Not out of Africa

You have not experienced theatre until you have experienced inclusive theatre. So says TramShed Theatre Company, based in the heart of Blackpool. Established by London-based Chickenshed, TramShed is now part of an ever-growing number of independent regional 'Sheds' which use the Chickenshed inclusive creative method within their own local communities.

Offering youth theatre and adult company workshops, a children's theatre, and a developing schools and community outreach programme, we have high aspirations. This has been evidenced by our recent successful Arts Council England (ACE) Grants for the Arts application for an international inclusive theatre project: 'Muli Mutya, Lancashire!' (MML).

Muli Mutya means 'Hello, how are you?’ in Luganda (the language of Uganda), signalling our aim to develop a new, international dimension to our practice and share our inclusive arts practice with those from the very different cultural context of Uganda. We chose to work in Uganda because of its strong tradition of performance arts, little known outside the African continent. While theatre has been used extensively across the country in development-related programmes, such as HIV awareness, it has rarely been used to explore issues of disability or inclusion. We saw the MML project as an innovative opportunity to explore the ways in which Ugandan performing arts practices can be applied to the exploration of disability and inclusion here in the UK. It was also a chance to extend our practitioners' own performance practice through direct collaboration with Ugandan arts professionals.

For the second time in as many weeks, we had to rethink, not just about the project but also about the partnership as a whole

A partnership was created with a cultural organisation based in Uganda. One of our arts practitioner team had visited Uganda with other projects in past years, which created a stepping stone to developing a partnership between the two organisations. Plans for each phase of activity were developed, including what would be involved, aims, objectives and how we would take this huge project forward. Our ACE funding covered phases one and three. The Ugandan organisation was to secure funding for phase two.

The first phase of the project involved inviting three Ugandan artists for a week-long training programme at our Blackpool base. The intention was for them to work with the practitioner team in the devising and delivery of music, dance and drama workshops with company members and project participants. The second phase of the project would see our arts practitioners travel to Uganda to continue the inclusive training via a pilot project involving two local schools. Finally, back in Blackpool, our team would draw on what they had learned from the exchange of ideas and approaches in Uganda through a series of outreach theatre projects with children and adults from schools and community groups.

One of the first challenges of international partnership working arose almost immediately with the refusal of two of the three visas for the Ugandan artists that had been recruited to come over to the UK. Despite planning for this many months ahead and numerous attempts to obtain the visas (which itself is a lengthy process), they were declined at the eleventh hour. Plans for the training week had to be quickly adapted to accommodate the one artist − Lillian Mbabazi – who was granted entry to the UK. Lillian worked with the team on an intensive but extremely successful week of inclusive workshop training in July with schools and community groups.

The second challenge arose at the beginning of phase two in August. Unfortunately, the school terms in Uganda shifted unexpectedly at the last minute, meaning the pilot project could not take place as planned. As our own programme commences in September, we were unable to travel to Uganda to deliver this phase under the new schedule. There were also difficulties in securing sufficient funding for all aspects of this phase in time for the start of the next, as funders accessed from Uganda had delayed their decisions. This meant the Ugandan activity – crucial for the third and final phase of work back in the UK – could not take place as planned. For the second time in as many weeks, we had to rethink, not just about the project but also about the partnership as a whole, from which we sadly made the decision to withdraw.

We decided that we needed to take full control of the second phase and are currently in the process of writing a new, independent funding bid to ensure the project can be carried out as originally intended. As we successfully delivered phase one, our relationship with artist Lillian Mbabazi is strong and her involvement is now critical in ensuring the success and progression of the project.

We have continued to support Lillian from the UK throughout July and August as she independently delivered taster inclusive workshops with the schools in Uganda which had originally agreed to be involved in the project. This was also Lillian’s first opportunity to put the training she had received at TramShed into practice in her own country. The creative content from these workshops that Lillian has been able to send us via photos, video and written feedback will now become the basis of our UK-based outreach work this autumn. We will continue to build on our partnership with Lillian and hope that MML will grow, despite the changes to both the schedule and partnership. Our team aim is to fly out to Uganda in August 2014 and we hope to secure funding to do so.

Here are some recommendations to others undertaking similar projects:

• Make sure you have a plan B in place, both in terms of funding and project delivery if the partnership breaks down.
• Be ready to adapt to changing situations and take a positive approach when things might not go according to plan.
• When deciding on funding strategies, think very carefully about what your own organisation is in control of when working with other partners. If there are elements being put in place by other organisations, all risks surrounding this should be identified, especially if this will have a direct impact on your organisation.
• Ensure you have clear deadlines for securing funding. Many funders have the option to resubmit. Although this is very helpful when strengthening and developing the project, be aware of timescales initially set out and try and stick to them as much as possible.
• When working with organisations in other countries, be mindful that their working culture may be different to your own. Communicating at a distance via email can present challenges, such as time delays in responding to questions and misunderstandings.

Zac Hackett is Arts Team Co-ordinator and Marge Ainsley is a Trustee, both at TramShed Theatre Company.
tramshed.org.uk