2 Years On…
On Monday this week, we marked 2 years since the start of Theatre In Flow, which at the time was essentially me, my husband and two fabulous creative friends. On 17th January 2020, the company was formally registered with Companies House and, knees knocking, we took our place on the cultural scene.
At the time, we were working on a show called ‘Shame Shanties’ which as the title suggests was about singing sea shanties while talking about our burdens. More specifically, it was about the way women navigate shame, sometimes being completely submerged by it, and so the water, sea and travel metaphors continued. At the time, no one realized we were about to fall headlong into a global nightmare (2 years ago, seriously, I’d never uttered the word pandemic) or that our show, along with a great deal of confidence, would disappear seemingly overnight. And I took it to heart.
A few months later I was working for the NHS, driving home from work in the early hours of the morning, ruminating over what had happened to my theatre career, personal plans and the wider world. I took long meandering walks with my son, anxious not to cross paths with anyone else, and became frightened of a ton of things that had previously never bothered me. Hugging, shaking hands, sitting on a bus. My world felt edgy, shrivelled, scary. I woke up every day feeling grief stricken. I reflect on all of this knowing that in some ways, this is old news now - it has been said a thousand different ways. But I still feel the need to say it out loud, to recognise how it impacted my health and sense of wellbeing. And that it’s not just my story but the story of so many people in recent times.
We moved from Bristol to Rochdale in the summer of 2020 (a story for another time) and tried to jumpstart some life into our fledgling organization. It took grit, vision and a fair amount of support from the people of Rochdale, who are pretty much all legends! I was invited for virtual coffees, social distanced walks around the various local lakes, introduced to new networks, and encouraged to talk about myself (I’m good at this.) I was bowled over by the generous folk of Greater Manchester and am so glad we answered the call, the inner pull, to move here. We are now 16 months on, and by all metrics, are thriving. In addition to us four directors, we now have a team of 5. We work from a great space in the heart of Rochdale and have managed to give birth to several exciting projects. It seems fitting that one of them, a creative group for Mums and babies, started this Monday on our anniversary. We are back on track to building what we hope will be an inspiring community organization, a force for good in the north.
No shame here.
