Making an Art Piece from Historical Letters: A Blackout Sister Event

The creators of Blackout (audio drama, details below) Clare Best and Ábel MGE discuss storytelling and creation from letters and historical materials. You’ll hear the behind-the-scenes on how they created Blackout and they’ll talk about the process more broadly: finding materials, creating around a theme, making it immersive, and working with limitations. The talk will feature an exercise in developing ideas from your own materials.

A writer, poet, memoirist, collaborative artist, and tutor of Creative Writing, Clare is a PhD candidate at The Open University, researching the rewriting of narratives from family archives. Clare explores how to navigate an archive and how to make historical stories feel present and immersive.

Ábel is a composer of opera, electronic, and film music. He has worked with Grange Park Opera, The Liszt Academy of Music, The Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Sky Arts. He is an Associate Producer for Moon Kim Theatre Company. Ábel talks through choosing and designing sounds, production and curation, and musical storytelling.

Also - come and experience Clare’s and Ábel’s piece Blackout on 22 October at 7:30pm.