Generations
Following a ground-breaking pilot with Improbable in Spring 2018, All Change has continued to develop this improvised performance collaboration between older participants from our Well-Versed project, MA Performance Design students at Central St. Martins (CSM), MA Applied Theatre students at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (CCSD) and children at Islington Play Association.
Participants work with All Change Associate Artist Francesca Beard, Performance Design Course Leader – Michael Spencer and photographer/filmmaker Monica Alcazar-Duarte. This intergenerational project has resulted in public improvised performances at CSM in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and a short film.
Photo by Monica Alcazar-Duarte
Generations Two - film by Monica Alcazar-Duarte
In 2020, CSM and All Change invited Dr Hannah Zeilig - Senior Research Fellow at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London and associate fellow at University of East Anglia, to visit and evaluate Generations 3. Hannah has a background in social gerontology and the arts. She has long been interested in the role of older people in society and has investigated the role and value of the arts for people with dementia. Her report - Opening The Door - Generations 3 Report by Hannah Zeilig provides a snapshot account of the project, based on attending two workshops and the final sharing event, and insights gleaned in four interviews, with two students and two older people. It describes the process of the workshops - suggesting how and why they work in the ways that they do, with a focus on the role of improvisation and game playing.
In 2021 for Generations 4, we began two new partnerships with students at CSSD and added a third generation - children aged 5-11 - through Islington Play Association for a summer of #sociallydistanced intergenerational play at All Change and Toffee Park Adventure Playground.