Poor theatres map and database

Abstract: The Poor Theatres map and database presents visual, textual and audio-visual documentation from research with contemporary theatre practitioners and organisations. Research collaborations taking place in 2014 and 2015 with five theatre projects across Greater Manchester (UK), and a number of theatre practitioners working on theatre and economic justice projects elsewhere in the world, generated this documentation. The local projects are all sited within the areas of Greater Manchester described by Friedrich Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England in the 1840s. The idea here was to revise Engels’ accounts of deprivation by creatively documenting the ways in which artists and communities draw on theatre activity to critique and celebrate their localities. Up to 15 theatre-makers internationally were invited to participate in online reflective conversations about their work, and these conversations will be edited and uploaded onto the map and database.