, and the joy of helping others.
This was an R & D performance in the hope of developing a new model of rural touring theatre for Northumberland.
“To have that work so valued that it’s turned into a professional theatre show just for them is so valuable. ”
The activity extends November Club’s role in creating non-building based theatre in areas of Northumberland that, due to rural isolation or socio-economic barriers, have limited access to or engagement with the arts. November Club is the only Northumberland-based organisation in Arts Council England’s national portfolio that presents immersive theatre in non-arts venues.
Only 4% of England’s arts organisations producing theatre are in the North-East. As a ‘rural village in a sparse setting’, children in Lowick have less access to high quality theatrical experiences; evidenced by Active Lives latest survey - time spent participating in creative events in Northumberland is lower than the national average - and Arts Council England’s recognition that Northumberland is underrepresented in cultural activity.
The mobile set embeds access as it’s installed in Lowick School gym, uses sensory materials & connected quiet spaces, has wheelchair accessible entrance and exits, and echos the school-wide approach to kinesthetic learning. Free food at after-school performances further reduces barriers to access and increases attendance by families and the wider community.
The next stage begins in Summer 2025 following the children & community’s engagement in shaping what happens next.
Creative Team
Written by Lisette Auton
Designed by Amy Watts
Directed by Joe Hufton
Assistant Director Mel Rashbrook
Producer Fran Arnold
Actor Maryam Ali
Lighting James Froment
Crew John Carefull, Keith Row, Mike Simpson
Film/Photography Jason Thompson
November Club: Louise Taylor-Asheg, Andrea Perrett and Kathryn Row
Thanks to funding from Arts Council England and the High Sherriff of Northumberland.
