Education ViVA

Tarradiddle
Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield, Derbyshire
16 March 2009

The Pomegranate Theatre celebrated its 60th anniversary in March this year by holding a New Playwriting Festival. As part of the festival several playwrights wrote short new works which were then performed as part of an evening of music and theatre on March 16 2009.

"I learnt to play with confidence and learnt to be more comfortable with my instrument." - (Participant)

The Tarradiddle project involved young actors from the Pomegranate Youth Theatre and young musicians from Newbold Community School who worked closely with workshop leader Tim Steiner, Director Carole Copeland, a team of sinfonia ViVA musicians and Pomegranate Theatre actors to create original 'music-and-words' pieces.

"It is very interesting working alongside actors because it is nice to give the performance more drama." - (Participant)

Tim Steiner led several day workshops at Newbold Community School with the help of ViVA musicians Anthony Thompson (trumpet) and Justin Woodward (percussion). The workshops took the form of creative music sessions where musical material was developed. During these sessions young musicians from the school created original music to compliment the spoken word pieces. These pieces took a variety of forms, for example songs, overtures, sound effects, underscoring and featured moments.

"I learnt how to compose new music. I have now got better at sight reading." - (Participant)

The final collaborative work produced involved music, words, and music and words together which were presented in a variety of different ways during the performance.

"I felt special, like someone important and involved in something professional." - (Participant)

"The music was very inspired and influenced by the texts and performers and the whole flavour of the show came from that." - (Musician)

The new pieces that were created during the project were performed on March 16th 2009 at the Pomegranate Theatre alongside a performance by sinfonia ViVA of excerpts from Walton's Façade, conducted by Richard Laing with soloist Marilyn Cutts. The performance gave participants the chance to perform in front of family members and friends – an occasion that was thoroughly enjoyed by all involved!

"I felt that ViVA are amazing and that one day I would like to be that good." - (Participant)

"Tim successfully allowed everyone to realise that all ideas were/are valid." - (Musician)

"A very strong performance was achieved – they really understood their role and how it differed to a traditional concert role." - (Musician)

Tarradiddle was generously supported by Chesterfield Borough Council, Derbyshire County Council, Orchestras Live, sinfonia ViVA and Arts Council England.

Images from the project...