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The Field Theatre Group is a not-for-profit arts, cultural and heritage organisation based in Littleport, East Cambridgeshire. The Field exists to provide community members with opportunities to participate in high-quality arts, performance and cultural projects and events.
Community inclusion is the cornerstone of our work, and community involvement is vital to the ongoing success of our projects.
We engage professional practitioners, such as directors, coaches, artists and technicians to work alongside participants to create exciting and memorable events.
All The Field’s practitioners are highly experienced and have proven track records in their fields.
Participation in our projects is open to all, regardless of age, experience and background.
Our past participants have included children with special educational needs, disabled, elderly and blind residents, those who are socially isolated, young people and marginalised families.
Participation is free to all, whether as participants, viewers or audiences.
Rather than targeting specific demographic groupings (such as youth) we pride ourselves on creating an intergenerational platform wherein participants of all ages can learn from and work together.
The Field Theatre Group enables residents to learn new skills in a friendly and supportive environment. This community engagement also strengthens social bonds. The Field aims to give participants pride in their achievements and in our unique fenland history and heritage.
Since our establishment in 2004 the Field has engaged well over a thousand participants in
Littleport alone.
Artistic director, Deborah Curtis & producer and Chair, Jennifer Stevens are the core practitioners of the Field Theatre Group. They are both established artists in their own right, as well as experienced community project managers. Under Jennifer and Deborah’s directorship, The Field has received grant funding from many different agencies, including: the Heritage Lottery Fund, Awards for All, East Cambs Community Fund, Co-operative Community Fund, Grassroots, ADeC, Cambs Acre, Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership and Littleport Parish Council.
The Field has produced a large number of community-based projects, including large-scale community performance events, community films, multi-media touring productions, schools programmes, community art and writing projects, exhibitions and numerous other smaller-scale projects.
In recent years, The Field Theatre Group has been awarded two Heritage Lottery grants.
One is for a two year project (2013-15) (titled The Horseman’s Word).
The other (2014) is for a 9 month long series of events to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War: (Littleport Festival Fourteen).
For details of the Field’s past, present and future work, please visit our website www.fieldtheatregroup.btck.co.uk
Facebook: Field Theatre Group or
Littleport WW1
2005 Riot A week long series of drama workshops with approximately 50 participants, culminating in a re-enactment of the events surrounding the Littleport Riots in 1815. Workshops and performance directed by Tom Marty of Public Arena. Funded by Awards for All.
2005 Littleport Live Nativity A large-scale street nativity production, featuring a massed choir, torch-lit procession and live animals. Funded by Awards for All.
2006 Beating the Bounds An open air 'walk and talk' production on the theme of landscape and environment. Featuring music, song, story telling, drama and poetry. Director Deborah Curtis, producer Jennifer Stevens
2006 Winter Light. A candle-lit evening of poetry, music and drama staged in St Georges' church, Littleport. Directed and adapted by Deborah Curtis, produced and designed by Jennifer Stevens. Non-funded, Commercial
2007 A Midsummer Night's Dream. A large-scale open air production staged at dusk, at midsummer, in the magical setting of a woodland glade situated in Millfield CP School, Littleport. Featuring a cast of 50 with live animals. Text adapted by Deborah Curtis, directed by Tom Marty & Deborah Curtis, produced & designed by Jennifer Stevens. Funded by Awards for All, Leap Leader+, Cambridgeshire Grassroots.
2007 Littleport Live Nativity By popular demand. A restaging of our large-scale Nativity production.
2008 What the Dickens! Outdoor street entertainment for the Littleport Christmas street fair, featuring songs, sketches and Victorian patter. Non-funded. Cmmercial.
2010 Community film: Common Ground A 35-minute fictionalised documentary featuring a cast of approximately 70 local non-professional actors, an original score, songs, music and animals.Screenings in Littleport, Soham, Ely and Cambridge. Written and dir. by Deborah Curtis, produced and designed by Jennifer Stevens, Dir. of photography Peter Harmer, workshop dir. Tom Marty of Public Arena. Funded by Awards for All.
2010 Winter FenSeasonal show featuring new drama, poetry, music, song, story-telling and film. The show included Martha's Secret A wartime drama about the capture of double agent Eddie Chapman at Apes Hall Farm, Littleport. Hetty Peglar's Christmas: a brand new adaptation of a traditional Fenland Christmas ghost story. Non-funded. Commerical.
2011 Land Lines Our award-winning, multi-media touring production. Land Lines is an imaginative journey through our stunning fen landscape, featuring new drama, photography, film footage, poetry, stories, live music and song. Non-funded. Commercial.
2012 CounterCulture. An arts and writing project based on unlocking the secrets and stories contained within our humble shopping receipts. Exhibition and performance, competition and community workshops. Funded by the Cooperative Community Fund.
2013 to -- The Horseman’s Word. Heritage Lottery Funded project exploring the golden age of heavy horse keeping in the Fens. Film, community oral history gathering, touring exhibition and website creation. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
2014 Littleport Festival Fourteen. A series of events to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Community workshops, community performances, schools learning programme, community exhibitions, creation of the poetry anthology: Reflections. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, East Cambs District Council, Littleport Parish Council
2015 The Catching, Cooking and Easting of Eels. Travelling installation. Part of the Ouse Washes Festival, July 2015. Funded by the Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership.
2015 Man and River. Portrait of Peter Carter, the last licenced eel-fisherman on the Ouse river. Travelling exhibition. Funded by the Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership
2015
Mouse Pie & Glory Buns. Oral history gathering and exhibition on the theme of childhood remenicences of
wartime food. Funded by Cambs County Council.
Links to film shorts produced by Field artists.
Captured Souls, Dir. Jack Stevens, narr. Michael Rouse, text, Deborah Curtis.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj9twxyeu00
Jack Stevens - YouTube www.youtube.com/channel/UCTZMhAd0pIpGjQTZCn9VspQ
‘SYNOPSIS Captured Souls is a short film which has a very powerful sense of time and place, through the creation of a filmed installation that the viewer can …’
Common Ground: Trailer, view on YOUTUBE.
Land lines: Prod. and stills Jenny Stevens, dir./ writer, Deb Curtis, footage, Jack Stevens
Introduction to Land Lines - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEMkR22Ayf8
‘Award winning multi-media drama from The Field Theatre Group. An imaginative journey through the Fens.’