A Successful Show Ladders and Footprints, Sharing Show from Friends and Dancing and new video on vimeo

Congratulations to the whole team, we did it, and right up to the last we weren't so sure it would run smoothly.

We had 5 locations rolling into each other; 
The moor - expansive public pedestrian space 
The side of the Library - focused but still very public space
The front of the library - fantastic entrance, wide steps, side porticos with wall 
The foyer -  grand sweeping central, stairs with red carpet and two upper side entrances
The library research room - quiet squarish space.

The performances shape went from large whole group musical numbers to small intimate poems and monologues.

Audience evaluation sheet feedback will be posted soon, but some that came in other ways here.

Fantastic show at Falmouth on Friday..... Well done to everyone, they were superb.    Dean Evans - Funding the Ladder; The legacy of Passmore Edwards

....Congratulations ....

I thought the production was really splendid – well researched, informative, funny, beautifully realised and very poignant, as ever… well done to everyone and wonderful that despite needing energy for three performances in a row there was no flagging and it just got better and better! I really loved it.                Belinda  Whiting - photographer

Just wanted to say ‘brilliant!’ re the show on Friday        Jacqui Callis

Well done all at Shallal for a very beautiful day at Falmouth Library - amazing day!

Barbara Santi filmmaker and executive producer

As per other email - well done everyone for a fantastic day yesterday - was only going to stay for 1 show but ended up staying for all 3…it was brilliant!

Wow, what an awesome show, I really enjoyed seeing it in all its glory. ........I had a fab time shooting it.                Emily Dobson - photographer /dancer

A wonderful show and very informative. Well done everybody who was involved.   Ian While

Great to see ….Amazing Performance - Oli Raymond Barker

Thanks to Hennie and Jane for enabling us to use the spaces so well. It was a lesson in how adapted buildings fully support access but it still takes along way round. People were diving off to the side to access the lift around the other side of the building and creatively moving themselves up and down stairs to get to their next performance space.

Thanks to Anna and Annis for running around and Nick and Nigel for support and it was a joy to have Skye singing her song live with her dad Jem and brother Zion.

It was also Eddie's birthday!

Jacqui also wrote "where else would Eddie be able to dress up so Eddie, dance so Eddie, create and write songs so Eddie – he truly loves it and it reflects and builds on his creative personality "

very beginning of the day waiting outside with stuff! Anna and Peter

side of the library, the trio and the ladder, note carved heads back left

beginning dances, these were the only times i took photos it was a busy show
men with poles/building, women with books/stepping stones heading towards the library

Jacob at the end, we always needed someone with all the gear outside

This Friday we will evaluate it in the company and vision and plan as ever!

I'm looking forward to next term and working both shows into indoor spaces. Meanwhile we would love to get the message of Passmore Edwards out more, his legacy is not only about wonderful buildings and opportunities for all, but how to use your wealth, how to be useful, how to respond to society.

We need to remember it. Yesterday reflecting on his life someone said to me, " He not only made good, he did good. We need to reflect on his legacy and make it relevant to now." 

Today i stand in for Debs at Friends and Dancing & Express Yourself they did a fantastic Sharing Show last Wednesday, I'm trying to sort the photos..... 

Esme and David

Martin and Hannah
Martin is also a fantastic artist - we worked together in Dance and Draw approx 30 years ago!
Hannah worked on Aiming High and we would still love to work with her more, but time and other commitments don't allow at present, she works for Fal Care and supports at the group

Friends and Dancing go from strength to strength, fantastic group!

Meanwhile as ever i am rushing to write a Grants for the Arts application for this years Back Lane West residency, which is now a month earlier! October, nice as warmer, but a busy month as we have commissions from Wheal Martyn Museum to do outreach workshops after the successful "Beautiful Dirt" Show by Shallal 2.

I have an R&D wish, Cross Boundaries  born from last years successful collaborations and the story of an Albanian artist not getting funding, and how can we share work at distance....

you can see some of last years residency now on https://vimeo.com/223324593

You will recognise the beautiful music now on Barbara's As get older film, the ladder section and Jo Lumber went into Ladders and Footprints show and the combined working i want to progress and develop and record in our next residency. It was also our first time also working with Emily Dobson as photographer!

On-line credits for Ladders and Footprints

Fridays show is not seated and so a programme seems inappropriate however it is nice to know, to credit and to thank, so there will be one on display and one here!                                  

Ladders and Footprints 

Performers 

Brian Ackland

Toby Bridge

Lauren Bryant

Tina Butler

Eddie Callis

Colin Curbishley

Ben  Dunstan

Katherine Giddings

Kerry Jackson

Peter Kirby

Jonathan Knowles

Jo Lumber

Pep Mogas
Debbie O’Nyons

Anna Penhaligon

Demelza Rouncefield

Elaine Stammers

Molly Smith

Star

Joseph Wheeler

Katie Wheeler

Zo Wheeler

Sam While

Marjorie Wilton

Zoe Wilton

We wish Trevor Hill a speedy recovery.

Not with us today are: Lydia Smith, Kerry Tomlinson and Delpha Hudson

Shallal’s improvising musician - George Bradley Peer

Technical support by Jacob Wheeler

New Music 

Passmore’s New Hat    by Roger Pinsent

Climbing the Ladder     by Eddie and Jacqui Callis

You Make Me               written and performed by Skye Mackay accompanied by           Zian and Jem Mackay

Poems and spoken word by Elaine Stammers, Toby Bridge, Debbie O’Nyons, Jo Lumber and Star

Music credits

Unknown found by Terri Stevens

Apiskidu & The rigged ship played by Delpha Hudson

Tilted                            by Christine and the Queens

Bethana Concert waltz by Scott Joplin
Distant Past                  by Everything Everything

Backstage and support - Nigel Pooley, Annis Popovski- Smith, Anna Willis

Doorways project co-ordinator - Victoria Hodgkinson

Costume - Victoria Hodgkinson and company

(with thanks to Miracle Theatre and Sean O Donohoe)

Facilitation and Artistic support, Travel and staging co-ordination and much more! - Colin Curbishley

Poster design - Michael Willis

Business manager - Matt Leach
Creative director - Jo Willis

Executive Producers - Barbara Santi and Lou Brett

ART

Painting inspired by Passmore Edwards life and philosophy 

by Toby Bridge, 

Banners by Tony Minion with art work by Shallal artists

Exhibition of art inspired by Passmore Edwards and his buildings in Cornwall and beyond 

by Shallal artists and performers in Falmouth Art Gallery community space, which is in the foyer and on the stairs.

Many thanks to the projects visiting artists:

Patrick Mcwilliam - carving, Victoria Hodgkinson and Amanda Slade - hats,  Harry Theaker - creative direction.

Thank to The Arts Council and Jane and Patrick Lowry at Back Lane West for Footprints residency November 2016, which enabled research for aspects of the show.

Back Lane West Footprints residency research

Colin Curbishley, Pep Mogas, Kerry Jackson - ladder with music by Delpha Hudson, Nigel Bispham, Jo Lumber - writing, Lou Brett - film

Thanks to:

Dean Evans who brought Passmore Edwards life and legacy back into the foreground and wrote ‘Funding the Ladder’.

St Peters Hall, Newlyn, Jacob, Glen and Aaron Wheeler, Jacqui Callis, Emily Dobson, Belinda Whiting, Steve Tanner, Barbara Santi, Lou Brett, Martha Dixon (film editing), Miracle Theatre wardrobe, staff and volunteers at Falmouth Art Gallery and Library, Trustees, Donors, our friends and families.

In grateful memory to Bee Duxbury.

Exhibition of photographs from Doorways research Godolphin Show 2016 by Belinda Whiting is at Gyllyngdune Gardens foyer for July.

Films made during the R&D give insight into behind the scenes at Shallal Dance Theatre:

‘Inclusive Dance’ by Lou Brett, Martha Dixon, Barbara Santi

https://vimeo.com/224391150

‘As we get older’ by Barbara Santi

https://vimeo.com/222581309

Grateful thanks to our funders and to donors, patrons and friends.

Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund, Garfield and Weston.

The John Passmore Edwards Life Ladder

John Passmore Edwards was born in the village of Blackwater, in Cornwall on 24 March 1823.  He grew up alongside three brothers. His father was a carpenter and his mother was the daughter of a saddle maker.  Neither rich nor poor, the Passmore Edwards were typical, hardworking Cornish folk, doing whatever work was necessary to raise the family.

An enthusiastic reader from a young age, John read his father’s copies of ‘The Penny’ magazine from cover to cover.  He would save up his pennies and walk six miles to Truro, to buy books from a second-hand bookshop. From childhood he wanted ‘to be useful’ and felt it was ‘the duty of the wealthy to help the poor.’

His first venture into journalism was as a freelance writer for the West Briton. But with not enough work available, he took up a position on the ‘The Sentinel’ paper in Manchester.

It took him 48 hours to travel there, by steamship and train, and he carried his possessions in a large carpet bag, made by his mother!

With hard work and determination, he became proprietor of numerous newspapers and magazines including ‘The English Mechanic’ and ‘Building News’.

This formed the basis of his wealth, that he was to later use for the benefit of the working classes.

He became a member of Parliament, as a Radical Liberal.  He was against capital punishment and corporal punishment in schools and the military.

He campaigned for the abolition of slavery. He twice refused a knighthood and opposed the Boer war.

At the age of 47 he married Eleanor Humphrey. They lived in London and had a daughter named Ada, and a son, Harry.

He was teetotal for much of his life and had a period of being vegetarian, long before it became fashionable.

He generously funded numerous buildings in Cornwall and beyond including:

24 public libraries

17 hospitals and convalescent homes

12 homes for adults and children with epilepsy

 5 schools of art and science

 4 art galleries and museums

He died in 1911. Only weeks before his death, with declining health, he was to say the words,

 ‘My work is not yet done.’

Many thanks to Jo Lumber and Dean Evans, sources:

Funding the Ladder: The Passmore Edwards legacy by Dean Evans

A Few Footprints John Passmore Edwards autobiography

The Cornish Doorways Project

The making of Shallal’s current show, ‘Ladders and Footprints’, has been a collaborative process over the past year.  The words ‘Passmore Edwards Free Library’ are carved in stone above the entrance of so many of our public libraries, yet few of us knew much about the meaning. 

Shallal set about exploring the life of philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, beginning with an informative talk from writer Dean Evans, whose years of research went into his book, ‘Funding the Ladder; The Passmore Edwards legacy’. We learned about the work, ethics and generosity of this remarkable Cornish man, whom we believe must be remembered. In times before free education and the National Health Service, he strived to make the health and wellbeing of ordinary people better. Little known today, he was somewhat a nineteenth century celebrity, which crowds gathering to see the opening of his buildings and hear him speak.

So, in typical Shallal style, we celebrate his life and work through dance, theatre, spoken word and visual artwork.  ‘Ladders and Footprints’ has been created as a site-specific show, both outside and inside Falmouth Library, which is indeed a ‘Passmore Edwards Free Library’. We like to think that if he were alive today, John Passmore Edwards would enjoy our somewhat abstract interpretation!

As part of the Cornish Doorways project, this has been our second site-specific piece inspired by local history. In Spring 2016 we performed an outdoor show, ‘Doorways’ at the National Trust property, Godolphin, at Helston. This work drew inspiration from the remains of the building, the aristocracy and their staff who lived and worked at the house and grounds, the connections with the mining industry, and the link to world class racing horses.  The horse racing history has been in the news just recently, with an Arab sheik donating money to Godolphin Cross chapel, due to the eighteenth century connection!

Both shows will be reworked and presented indoors in the Autumn and Winter, at The Acorn Theatre in Penzance 1 December and AMATA at Falmouth University 12 January .

by Jo Lumber