The GIFT of Possibility

Exploring a future, flooded Nova Scotia via a VR headset at St Mary's. Image credit - Duncan Scott Harvey

This blog, by Artistic Director Annie Rigby, reflects on attending GIFT Festival and Devoted & Disgruntled, the feeling of possibility they inspired, and why, in difficult times, spaces that invite connection and collective imagination matter more than ever.

Last month I was in two places at once. I didn’t know that was possible until it happened. 

I started in Gateshead. I was there for GIFT Festival. If you have never been to GIFT, it is exactly what its four letters stand for - Gateshead International Festival of Theatre. Now in its 16th year, it is a festival that takes extraordinary theatre and puts it into the most unexpected places.  

I put on odd over-sized shoes at Gateshead Library and stepped into a remarkable artist talk about decolonialisation. I put on a VR headset in St Mary’s and was transported to a future, flooded island in Nova Scotia. (Does this mean I was in three places at once?) 

While I was in St Mary’s/Nova Scotia I got chatting to theatre-maker, Andy Smith. I apologised that I couldn’t go to his show that evening - A Citizens’ Assembly. I explained I had to get a train to go to annual theatre gathering in London, Devoted & Disgruntled. Andy said not to worry. He reached into his bag, pulled out a copy of the script and said, “You can read it while you’re on the train.”  

So - sitting in Seat B22, starting as the train crossed the Tyne - I did.  

A copy of A Citizen’s Assembly

A Citizens’ Assembly is designed to be read by its audience. It is about the climate crisis - about what we can do. It ends with an invitation for its audience to continue the conversation. 

I loved being able to experience the show as a kind of remote solo audience member. I couldn’t have much of a conversation in Seat B22, but I texted my thoughts to GIFT director, Kate Craddock. 

The next morning, I arrived at Devoted & Disgruntled. If you’ve never been, it is a gathering of people who are devoted to / disgruntled about theatre. It asks, “What are we going to do about theatre and the performing arts?” It is organised using Open Space Technology. This truly brilliant structure means you have the conversations you need, and don’t get stuck in ones you don’t. 

I realised that this was where the conversation from Seat B22 was waiting. I called a session. People came. I told the story so far and the conversation flowed. You can read the notes here. 

I was struck by the feeling that - even with the added challenge of a Rail Replacement Bus Service - I had been at both GIFT and D&D the whole weekend. I described the feeling by saying, “GIFT and D&D vibrate on the same frequency. It is the frequency of possibility.” 

Annie Rigby at D&D - Image credit Daniel Bye

I am so grateful to GIFT, D&D and my ability to go to both. These are testing times. I spend a lot of time trying to make budgets add up, and feeling like less and less is possible. It is a gift (pun fully intended) to look up and see possibility again. To see choices. To recognise the resourceswe do have - in our communities, in our skills, in our relationships, even in those over-stretched budgets. 

The weekend is over. But I am holding onto finding ways to continue the conversation. To open up the sense of possibility with the people Unfolding Theatre brings together.  To see what unfolds (pun also fully intended). 

* Fact check. I told a small lie at the beginning of this blog. I said I was in two places at once. It was actually three. On behalf of Unfolding Theatre, I want to send all of our congratulations to Luca Rutherford and her husband Tim. Luca has written, facilitated, performed and co-createdsome of Unfolding Theatre’s most brilliant projects. It was gorgeous to raise a glass to you at your wedding celebrations.