Every community needs a stage
Every year on Boxing Day the people of Wigan come together, transforming
the streets into a stage with a festival of costume and fancy dress. Through
this extraordinary collective imagination, a festival of theatre and masquerade
is already evolving and demonstrating the will and desire of local people to
create a stage of celebration. Performing arts are inherently social arts and provide a necessary opportunity to develop social and communication fire required by a healthy
democracy. Cultural activities and the performing arts specifically, can uniquely serve
as a meeting place and site for the formation of a shared communal identity. To ignite
The Fire Within, it is not enough to present performances, it is necessary to cultivate lively, candid and meaningful participation. Every community needs a space to show
their creative expression and to share its diverse stories. Stages, both permanent and
temporary, festivals and moments of collective participation bring people
together and anchor our community and cultural identity.
In 2022 Wigan will cultivate stages, as well as develop theatre as an art form
in our Borough...
- 💥Supporting the Royal Court Theatre development plan,
which will provide a stage for a wide range of cultural events and performances.
- 💥
Developing a first floor project space at The Turnpike as part of the Leigh
Cultural Quarter.
- 💥
Collaborating with the Academy of Live and Recorded
Arts at Trencherfield Mill to fulfil their potential in our Borough.
- 💥Partnering with the Royal Exchange Theatre Development programme to
enable the creation of new works made collaboratively in community spaces.
- 💥Commissioning a socially engaged performance piece that embeds the
collective making and sharing of new work in our Borough's communities.
- 💥Financially and practically supporting hyperlocal festivals, happenings
and performances, opening resources and event spaces to collaborate, share
and redefine social space.
- 💥Encouraging everyone to get involved in their
communities, social groups and local projects as part of the incredible Wigan
LGBTQ+ Pride Festival of equality and diversity.
