Staging all the World (and Shakespeare’s Birmingham)
Having worked in the performing arts for many years I’ve worked on all sorts of weird and wonderful projects, but I’d never done anything as intriguing and wide-reaching as taking on the role of Production Manager on World’s Stage.
Working across communities in Birmingham this film project engaged with all the 93 languages that can be found in the Library of Birmingham’s Shakespeare archive. Non-professional community performers who speak one or more of these languages worked with the MPP Director, Daniel Tyler-McTighe, and professional actors on lines, speeches and scenes from Shakespeare to create a multilingual collage.
Personally, I was surprised that Birmingham’s Shakespeare archive had so many different languages in it. As a Brummie I had no idea about its purpose, history and that it held a wealth of languages that represents the make-up of our city. This surprised me and is definitely something the city should shout about with films like this.
Through working with a range of people who speak so many different languages I had a really delightful experience that taught me about language, cultural identity in the city. Now that I've done this project, I would think differently about how I engage with Shakespeare and experience Shakespeare. I want to engage with Shakespeare differently from a cultural standpoint in terms of the languages the texts are translated into and being aware of where some of the texts are set and how that speaks to people's cultural identity. As I work in theatre, I this has made me think about those cultural aspects and how Shakespeare can reach and engage with a wider range of people if we just get outside of the traditional theatre settings and embrace more languages than just English.
We worked with two BAFTA-winning filmmakers from the West Midlands, Ollie Walton from Fix8Films and John Roddy from AudioBassment. John told me that:
“Going into schools and having children from all different cultures and backgrounds enjoying Shakespeare in different languages was really special. Sometimes you forget about the different translations that have been done with Shakespeare. We see Shakespeare performed in theatres, parks, streets and movies, but always in English. It has been refreshing to hear the different languages spoken. Working with different languages, and taking into account different cultural environments, was something new in my work and it taught me a great deal about working in a multicultural setting.”
Some of the community participants who performed in the film said:
“Being Welsh, being asked to speak Welsh on film, however basically, was the best thing for me. I loved hearing the other languages too.”
“it was a project that promoted and celebrated the multiculturalism of British societies, and especially the diaspora communities of the Midlands”
“It was great to meet people who speak other languages, some I have never heard before.”
81 students from the West Midlands took part in the filming of World’s Stage performing in their community and taught languages. Partner schools, colleges and universities who hosted filming and provided multilingual talent included Rockwood Academy, Birmingham Ormiston Academy, the University of Birmingham, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Hillstone Primary School.
The headteacher of Hillstone, Gill Sparrow, said:
“The World's Stage project had an unexpected impact in our school. We are a school that loves participating in Shakespeare study and have a Shakespeare season every year. We were happy to be involved with this project which had a different slant. 20 different languages are spoken at our school (including English) but each of those different languages are only used by 1 or 2 children rather than a much larger number as happens at many of the inner city schools. As a result, their language is not shared in school and their ability as dual language speakers not recognized or valued. This project allowed those dual language speakers to use their own language and make comparisons with other languages. The children blossomed as a result of their involvement in and as a result we have appointed somebody responsible for English as an Additional Language (EAL) and intend to value those different languages more highly around school.”
And teacher Sarah Gillett, also from Hillstone, said:
“For the EAL children involved in the project, I think that their experience will have a lasting impact on them personally: not only were they treated as equals (to the adults present) during the session, but when exploring the various texts and artefacts in their home languages, they suddenly found themselves as experts, sharing their knowledge with the interested adults. And as a school, this experience has prompted us to think more carefully about how we value and promote our EAL children, which in turn will lead to us promoting and valuing children's home languages more so than previously.”
What participants thought:
100% said that they enjoyed the creative use of languages through using or hearing them in different ways, through live performance, filming and their own reciting of Shakespeare’s lines in different languages.
80% said that the project had made them think that different community languages were more valuable to the UK than they’d previously thought.
90% now thought that these community languages were very important.
Laura Killeen is the Production Manager on World’s Stage. The film was co-funded by Creative Multilingualism as part of the ‘Everything to Everybody’ project which is led by the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham and Library of Birmingham, Birmingham City Council and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. everythingtoeverybody.bham.ac.uk
All photographs courtesy of Ben Gregory-Ring.
Watch this Space! The final production stages of World’s Stage were, like so many things, brought to a halt by the Covid-19 pandemic, but work will continue and the final film will be released on the Creative Multilingualism and Everything to Everybody websites later in 2020.