Oldham Teahouse Discussion, 19 July: 'Towards Tomorrow', a play by Peshkar Theatre, followed by 'Journeys and Fiction'

Towards Tomorrow, a play by Peshkar Theatre

followed by

Oldham Teahouse Discussion -
Journeys and Fiction: Ways of exploring diaspora experience

With Tajinder Singh Hayer, in partnership with Peshkar Theatre
Coldhurst Community Centre
Rochdale Rd
Oldham
OL1 2HR

The Oldham Teahouse was set up in partnership with Peshkar Theatre and was held in continuation of a performance of Towards Tomorrow, a play based on stories told by first generation migrants from Asia.

The discussion looked at artistic ways of exploring the experience of diaspora, leaving a country and belonging. The actors and writers of the play explained the creative process of writing a fictional play about Asian people coming to live in the UK in the 1970ies based on stories of immigrants. They interviewed a number of people, often family members or family friends, and recorded these interviews. They then came together once a week to listen to the recordings and collaboratively write the play, using improvisation as one of the methods for collective writing. They’ve also archived all the recordings and are hoping to expand this archive in the future.

During this process, they paid attention to creating a good play based on dramatic methods and connecting their artistic ambitions to the stories they had been told without exploiting them.

The discussion evolved around the experience of interviewing and the process of collaborative writing.

Even though the interviews and play were about Asian people coming to live the UK, a lot of experiences and stories have strong similarities with stories from migrants from other than Asian countries to other countries than the UK.