Press Releases
Big, bizarre, freaky & free theatre hits Essex
Date: 02 May 2006
Visitors, shoppers and residents in four Essex towns will be part of the region’s biggest street theatre event when ESSEXstreetdiversions explodes into action later this month. The event, which for the first time is touring the County, features the highest quality street performers from across the globe, mixing the mundane with the bizarre and the absurd.
Award winning street theatre artists will be providing the entertainment in Chelmsford, Harlow, Braintree and Rayleigh town centres. The event’s centre piece will be a magnificent “Twilight Spectacle” in Chelmsford, where renowned Argentinean Theatre Company ‘Grupo Puja!’ will be performing their UK premiere of the must-see acrobatic spectacle ‘K@osmos’. This breathtaking performance includes a mixture of circus and dance choreography from a globe suspended 40 metres above the crowd!
The tour will visit Harlow on Friday 19 May, Rayleigh on Saturday 20 May and Braintree on Sunday 21 May and feature a variety of weird and wonderful shows by seven international street theatre companies. It will then move to Chelmsford on 26, 27 and 28 May, the place where streetdiversions all began in 2003, where 18 companies and over 60 performances will take place. Bizarre happenings include genetically modified flowers gliding down the high street and very tall French detectives ‘Les Big Brozeurs’ with extendable necks, scrutinizing your every move! The face of streetdiversions, the Cone Heads, will also be there to amuse and interact with unsuspecting shoppers and visitors.
ESSEXstreetdiversions has been made possible by Insite, the Essex Cultural Tourism Programme, a partnership of all local authorities in Essex and the Arts Council England, East. The event is being managed by Chelmsford Borough Council’s Special Events Team in partnership with Insite and the district councils of Harlow, Braintree and Rochford.
Other Insite events that have already taken place or are planned during 2006 are:
“What Is It About Essex?” brought together four famous and always entertaining Essex commentators (Germaine Greer, Simon Heffer, Martin Newell and Ken Worpole) to discuss what still makes their county so famous, or infamous (February)
Currently taking place ……… Spoke ‘n’ Word – a new experience of spring cycle rides and country walks in beautiful North Essex, punctuated with poetry readings en route from tour guide and rock singer-turned-writer, Martin Newell. These unique trips, which are taking place each weekend during May, have the objective of opening up undiscovered Essex, so that visitors may see the area through the eyes of one of its living writers.
Souterrain – a landscape theatre production from Wildworks (a spin-off from the renowned Kneehigh Theatre) based on the story of Orpheus in the Underworld being performed in Colchester outside the proposed site of the new visual art facility, firstsite:newsite (August)
Rob West, the Director of Insite is delighted with the progress of the programme to date. “The 2006 Insite programme is already having a real impact on improving perceptions of Essex. I am delighted with the wide range of events that the programme has been able to deliver this year and am really looking forward to ESSEXstreetdiversions continuing to put Essex on the map in another unique and exciting way.”
ENDS
Editor’s Notes
1. Images
The following images are attached to support this press release and should be accompanied by the following captions:
a) Essexstreetdiversions – Cone Heads pictured at the Braintree Fountain
b) Essexstreetdiversions – Cone Heads
c) Spoke ‘n’ Word – Martin Newell, Wivenhoe town centre
2. Insite Background:
Insite, one of six county-specific programmes in the East of England region, is playing an important role in the promotion of Essex as a leading cultural destination. Insite is a partnership between the district, borough, unitary and county councils of Essex and Arts Council England, East. The ongoing partnership seeks to reflect an image of the county based on the strength and diversity in Essex’s history, people and environment. The programme is hosted by the Essex Development & Regeneration Agency (ExDRA).
Further information about the Insite 2006 programme is available at www.insite-essex.co.uk
Further information about ESSEXstreetdiversions is available at www.streetdiversions.co.uk
For more information please contact:
Rob West
Insite Project Director c/o Essex Development & Regeneration Agency (ExDRA)
Tel: 01245 702454
Email: rob.west@exdra.o.uk
Stuart Graham
Media and PR Manager
Essex Development & Regeneration Agency (ExDRA)
Tel: 01245 702415
Email: stuart.graham@exdra.co.uk
