Radio Neighbourhood
Radio Drama & Outdoor Dance Project by East and Southeast Asian artists
Social Innovation Project supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Radio Neighbourhood is a new series of community-based performances events taking place in the open space of residential houses across the UK. After a year of living with COVID-19, the outdoor performance provides new strategies to engage the community with live art in the post-pandemic world. With a creative team of East and Southeast Asian artists, the performance tells stories about cross-cultural interactions and engages with post-humanist thinking. It explores humanity’s desire for the ideal society and addresses the most pressing concerns of the contemporary world, including migration and human rights. The audience will be able to enjoy the performances at public open space or from home through windows or balconies with the audio drama broadcasted over radio.
The performance is a 30-minute outdoor dance drama with voiceover that involves conversations and interactions of two performers (human and alien), focusing on questions of home, displacement and memory. The story engages with ancient East Asian mythology and conveys cultural significance relating to issues of belief and identity, transcending cultural backgrounds and different communities. It explores people’s psychological conditions when facing pandemic and socio-political instabilities. In response to the recent hate crimes against Asians, the work in particular deals with issues of identity related to ethnicity, race and gender, and confronts the historical portrayal of those raced and gendered bodies.
With a core creative team of East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) heritage, it provides a platform to support artists who are currently underrepresented in the arts and culture industry in the UK. It is an ongoing performance project in which we will be touring the story (score and script) and hiring ESEA local talents to be part of the team, including performers and musicians, to continue developing the work and to perform in the communities that they live in. We aim to make the work available to more spaces and reach a wider audience through touring across London, the UK and beyond.
Third Edition:
16 October 2021 — 2pm
Bramber Green, Kings Cross, with Bloomsbury Festival
The Polygon, Clapham Common with Omnibus Theatre
2 locations simultaneously! Broadcasting over Bloomsbury Radio
17 October 2021 — 3pm
British Library Piazza with Bloomsbury Festival
Broadcasting over Bloomsbury Radio
23 October 2021 — 2pm
Migration Museum, Lewisham Shopping Centre
Broadcasting over Internet Radio:
https://ghostandjohn.page.link/radio
Commissioned by Bloomsbury Festival
Funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Supported by Migration Museum, Omnibus Theatre & British Library
Second Edition:
13 July 2021 — 2:15-2:45pm
Evelyn Community Centre, Staunton Street, Deptford, London, SE8 5TW
Broadcasting over Internet Radio:
https://ghostandjohn.page.link/radio
17 July 2021 — 12-12:30pm
1-4 Tanner's Hill, Deptford, London SE8 4PJ
Pump House Square,Shackleton Way, Royal Docks, London E16 2HU
2 Locations Simultaneously! Broadcasting over AAJA Radio
Commissioned by Deptford X 2021 & Bow Arts
Facilitated by Hidden Keileon
First Edition:
24 April 2021 — 5pm
Cornmill Gardens, Lewisham, London SE13 7BN
Broadcasting over Internet Radio:https://ghostandjohn.page.link/radio
Supported by Hidden Keileon, Lewisham Council, ShapesLewisham & the Albany.
TEAM
Concept: Jennifer Lim, Ghost and John
Curator: Sandra Lam
Scriptwriting: John
Sound and Music: Ghost
Movement Deviser: Pui Yung Shum
Audio Actors: Siu-see Hung, Jennifer Lim
Narrator: Daniel York Loh
Devising Performers: Pui Yung Shum, Yun Cheng, Jason Yip and John Chan
Banner Photographer: Jeffrey Choy
Illustration: Pui Yung Shum
We are currently in conversations with different local councils, cultural units and funding bodies. Aiming at putting on a 3rd edition in October 2021 and a 4th Edition at Easter break 2022, please contact us if you are interested in collaborating on this project focusing on tackling the current hurdles in the performing arts industry.
To know more about this performance, please do not hesitate to contact Sandra Lam through hiddenkeileon@gmail.com or us through info@ghostandjohn.art
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