Participation is at the heart of our practice; we create opportunities for a wide range of communities to get involved in the creation and delivery of our productions and lead on bespoke commissioned projects targeted at teenagers, students, older people and many more…..
By interrogating social issues and directly involving those with lived experience we open up imaginations and debate, encouraging people from all walks of life to engage, and directly feed the creative process with authentic voices. Working in areas with low arts provision with multiple partners, participants gain new skills and experiences. Our community partners then foster ongoing long-term local arts engagement.
If you're interested in hearing more about our work with communities then get in touch with Lucy, our Participation Producer.
If you work at university and are interested in having Dante or Die artists work with your students, here is a list of current workshop and mentoring opportunities.
At Will Adams Centre in Gillingham, Medway, we spent six months co-creating a new audio-visual work titled Morpheus. Commisioned by Theatre 31 & Ideas Test, it was led by brilliant freelance associates James Baldwin and Marie Horner. You can experience the digital journey here.
An original, interactive digital map, co-created by the young people of Will Adams Centre and Dante or Die
Morpheus saw Ideas Test curate a term long programme, taking place and engaging young people at Will Adams Centre in Medway, a local alternative provision school.
Ideas Test approached Dante or Die to lead on this project. that celebrates young people at the core, empowering participants, and staff at the school to embrace a creative journey, co-creating a spectacular piece of digital theatre.
Devised through weekly sessions and held completely online in a specially devised virtual creative space, young artists have built characters and narratives that make up the dream-like world of Morpheus. Audiences are taken on an online journey through the interactive map, where they can expect to be treated to a compete digital experience, along with visual and aural soundscapes, spoken word, and film!
In co-collaboration, with the guidance and support of Dante or Die’s practitioners Marie Horner and James Baldwin, the team of young artists explored local stories and personal experiences entwined with in depth characterisation and thrilling narratives, that make up this unique digital experience. The production’s title, social media campaign and all artwork has been made in co-creation, celebrating the creativity and self-expression of our young people as part of this project.
‘We’ve learnt how to be more confident. How to stand up for ourselves. How to put ourselves out there when we didn’t think we could. Seeing how stuff has grown through being planned. Now we can plan stuff a lot easier and perform stuff a lot easier with what we have done in the Morpheus project.’
Shane, Young Artist, Will Adams Centre, co-creator Morpheus
“I’ve always wanted to be creative but I just haven’t had the confidence to do it. With this project that Tammy and everyone has put together, it’s made us a lot more confident”.
Demi, Young Artist, Will Adams Centre, co-creator Morpheus
‘It has been a joy to see the students exploring different thoughts, feelings and emotions which they may not always get the opportunity to do in this current climate.’
Tammy Rodden, Art and Design Lead, Will Adams Centre
‘Working on this project has been a real highlight over the last couple of months. Seeing how the young people have been creating really unique characters and stories has been an absolute inspiration.'
Terry O’Donovan, co-founder Dante or Die, co-creator Morpheus
Between January and June 2021 we were blown away by the creativity of young people in Lancaster and Kent that we've had the pleasure to work with. At The Dukes, Lancaster we devised a short film, in partnership with Raindance the largest independent film festival. The young arts activists that took part created a film inspired by the theme of protest. Our Co-Artistic Director, Terry, reflects on the project here.
"Not only has the creativity and energy of these young artists has been inspiring to the entire team, but their deep engagement with knotty contemporary issues has been giving all of the adults in the Zoom room much needed hope for both the wellbeing of our fellow humans and for the future of art to provoke and get people talking."
In 2019 we worked with The Lowry’s Young Theatre Makers to present their debut performance as The Offstage Ensemble, Bright Futures.
It’s a busy afternoon at Bright Futures…it’s performance review day for the junior sales team. Join them for a panicky, primal, perfect-score-attaining power hour – where the wannabe executives circle around the photocopier, ready to trip you up on your ‘Real Growth Initiative’ presentation and get lunch all down your ‘Client Impact Objectives’.
The Offstage Ensemble in collaboration with Dante or Die transformed an unused office space into an original landscape of ambition, competition…and, er… complete professionalism.
Directed by Clare Dunn
More info can be found here
At any point a life will end.
This is a play about how we cope with the inevitable.
An exploration of a universal story that will affect all of us at some point.
This surprising, humorous and personal look at how we deal with the end of life saw us collaborate with Sheffield People's Theatre. We had spent months planning a unique theatrical experience, starting at the Crucible then on to the city centre's Upper Chapel, where audiences would have been led through a series of intimate experiences by a 50-strong cast.
Due to the pandemic, this co-production with Sheffield Theatres, was not able to go ahead. We hope to be able to revisit the play at some point soon.
Written by Andrew Muir
Directed by Anna Richmond