Here Be Dragons: North East Adventures

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Funded on
17 Dec 2024

Help us bring Here Be Dragons to North East communities! Your support funds one week of local performances, including a show for Deaf Awareness Week, spreading joy, music, and adventure for all.

£4,480 Raised of £5,008

28 Backers

89%

Our Delivery Report

Funded on 17 December 2024 | Delivered on 09 May 2025

£4,480

RAISED

28

BACKERS

13

DAYS TO FUND

BIGGEST PLEDGE

£1,500

From Garfield Weston Foundation

£20

MOST POPULAR PLEDGE AMOUNT

539

people have visited this project!

Unfolding Theatre donated £25

4 Community events created

Arts Council NPO Funding

Arts Council NPO Funding donated £1,390

20 May 2025

Theatre company brings sign language performances into Newcastle primary schools

ITV Tyne Tees

Featuring both deaf and hearing performers, the play combines magical creatures and the Tyne and Wear Metro, and aims to inspire deaf children.

More about our impact

The environment

The set is constructed from reclaimed wooden pallets, with minimal adaptations made to support the production of Here be Dragons in May.

Arts, culture & heritage

The show’s performance for Deaf Awareness Week at Benton Park Primary School contributed to making the arts more inclusive, allowing deaf children to experience theatre in a way that’s accessible to them. This (highlighted by ITV Tyne Tees' coverage of the event) raised awareness of the need for more diverse cultural offerings, promoting equality in access to arts and building on Unfolding Theatre's valuable previous work with the deaf community.

https://www.unfoldingtheatre.co.uk/

“Unfolding Theatre is one of the North East’s most precious cultural assets, making eclectic big-hearted performance work rooted in community participation and co-production.” North East Bylines

Unfolding Theatre inspires people through big-hearted, responsive and impactful theatre and community-based creative projects. Since 2008, we have won awards for our work with under-served communities (NCCPE Engaging Young People Award 2014, Journal Culture Awards: Performance of the Year 2010/2017, Arts and Business Partnerships 2019).

Our mission is to bring together surprising combinations of people who are representative of the world we live in. This enables us to generate remarkable theatre for national audiences, reflecting the stories of people from a range of communities.

Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Unfolding Theatre became a charity in 2016. Our vision has three core aims: 1) more people are leading happier, more creatively fulfilled lives, 2) mainstream theatre better reflects England’s diversity and drives excellence and 3) people with different life experiences are better connected.

We aim to reach people of all ages and backgrounds and specialise in engaging with people that do not typically engage with theatre and the arts. Our current programme of work engages older people (50+), children and young people (including many of whom are neuro-diverse and/or d/Deaf), schoolchildren, adults living in areas of low arts engagement and socio-economic disadvantage, families and antenatal mothers.

Since 2018, we have carried out 8,600 creative engagements with over 3,500+ participants through 645 community-based activities, workshops and sessions. We have reached 31,500+ live audiences and 23,000+ digital audiences.

Project Owner: Unfolding Theatre The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.