Live Theatre will start to deliver its successful Live Tales workshops for school classes at The Fire Station, Sunderland’s new arts music and arts hub from April 2018 thanks to a £300,000 grant from the Virgin Money Foundation. Young people from across Wearside will have access to free drama and writing activities in a brand new venue within the regenerated Music, Arts and Culture (MAC) Quarter in the Edwardian heart of Sunderland.
Live Theatre is one of the anchor tenants for the newly refurbished Fire Station, Sunderland’s new music and arts hub. From April 2018 it will offer free story writing workshops in state of the art facilities rolling out workshops for Key Stage 2 (KS2) and KS3 classes.
The award to support the Live Tales programme will enable a creative and dynamic workshop space to be at the centre of the regenerated Fire Station, ensuring that local children are among the beneficiaries of this flagship regeneration programme.
Live Tales workshops were launched at Live Theatre in Newcastle in September 2016, to inspire young people to embrace creativity and build confidence through story-writing. Through a mixture of drama and writing activities, classes collaborate to create a completely original story. Each child continues the story individually and receives an illustrated storybook to complete at school.
The £300,000 grant over two years from The Virgin Money Foundation’s Ripple Fund will enable Live Theatre to equip the studio space at The Fire Station for creative writing workshops, and to research and launch the project ahead of the first workshops from April 2018. The workshops are supported by volunteers who help the children develop their stories, with over 100 volunteers already helping with the workshops on Tyneside. Live Theatre hopes to engage further volunteers on Wearside.
Live Theatre will work with The Virgin Money Foundation to provide opportunities for young people from across Sunderland to be involved with the MAC Quarter. Virgin Money staff will contribute to building the sustainability and effectiveness of the work through a range of volunteering activities, from supporting the delivery of the workshops to providing pro-bono professional support.