Theatre. Conflict. Change.

This website documents the research activities and outcomes of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project ‘Tales of Winter and Spring: Gender, Histories and Intergenerational Exchange in Global Theatre’ led by Elizabeth Kuti and Annecy Lax, both Senior Lecturers in Drama, at the University of Essex. Through dramaturgy, playwriting, desk-based research and creative collaboration, our project pursued the following questions: How are women theatre-makers giving voice to untold personal and national stories in sites of conflict around the world? What can we learn from the work of these women theatre-makers about the role of the creative arts in fragile communities in post-conflict or post-colonial situations? In what other ways do playwriting and theatre practice contribute to the translation or understanding of cultures, across generational, linguistic and national borders? Artists involved in the ‘Tales of Spring and Winter’ research project work in the UK and also in regions and countries on the OECD DAC list: specifically Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Palestine, Serbia, Sri Lanka and India. We held a week-long residency with the artists at the University of Essex (June 19-23 2017), during which we filmed, interviewed, workshopped, talked, performed, discussed and devised together. We created two new pieces of work: Dear Children, Sincerely . . and a new play, Cold Season in Calcutta. These were both performed as part of a public Performance and Symposium Day at the Mercury Theatre (June 24, 2017) where academics, practitioners and the general public met and mingled in a day of talks, panels and performances. Films of these activities can all be found throughout the pages of this website. The central unifying theme of the different research strands and activities housed within Tales of Spring and Winter is dialogue between the generations, in the broadest sense: encounters between old and young; transitions from past to present; historical regeneration and renewal; the return of spring after winter. Our aim is to find out what underlying and particular qualities, or indeed problems, women theatre-makers share - whether as directors, playwrights, performers or policy-shapers – in conflict-torn communities across the globe. The goal of this website is to make the research processes and outcomes of the research project accessible to all. It’s also our goal to make the work of women theatre practitioners more visible to the world, now and in the future; to further and support their work through networking, facilitating communication, sharing practice – and especially by paying critical attention to their endeavours and achievements.