Lel is one of the community storytellers from the ensemble and her chapter, Between The Esplanade and Seashore, brings to life the real and imagined stories behind the many benches in South Cliff Gardens. Lel shared these words at the Love Stories launch event in July, which though a little soggy, was a great way to celebrate the work of everyone involved in this gorgeous project, a big thank you to everyone who braved the rain to join us!
‘I think technically, the term for what was done in the making of Love Stories is ‘co-
creation’ but that is such a dry phrase so I wanted to say a little about what has
actually been a magical and joyful process for those of us involved in making this
lovely audio trail.
We worked with many artists, for example, Jackie Walduck, Kathy Seabrook and
Rebecca Denniff. Each are professional composers and musicians at the very pinnacle of extraordinary talent but those of us who are storytellers were by no means a supporting cast of amateurs. The experts didn’t ‘kindly lead us’ in a direction they had already decided we would go. Every note and lyric came out of a truly collaborative process.
Firstly, ARCADE invited Allie Watt, local playwright to set up workshops and go
into Scarborough communities to gather love stories about the gardens. Stories
cross generations and many are included in the ‘Love Lives Here’ track which we
recommend listening to in The Italian Gardens. Some of the writers were invited to
become a part of the storytelling cast. Lynne’s beautiful story came out of one such
Workshop.
The first meeting I went to, I was surrounded by musicians- to be honest, it was a
bit intimidating. ‘How, musically, do you hear your story?’ I was asked and I could
truthfully say ‘I have absolutely no idea’. I started reading it and Kathy Seabrook,
the flautist with the Scarborough Spa Orchestra, just started playing along,
interpreting MY words and it was perfect. Jackie then turned this into the
orchestral score you hear in the audio trail.
For Elaine’s story, which features the sky map, the group literally joined the dots on
an actual star map and then overlaid this on a musical stave and that is how her
music came about.
Associate Artist Rebecca Denniff, was part of the co-creation process, she invited
the group to pick phrases from stories that jumped out. With her help we created
lyrics which she helped us find melodies for. But ‘we’re not singers’ we told
Rebecca, but she gave us support and confidence to find our voices.
We are all really proud of the work we created, but it’s more than just pride. Jess
suggested that we have all bloomed while being part of this process. We have been
on what Matthew called an ‘adventure’. From the youngest to the oldest member
of the cast, we have all grown in self-confidence, in self-esteem, in awareness of
our own potential as creatives and importantly, our love for Scarborough and her
gardens. Scarborough is a special place and we have discovered through this
project that we can be special in it.’