The Hero's Journey is an epic tale full of surprises, twists and turns with a large dash of local seasoning! This is the point in the show description, where we tell you all about the story, to excite you to buy a ticket. But we can’t, because the story is yet to be written. We’re throwing caution to the wind and building this epic adventure story over 14 weeks with local artists, community performers and professional creatives. We are digging deep into who and what makes a hero, where this call to adventure will lead us and what we’ll discover along the way that will be the key to revealing the magic of Hastings!
The Hastings Museum and Art Gallery is our stage and you'll experience this story on the move; outside, inside and around the building, whilst wearing headphones. Though like all good adventures we don’t know where we will end up, but we have some amazing friends coming along for the ride. It's sure to be epic, joyous and heartfelt and much more. Are you game?!
This immersive production is created and performed by the Afri-Co-Lab community company, co-directed by Anna Maria Nabirye and Darragh O'Leary, with design led by Hattie Spice and sound design led by Ted Barrow.
Commissioned by Home Live Art, supported by Arts Council England, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery and Afri-Co-Lab CIC.
Knotty Festival 2024
TICKETS
Sliding scale
£15 / £10 / £5
(+booking fees which are roughly 40p)
In order to make our show accessible to all we use a sliding scale (based on the Scottish Queer International Film Festival accessible structure). Please choose a ticket price based on your circumstances - we won't check, we just ask you to be honest, as it supports all the work that we do. All prices below have been subsidised.
Should I Pay £15?
Should I Pay £10?
Should I Pay £5?
• I am comfortably able to meet all of my basic needs. • I may have some debt but it doesn’t prohibit attainment of basic needs. • I own my home or property or I rent a higher-end property. • I can afford public and private transport. If I have a car/access to a car I can afford petrol. • I have access to financial savings. • I have an expendable** income. • I can always buy new items. • I can afford an annual holiday or take time off.
• I may stress about meeting my basic needs but still regularly achieve them. • I may have some debt but it does not prohibit attainment of basic needs. • I can afford public transport and often private transport. If I have a car/access to a car I can afford petrol. • I am employed. • I might have access to financial savings. • I have some expendable income. • I am able to buy some new items and I buy others second-hand. • I can take a holiday annually or every few years without financial burden.
• I frequently stress about meeting basic* needs and don’t always achieve them. • I have debt and it sometimes prohibits me from meeting my basic needs. • I rent lower-end properties or have unstable housing. • I sometimes can’t afford public or private transport. If I own a car/have access to a car, I am not always able to afford petrol. • I am unemployed or underemployed. • I qualify for government and/or voluntary assistance, for example, food banks and benefits. • I have no access to savings. • I have no or very limited expendable** income. • I rarely buy new items because I am unable to afford them. • I can’t afford a holiday or don’t have the ability to take time off without financial burden.
*BASIC NEEDS include food, housing, clothing, and transportation.**EXPENDABLE INCOME might mean you are able to buy coffee or tea at a shop, go to the cinema or a concert, buy new clothes, books and similar items each month, etc.
Meet The Company
Creative community company
Charlotte Stainton * Chiara Capraro * Denise Mathews * Dorcas Magbadelo * Freesia Bassett * Katie Taylor * Kay Johnson * Lauren Bishop Vranch * Naomi Burrell * Natascha Banziger * Pip Beattie * Pippa Johnson Sarah Green * Saskia Gall * Sebastian Henry *
performing community company
Ade Thomas * Adeline Collingwoode * Andrew Wilkins * Anne-Marie Watson * Eve Loren * Iryna Kryvosheina * Kim Batty * Kirsty Grennan * Laura Dunton Clarke * Lauren Ding * Olivia Long * Vladyslava Karavan
Show Guide community company
Juliet Davies * Karen Arthur* More to be announced...
Afri-co-lab company
Anna Maria Nabirye
Co-director
My name is Anna-Maria and I use she/her pronouns. I am a Black, Ugandan-British person born and raised in London, living in St Leonards. I went to a state funded performing arts college and then to drama school to study acting. I have had many jobs alongside my creative career from working in pubs/fast-food takeaways to teaching kayaking in Cornwall. I work as an actress in mainstream theatre, film and television, as well as in devised, collaborative, experimental and political projects. I direct projects, short films and shows in drama schools here and in the USA. I also make my own work which varies from community workshops, plays, short films, experimental art films, zines, documentaries and projects that live in galleries. I mainly collaborate with other creative artists and some of these form on-going artistic relationships. I teach and coach acting both informally and at universities. I run a micro ethical fashion brand called AfroRetro and a community arts company called Afri-Co-Lab with my sister, that champions creativity as means to explore culture and identity. Amplifying diverse representations of the experiences of Black women is at the heart of everything I do.
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Beth O'Leary
stage manager
Coming Soon...
Chris Williams
Production manager
My name is Chris Williams and my pronouns are he/him. I am the production manager for this show and will work closely with all the creative members of the team. You’ll see me at some rehearsals and at every stage of the show. I grew up in London and studied stage management and lighting design at R.A.D.A. Following this classical training I then went into the world of Rock and Rave Lighting, event, tour management and production management for lots of amazing comedians. I moved to Brighton in 1999 with my family and became technical manager of Komedia and then senior technician at The Sallis Benney Theatre at University of Brighton. I provide lighting design for a number of Brighton companies - specialising in dance, aerial and community performance and provide creative technical assistance for various projects. Following 20 years of venue technical management in Brighton, I now reside in Bexhill. I am very excited to be involved in the Heroes Journey and can’t wait to helpbring the story to life with you all.
DARragh O'Leary co-director
Hi, I’m Darragh. I’m originally from Cork, Ireland and now live in St Leonards-on-Sea. My work uses dance and movement to tell stories with a variety of different people from professionals to volunteers, community participants, young people and everyone in between. For the first 10 years of my career I was a performer in musical theatre in the West End, around the UK and internationally. As a choreographer and movement director my work now varies from musical theatre to plays, opening ceremonies for sporting events, flashmobs, wedding dances, movement coaching, physical theatre and music videos My work doesn’t just happen in theatres but can also be seen in museums, art galleries, outdoors on streets and in parks, sports stadiums, tv sets and prisons. I’m at my happiest collaborating in a playground of other theatre makers: figuring out creative solutions to new theatrical challenges, usually with just a bench and two boxes but sometimes with Danny Boyle in an Olympic Stadium.
Deanne Naula
community Lead
Hello, I’m Deanne, a Black African and Caribbean Londoner born and raised, who has lived across the UK and landed in St Leonards. I enjoy oscillating between the ordinary and the fringes of creative spaces, where fun, expression and making meaning of being human collide to make transformative experiences. I've been called many things from engagement practitioner, communicator, relationship manager, to facilitator and more recently a creative wrangler. I’ve worked in museums, cultural organisations and universities but I’m most attracted to people and places that make room for whole people or for people to become whole. Doing what I can do to support these spaces and developing the skills to sustain them is what gets me moving, which takes some doing because I love my bed. I have been supporting The Hero’s Journey community engagement with new community audiences including folks in Hollington and recently arrived from the Ukraine since last year. I am also supporting the company rehearsals as interim stage manager.
Hattie Spice
Set & costume design Lead
My name is Hattie Spice and I am a set designer and art director, working in a variety of 3D disciplines for the past 30 years. I was born in London, but grew up in East Sussex until I went back to London in the 1980's to study Theatre Design at Central/StMartins, with a year off in the middle to study Fine Art. I now live in St Leonards, having moved here 12 years ago. I always loved drawing and painting, but got really excited with the idea of creating 3D environments. Both my parents were actors and I was lucky enough to go to the theatre as a child and I was hooked by the magic of it and I knew that's what I wanted to do. My career has been so varied, starting off designing fringe theatre shows, doing scenic/mural painting to working in art departments on short films, commercials and pop promos. Since the mid 1990's I have been designing sets for music tours, fashion shows, live events, films, theatre, art projects and pop ups. I love what I do and I also have a passion for snow globes !
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Khadija Khan community co-ordinator
Hello my name is Khadija, and I am passionate about bringing people together. As your Company Coordinator, I thrive on the energy of collaboration and the beauty of diversity. I'm the friendly face you can count on to greet you with a smile, whether it's in person or through the digital realm. Connecting with each member of our company and creating a sense of belonging is what I do best. So here's to the artists, the visionaries, and the dreamers who breathe life into The Hero's Journey productions. Together, let's continue to illuminate the stage with your passion, your talent, and your unwavering dedication to the art of performance.
Lilly Babirye
Co-Producer
Hello there. My name is Lilly, and I started my life journey in Uganda, moving to the UK as a refugee with my family. I'm a textile artist/fashion designer learning my craft at Westminster University and refining my skills through the fashion label - AFRORETRO which I co-founded. If you are ever in Hastings, you can find me in the Lab that is Afri-Co-Lab. There, I support the local community to dream creatively and freely, developing and delivering a programme of creative experiences for the East Sussex community. In addition to being a fab facilitator, my other superpowers lie in my obsession with textiles and fabric manipulation, where I create garments that reflect the memorable interactions I have each day. I love to collaborate, and my neurodivergence ensures that you will always get a different perspective. My role in The Hero's Journey is to support all the logistical behind-the-scenes stuff and generally cheerlead this amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Sherry L Coenen
Lighting Designer
I'm Sherry and I use she/her pronouns. I bounced around between the USA and UK every 3-5 years growing up and I'm now based in London. I'm a theatrical lighting designer, vegetable gardener (I'm rubbish with houseplants), ocean swimmer and baker. As a lighting designer I like working with colour and darkness to help the audience to follow the narrative or emotional journey of the piece. I often design lighting for puppetry and shows for children but also across disciplines such as dance, musicals, new writing and devised. In Hastings I was the re-lighter on the English National Ballet's show 'My First Ballet - Sleeping Beauty' and the lighting designer on 'Tenome (Eyes on Hand)' at St Mary in the Castle.
WHAT THE COMMUNITY COMPANY GOT UP TO LAST TIME....
When The Day Met The Night and The Night Met The Day
community production for Hastings Last Thursdays, April 2022
The Hero's Journey has been commissioned by Home Live Arts, it is produced by Afri-Co-Lab and supported by Arts Council England and Hastings Museum & Art Gallery.
