How ‘Arrivals’ Became a Project
“Amazing play. I love it. Let me think in a different direction. Sometimes we don’t recognise what we came through. Good job. Go on.”
“It’s been a challenging experience. It’s so obvious that the changes are hard for both sides, natives and arrivals but that makes me thing we can’t forget that it’s hard for local people to adapt as well as for us. Very Belfast perspective helped me to see their perspective. Thank you.”
Arrivals2, the second in Terra Nova's trilogy of cross generational projects about immigration, showcased some of Northern Ireland’s best writers, focused on a second generation of intercultural stories.
Our Artistic Director, Andrea Montgomery, who created the Arrivals programme says: “It became clear to me after the first Arrivals that there was a hunger for the work to continue: the development of professional pieces by top notch writers, that told genuinely Northern Irish intercultural stories. The work had to be developed in absolute partnership with members of Northern Ireland’s new communities, woven throughout the process on the principal of 'Nothing about us without us’. It also had to be given the weight of production and touring, professional casting etc., so that it couldn’t be dismissed as ‘amateur’. Suddenly the one off Arrivals from the previous year turned into an on-going project.”
Featuring written work by Deirdre Cartmill, Daragh Carville, Maggie Cronin, Fionnuala Kennedy and James Meredith, (read the CultureNI interview here) the plays created were toured across Northern Ireland with a professional cast auctioned in Belfast and London (Robert Bertrand, Nathan Campbell, Melissa Dean, Louise Parker).
Building from initial workshops across Northern Ireland, through a masterclass with community members and professional artists coming together to share and develop stories as equals (see the video below), and moving forward together through script development in which all supported the writers on the project, to a final performance and tour; Arrivals2 was a truly collaborative effort. The process was supported by an intercultural steering group and also offered payment and enhanced mentoring to emerging intercultural artists who took part throughout and added their expressions in poetry and music to the project as a whole.
A little look behind the closed doors of the intercultural masterclass that underpins the development of Arrivals2.
Arrivals2 is supported by the Arts Council Northern Ireland, Lloyds TSB Foundation NI, the CAP PICAS programme, the Joint Sectoral Dramaturgy Fund and Belfast City Council through their Arts and Heritage and Good Relations Units.