Creativity with dementia community
1623 theatre company needs your support to continue its ground-breaking work with dementia communities.
Your support will make possible a national tour of a show and accompanying workshops that engage dementia communities with creativity.
LEAR/CORDELIA is the show. It's a double bill of adapted Shakespeare and new writing that explores how dementia impacts on family life today.
The show is mainly for families, friends and carers of people with dementia. It's to start conversations about how best to care for our loved ones who have the condition.
LEAR'S MEMORY BOX is the workshop. It's a creative session that brings together music, movement, words and song in response to sensory objects that feature in the show.
The workshop is for people who are living with dementia and their families, friends and carers. They take place in care homes and on dementia wards.
Both the show and the workshop have been developed through an extensive participatory research project with dementia communities.
They were piloted in autumn 2016 in Derby and Leicester with support from Arts Council England, Attenborough Arts Centre, Derby City Council, Derby Theatre and QUAD.
Responses to the show included "challenging but hugely accessible" (BBC Radio Derby), "vital theatre that raises important questions" (Creative Dementia Network) and "mesmerising and moving" (Dame Janet Suzman).
The workshop brought together people with dementia and their families, friends and carers. They listened and moved to music, sang a song and responded to sensory objects. "Such a happy activity" (Oaklands Care Home).
We are putting together a national tour of the show and workshop, to widen the conversation about caring for people with dementia and to facilitate communication between people who live with it and those who do not.
The tour will take place in autumn 2021 in theatres, care homes and dementia wards across the UK.
We need match-funding for a grant application to Arts Council England to make the tour possible.
Please help us to raise £5,000 by donating any amount you can afford and/or sharing the link to this campaign.
It will really make a positive difference to many people's lives. Thank you.
