Creative Learning working with The Understanding Conflict Trust (UCT)
The Lyric’s Creative Learning department has been working on a joint venture with the UCT’s “Nurturing Hope” project. UCT is a local reconciliation charity.
In 2022 UCT developed Nurturing Hope, a five-book ‘open access’ resource on reconciliation practices. Understanding Relationships is one of these books, inviting readers to explore how, when rivalry escalates into scapegoating and violence, the urge for revenge is always near. Then the fabric of our relationships tear, unless we find a way back to one another in openness and trust and create space and freedom to live more hopefully together.
In an initial session with representatives from the Trust, facilitator Kieran Lagan led a day long workshop with 4 actors exploring these dynamics and how they play out in our relationships. This then led to a second day when the improvised work of the actors was filmed. The videos will be a resource for ‘Nurturing Hope’ groups and live on a dedicated YouTube channel. The workshops were supported by the Youth Service (EANI) and UCT.
Philip Crawford, Head of Creative Learning, said “This is an exciting opportunity to use transferable skills from the world of theatre to collaborate with this charity and employ them in a useful and practical way. We hope this will inspire further joint work between our two organisations.”
Derick Wilson (UCT) said: "The Lyric Theatre scenarios for Nurturing Hope are very challenging. The quality of the acting is compelling and the storytelling reveals the potential of open relationships to give us space, trust and a future together beyond conflict. They provide a stimulus for groups working with these materials to have more open and robust discussions"
Nurturing Hope is written by Derick Wilson, Duncan Morrow, J. Jean Horstman and Dong Jin Kim, with graphics by Stephanie Heckman, published by The Corrymeela Press with a Catalyst publishing grant from the Royal Society of Arts.
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