{"id":167,"date":"2017-09-29T12:42:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T11:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catchingstories.infamousarts.co.uk\/?page_id=167"},"modified":"2017-10-03T17:14:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T16:14:39","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/catchingstories.infamousarts.co.uk\/?page_id=167","title":{"rendered":"About us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catching Stories, Making History: Workers\u2019 Voices, 1973-2000<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Catching Stories<\/em> is a one-year oral history project instigated by Dean Whiskens and Jacqueline Contr\u00e9 from Infamous Community Arts, and inspired by their backgrounds with Banner Theatre in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

From the start, Banner Theatre based its productions around the recordings of people\u2019s stories and experiences. Much of this \u2018actuality\u2019 is preserved in Banner\u2019s records and archive. However, what remains largely undocumented are the stories of the company\u2019s personnel: its performers, writers, directors, technicians, administrators and other associates. It is this significant gap in the company\u2019s history that Catching Stories<\/em> seeks to redress, starting with the initial interviews of 36 former Banner members, carried out by Dean, Jacqueline and a team of volunteers, with many more members waiting to be recorded.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Dean\u2019s father Bob, a Land Rover trade-union convenor, was interviewed by Banner in 1978 for On the Brink<\/em>, a show about the motor trade industry. As Dean recalls,<\/p>\n

\u201cDad was interviewed for On the Brink<\/em>, and ended up performing in it. A bit later, Mum got involved in the Women\u2019s Show. That was in the early 80s, I was six or seven then. And I remember being dragged all around the country during the Miners\u2019 Strike.<\/p>\n

When I was 15, Pete Yates [Banner\u2019s then audio-visual director] invited me to shadow him on Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Jordan<\/em>, their one-man show about migrating from Jamaica to England. I wanted to be a theatre technician, so he took me under his wings. That\u2019s when Banner was in the Bradford Street office. I went along to the shows during my school holidays, or at weekends, with Pete as my mentor. Not long after, Pete died.<\/p>\n

Then, when I was16, I was meant to be at college. I remember going out with Dave [Rogers] and Dave [Dale] on Saltley Gate<\/em>\u2026 My brothers were less involved but they always helped with things like moving offices etc. Colin went out with Redemption Song<\/em> as second technical assistant to Richard Price. Rob did work experience with the administrator\u2026<\/p>\n

All of that made me want to work in community arts. And I\u2019ve been thinking of recording past Banner members for several years now\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Jacqueline had also been involved with Banner Theatre since the early 1980s, first as an amateur performer with the Women\u2019s Group and the Song Group, later as an administrator and manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first came to England in 1975, I came across the Grey Cock Folk Club, and there was this couple who ran a singing workshop at their house \u2013 Dave and Chris Rogers… I joined, and ended up singing at the Club with the residents. That\u2019s where I met Charles Parker, Pete Yates, and a whole lot more people who had started forming a theatre company – Banner.<\/p>\n

I joined Banner in 1982 when the Women\u2019s Group, most of whom I knew through the folk club, asked me to perform in their show, Women At Work<\/em>, when one of their members left to go travelling.<\/p>\n

It was around that time that I also became interested in helping out in the office, and ended up being trained by the then administrator Marion Pike, which launched me into a completely new career as an arts manager.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve remained in touch with Banner ever since. \u00a0The Banner main group and the core group \u2013 that\u2019s the professionals \u2013 was a huge group that continued to intersect in various ways during the following decades.<\/p>\n

I remember that, on occasions – most notably during Banner\u2019s 30th Anniversary celebrations, we talked about the possibility of recording former Banner members.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

While these ideas were not initially followed up, the final impetus arose in 2015, when Banner asked Jacqueline to write a piece on the origins of the company.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

All of these factors led Dean and Jacqueline to dream up a small oral history project to begin to record Banner\u2019s history, which they started in October 2016\u00a0with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (Sharing Heritage\u00a0<\/i>programme). Dean and Jacqueline have met with considerable interest from all participants and volunteers, both in the initial stage of the project, and in its ongoing development. There is a shared recognition of the importance of collecting\u00a0this part of Banner\u2019s past, and providing a context for Banner\u2019s own oral history archive.<\/p>\n

Dean Whiskens and Jacqueline Contr\u00e9
\n27 September 2017<\/p>\n

Acknowledgements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to The Heritage Lottery Fund who funded Catching Stories, and to the generous support of Infamous and Banner\u2019s supporters and friends, who gave us money and time to make the project happen.<\/p>\n

Thanks also to Naomi Paul for contributing to these introductory remarks.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> 36 interviews carried out at time of writing, by Dean, Jacqueline and a team of volunteers including Bob Whiskens, Estelle Fisher, George Gordon, Mogs Russell, Rosie Cartlidge, Tim Hollins and Vince Pryce<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> At that point, Banner\u2019s history had not been comprehensively captured. In the process of researching Banner\u2019s records and archive, Jacqueline found few complete and accessible records detailing the company\u2019s work and, in particular, its personnel.<\/p>\n

The resulting article, Banner Theatre: A Brief History<\/em>, was subsequently posted on the Morning Star\u2019s Culture Matters<\/em> website, and on Banner\u2019s own new website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catching Stories, Making History: Workers\u2019 Voices, 1973-2000 Catching Stories is a one-year oral history project instigated by Dean Whiskens and Jacqueline Contr\u00e9 from Infamous Community Arts, and inspired by their backgrounds with Banner Theatre in Birmingham. From the start, Banner Theatre based its productions around the recordings of people\u2019s stories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-167","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nAbout us -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/catchingstories.infamousarts.co.uk\/?page_id=167\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About us -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Catching Stories, Making History: Workers\u2019 Voices, 1973-2000 Catching Stories is a one-year oral history project instigated by Dean Whiskens and Jacqueline Contr\u00e9 from Infamous Community Arts, and inspired by their backgrounds with Banner Theatre in Birmingham. 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