From June – Sept 2018, I took part in the N18 Artist Development Programme running alongside the Great Exhibition of the North.  As part of the programme, a group of artists were invited to respond to the exhibition using digital tools and technology.

Northern Pulse responds to the theme of Northern-ness and engaged participants using social media and the Seenit Capture app.  In the first stage, I sent out a questionnaire asking people to answer questions such as ‘What does being Northern mean to you?’, ‘What are the common misconceptions of the North?’ and ‘Describe the North in 5 words’.  I then used these responses to create a poem which participants were then invited to film themselves reading in a Northern location of their choice.  Individual films were edited together to create the final film poem.  Alongside this, sits a data visualisation showing how often words and phrases in the poem came up in the questionnaire responses.

The poem is read by Hazel Osmond, Joe Facer and Becci Sharrock.  You can watch the full poem below.

Huge thanks to Jasmine Cox for being an A* mentor, Riverside Associates for managing the programme, the Great Exhibition of the North for the opportunity and to all the other fantastic artists who made the experience such an enjoyable one.

Bankers is a night of new writing created by Write on Tap.  The show is made up of four stories, each written by an emerging writer from the North East, that explore either the increasing use of foodbanks or the banking crisis of 2008.  These were then interwoven with audio from interviews with foodbank clients and volunteers, academics and politicians.  Alongside director Jonny Bussell I worked with each of the writers to provide feedback on the scripts and dramaturgical support.

Bankers premiered at Alphabetti Theatre in February 2018 with plans for a regional tour later in the year.

Letters to Myself is a participatory arts and theatre project asking people to write a letter to their past, present or future self.  The project received funding from the Cultural Spring, Arts Council England, Unity Theatre Trust and Sunday for Sammy to work in 10 areas of low arts engagement across Sunderland and South Shields.

After an 18 month programme of workshops, drop-in sessions and one-to-ones, the resulting theatre show based on the material generated toured nationally in Spring 2017 to the following venues; Eden Court, Guildhall Arts Centre, Camden People’s Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, Seven Arts, Lincoln Drill Hall, Coundon and Leeholme Community Centre, South Holland Centre, Carriageworks Theatre and Live Theatre.

Letters to Myself is a mix of text from letters received as well as script and spoken word written by myself.

You can see an early work in progress extract of the show here.

Full footage of the final show is available on request.

 “A real eye opener; affective & a little bit brutal!”

“That was amazing.  I loved every second.  I laughed, I cried, I wanted to dance”

You can find out more about the project and the creative team and read some of the letters we received at www.letterstomyself.org.uk.

From April 2016 – Jan 2017, I was the Writer in Residence at Beamish Museum, funded by the Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence Scheme (focused on fostering a new creative collaboration with an artist working in a discipline outside the institution’s usual curriculum). I worked within the community engagement team using writing and theatre to engage members of the public in areas of the Museum’s work.

“Working with Becci has allowed me to work with community members in a way I wouldn’t have been able to do, had it not been for Becci’s skill and knowledge, working on unique projects that allow communities to develop and use writing skills to share their unique history in an exciting way.” 

(Lisa Peacock, Remaking Beamish Project Officer)

Projects included:

• (Ongoing) Creating a play with individuals and groups connected to the Spennymoor Settlement and the Everyman Theatre.  The settlement spurned many well-known artists such as Norman Cornish, Tom McGuiness and Sid Chaplin and was part of the wider settlement movement of the 1900s.  The project celebrates this history and provides a unique access point for members of the community to explore their heritage together.
• Working with groups that have connections to and memories of buildings that will be moved to or replicated in the museum’s new 1950s area (including Ryhope Cinema, Coundon & Leeholme Community Centre, John’s Café, Wingate) to collect and create stories that accurately represent the experience of the 1950s in the North East.
• Generating my own creative responses to the Museum’s vast archive and programme of work; in the form of short stories and poems.