Telling Our Stories: The power of Archives, Diaries and Memory: Blog 103

Saturday 6am  - My Patio

Good morning! 

Its a beautiful morning. The sun is just rising over my patio here by the river in Barking. It will fully bathe it from about 9am. Its a hidden gem.What a beautiful few days it has been, the sun lighting up the landscape and lifting spirits. Everyone discarding winter coverings and baring arms and legs. People take time to stop look at their surroundings and chat to each other. There is a relief in the air that for the moment we don't have to brave the cold and rush from place to place to find shelter from rain and wind.  

Yesterday was another fine day, punctuated by humour once again from the Mullered team as they arrived back at base to unload the set for the weekend. Karl, Jordan and Natalie burst into the quiet order of the office with funny stories, jokes and energy! Karl and Jordan had a faint resemblance to a couple of young westies!  John has taken a photo of the team that really makes me laugh! So this is what they get up to on tour? I am delighted to present the new Arc logo in body sculpture. This is what happens when they are left to their own devices. I love it. 

Natalie, Karl and Jordan live the Arc Brand! Thanks John.

It reminds me of the many shows we have made and toured for nearly 30 years. They are all recorded in images and posters, flyers and annual reports. And they are all beautifully archived by Nita, Theresa and Natalie in filing cabinets in our store room. 

Why do we need to keep these things? Well of course there are sentimental feelings for a time passed. But most of all they are a story of a life, the life of an organisation. They chart the preoccupations of the time, politically, artistically, economically. They tell the ambitions, dreams and realisations of a hundred stories and characters. They make their small contribution to a history of theatre, and through them an insight into the times we have lived in. 

The walls of our green room (known as the gap because its a small narrow room between our studios) are covered in images, posters and flyers of projects past. Young faces look out from them, captured in a moment of performance. They are proof that one way or another we have found our place in the creative world, and that many young performers have learned their craft and started their careers with us. 

Many haven't worked with us for years, but still return to share new experiences and projects with us and we delight in going to see their work. Some have gone on to be very visible in theatre and film, but I am always touched at how so many of them come back 'home' to Arc for parties, shows, events and celebrations. Its a shared and collective history from which we have all learned and grown and continue to do so.

Even our own children are living testament to this. All our permanent staff have daughters, 6 in total between us -  all pretty much the same age, now in their early twenties. They all grew up playing under the desks and being forced to take part in endless drama workshops, watch shows and generally put up with the ups and downs of being part of a theatre company. It put some of them off for life I am sure! I remember Nita's youngest daughter Esta at the age of three  flatly refusing to take part any more in drama workshops in the holidays.

History is a funny thing, and recording it even more so. When we are living it, we are doing just that - living. We don't see how it forms part of the bigger fabric. Until we do. And that's why I am a great lover of the diary as an artform too. Its only in retrospect that we understand our lives and experiences and can make any sense of the connections that led one thing to another. We give shape, sense and meaning to those times when we look back and they inform us of who we are and maybe also our current direction of travel. Its deeply enriching.

I have always kept a diary and its my secret portal into my own history and those I love and work with. Just a word or an image from a diary from ten years ago transports me back to that time and place, it jogs my memory and details fly into consciousness. 

Our Girls and Jon Snow our Patron

It never ceases to amaze me that Natalie can still remember times, places and scripts from fifteen years ago! I often refer to her as my encyclopaedia on Arc history. Nita is pretty good too. Understanding our past helps us to imagine our future. I am very fortunate to have been at Arc from the start and still to be able to part of imagining new creative partnerships, ideas and projects. I am refreshed and excited about our next stage of the Arc journey. One thing's for sure its a blast and never ceases to surprise and amaze me  - it has a real life of its own, and next year will mark its 30th year. I think we might have to have a party.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.