Wednesday 1 June 2011

The End of Happiness



Our research and development project, Broken Ground's Happiness Index finished on Wednesday after running successfully at The Arthouse since the 21st. This project is now complete and we will be looking at how we will be developing this work ahead of ontheedge@templeworks in July. Big thanks for the brilliant performances by Ian Sharpe, Holly Kavanagh and Jonquil Claughan, to Peter Boyd for photography, Rob Reed for video documentation which will soon be wizzed up into a tasty promo and The Arthouse for their support in this project.

Findings from the Happiness Index are presented at The Hepworth, Wakefield on the 7th June as a Pecha Kucha night along with presentations by other creatives. Get yourselves down there.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Happiness Index @ The Arthouse



The company went to the Arthouse on Monday evening armed with smiley face stickers, graph paper, maps, disco lights, glitter curtains and pegs. These are the things that we think are in the show at the moment. They’re the things we’ve been playing with and telling stories about.
We went in to see if we could do a get-in in an hour. We probably can’t.
We went in to take photographs with Peter Boyd (http://www.pbphoto.co.uk/) that we can hopefully share with you soon. 
We went in to tell some stories we’d told many times before and some that we’ve never told.
Ian told us that the Welsh would be happier if they could embrace the power of the dragon.
Holly nearly told us a story about a fish but thought better of it. 
Jonquil told us all what to do and we just about got it all done.
We all wondered what stories we could tell about happiness, sober, in a nightclub, in the middle of the day. Is there a way of playing ‘Happiness Bingo’ or ‘Happiness Darts’?
We dressed up smart and used our best diction.
We wondered if an inflatable globe in a lift was a private performance, installation art or just hot air.
We realised there is a lot more we can do. We’re going to do it. 


Thursday 10 March 2011

Wakefield Artwalk @ The Arthouse

We had a planning meeting with the staff at The Arthouse in Wakefield today to see what we can contribute to the May Artwalk event, which will tie in with the opening of the Hepworth on the 21st of May. 


The Arthouse have given us a fantastic opportunity to show our work in their space and we're looking forward to creating intimate encounters and playful presentations for the nooks and crannies around the building on the days of Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd May and again on the evening of the 25th of May. 


We'll be using these interactions as part of our Happiness Index project and adding our unique twist to the Artwalk experience. 


It would be lovely to have people join us for what is sure to be an exciting and intense couple of days, your support for the arts community in Wakefield would be appreciated by all the artists who will be showing work across the city.


More information coming closer to the time, so keep your peepers pealed. 


Keep safe, stay happy.  

Saturday 19 February 2011

Broken Ground's Happiness Index: Rehearsal 1



Beginning of our devising process for our new theatre project 'Broken Ground's Happiness Index', our new performance project looking at what makes people happy and if we can measure it. Join in at 
http://brokengroundhappinessindex.blogspot.com/.


Along with the usual tea and talking we did some filmed improvisations which were good for focusing us and generating some creative material. We're now wondering if there is a one-on-one performance here, even if it forms part of the process for a larger, traditional theatre show.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Broken Ground's Happiness Index

Hi, hello and, if this is your first time, welcome.


Now that's out of the way, on with business. Broken Ground are starting a new performance project called Broken Ground's Happiness Index. You can find out what it is and why we're doing it HERE .


The brief outline is this:


Like the government, we're making a happiness index. But we don't have a spare £2m. We have an internet connection, a dressing up box and that's about it. 




If you want to be part of our happiness index then please contact us. We only want a little bit of information and your permission for us to use it in our new show. By answering all, or some, of these five questions you can help us make our Happiness Index:

Where are you from?

How happy are you on a scale of 1-100?

How rich are you on a scale of 1-100?

What makes you happy, other than money?

What's going on in Greenland that they're not telling us about?

You can submit your answers in the comments section on the happiness index blog , join our Broken Ground Theatre group on facebook,  or email us via brokengroundhappinessindex@yahoo.co.uk




Thank you for your time.

Broken Ground