Weekly, Monday Evenings, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
CANCELLED // In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis the Mansions of the Future team has been working with commissioned artists to rethink programmed workshops, talks and activities and ultimately decide together whether events can be reimagined, in a safe, virtual, domestic and necessarily personal environment. Unfortunately, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel Lincoln – a Story About Home with Olga Macrinici, an intimate and generous workshop series looking to bring into focus contemporary social dynamics related to national migration processes. Participant enjoyment and engagement in the programme would be drastically reduced, if the project were to be delivered online and not in a shared and familiar physical space, with face to face support. Mansions of the Future is committed to honouring artist fees.
Lincoln – a Story About Home is a 6-week workshop series and wider research project developed by Lincoln-based Moldovan theatre maker and cultural activist Olga Macrinici and shaped by its participants. During the project the group – made up of representatives from local immigrant or minority communities – will discuss and navigate their experiences of immigration and relocation, using a series of creative writing and storytelling techniques. Lincoln – a Story About Home aims to create a platform for local narratives of immigration by bringing into focus contemporary social dynamics related to national migration processes.
The project will offer participants the opportunity to develop skills in storytelling by writing a short play / script about their personal experiences of moving to Lincoln and assimilating it as their new home. All 6 sessions will be playful and relaxed, and each workshop will focus on a different aspect of the immigration process. Creative techniques used will include interview (testimony), storytelling, poetry, memoir writing, reading and role play and other areas of interest as decided by the participants themselves. Participants will be invited to share only what they feel comfortable in discussing with the group.
The fifth workshop will be dedicated to confidence building, public reading and performance. Following this, the final session will be an opportunity for participants to share work during an informal public event and open discussion forum around immigration, home and community. Hearing stories from members of local immigrant communities will afford the audience a more profound awareness of their own involvement with contemporary immigration issues. This is entirely nonmandatory for workshop participants not wanting to share their stories in public.
Lincoln – a Story About Home is an inclusive project open to individuals of all abilities and dedicated to participants who have lived experience of immigration and / or relocation. Participation in the full programme is preferred, hence priority will be given to those who can commit to all 6 sessions. Snacks and refreshments will be available at each 2-hour workshop. Mansions of the Future is able to provide a translator (depending on uptake) to support participants who do not speak English. Click here to download a Polish translation or click here to download a Romanian translation of the information outlined on this page. If you would like to participate or make an inquiry, please email info@mansionsofthefuture.org by Monday 13 July.
Olga Macrinici is a Moldovan theatre maker and cultural activist, currently living and working in Lincoln. In her artistic research, Olga focuses on the influence of socially engaged projects in the community. Her works explore a wide range of documentary and collaborative practices. She also has extensive experience of working with young adults from vulnerable groups. Using applied theatre techniques, like Augusto Boal’s methods, she creates a safe space where they can learn to express themselves and develop critical thinking skills.
In her previous work Olga has explored interculturality and marginalisation, intergenerational conflicts, gender and sexual orientation equity, heteronormativity and toxic masculinity, animal rights and welfare, climate and environmental justice. Her plays have been produced in partnership with AZART Centre for Cultural Projects and VERBARIUM International Contemporary Dramaturgy Festival in Chisinau (Moldova), “Ariel” Theatre for Children and Youth and the University of Arts from Targu-Mures, Reactor, Cluj-Napoca, International Literature and Translations Festival, Iasi (Romania).
This project is part of Mansions of the Future’s Lincoln Live programme March – November 2020 (Season extended in response to COVID-19). Departing from Lincoln’s rich entertainment and theatre history, Lincoln Live features new commissions which exist at the intersections of disciplinary boundaries. The season is a celebration of performative ventures that stand resolutely marginal to both the history of English theatre and the often exclusive, disciplinary rhetoric of contemporary performance art.