Once upon a time, there was a project called ‘Opening Lines’.
‘Opening Lines’ is something we’ve been working on recently. It’s an intergenerational project. About stories. And bringing two groups of people together.
One was a group of five teenagers from St Roch’s Secondary School in Glasgow: Brooke, Joy, Nicole, Riley and Yasmin.
The other was a group from the Young at Heart social club at Roystonhill Community Hub, five older people called Jacqui, May, Nancy, Rose and Unity.
The sessions were led by me and a writer, Xana Marwick.
What did Xana and I do? Well, we got to know both the groups, separately to begin with. We wrote giant postcards to each other and created some characters.
Then we brought everyone together, at Roystonhill Hub. To connect and collaborate.
We started with some photos. And some titles. Some sparks to the imagination.
Then we asked people to think of a first line for a story. An opening line.
And from there, we created our own unique, strange and scary stories. To be fair, it was around Halloween, which might explain how the stories ended up so sinister!
Last week, we shared the stories we’d created together to an audience at the Hub, brought to life by two professional actors, Maryam Hamidi and Ian Bustard. It was a chance to recognise the achievements of everyone who’d taken part, and celebrate the connections made.
A huge thank you to our funders – this project was made possible through the amazing Creative Communities programme.
And what next?
The plan is for Xana to write a play, inspired by these workshops. In spring 2023, we’ll take that play on tour, to community venues across Scotland – to old people’s day centres, schools, libraries, deaf clubs and more.
So this is only the first chapter, of a longer story.
To be continued…
Jonathan Lloyd, Creative Director