THE KNOWLEDGE EMPORIUM
19th July – 1st August 2010
Gate Theatre/Slunglow Theatre collaboration as part of the In Transit Festival
We all know at least one thing that no-one else knows. Developed with local people telling local stories, we’ll take you on a walk-about journey from the Gate Theatre through the streets of Notting Hill to discover and share the hidden stories contained within our community, ending up at a sweet shop like no other, THE KNOWLEDGE EMPORIUM.
No money is needed here for your penny chews and humbugs, just a little piece of your knowledge to add to the big book of everything that we know.
Slunglow will be developing this community performance project, scheduled as part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s In Transit Festival. The In Transit Festival sees artists and companies exploring the local environment in novel and innovative ways. We hope to create a high quality participatory and performance project which will engage with a new audience in the local area.
Slunglow is a company with a great track record in creating innovative work which explores environment in unusual ways. They have a wealth of experience developing community performances which use innovative approaches to space, and audience/performer relationships.
The Knowledge Emporium starts with the premise that everyone knows at least one thing that no-one else knows. Throughout the year Slunglow has been collecting these pieces of knowledge from people across the UK in the Big Book of Everything We Know.
As part of the project, a fully designed sweet shop, manned by performers, will pop up in different locations around Portobello Market and Notting Hill, where people will be asked to add their piece of knowledge to the book in exchange for a penny chew or two.
Slunglow will also run workshops with different community groups to deepen the idea of individual and collective knowledge. The stories which develop from these workshops will be performed on the final weekend of the festival either by the participants themselves or by Slunglow artists.
Performances will take place on Friday 30th, Saturday 31st July and Sunday 1st August. The audience will begin their journey with a performance at the Gate Theatre and will then take a journey through the streets of Notting Hill, finally finishing at the sweet shop.
If you live locally and are interested in taking part in one of the Knowledge Emporium workshops, please call Emma Higham on 0207 229 5387 or email emma@gatetheatre.co.uk