Speaking Stones invites local people of all ages to work with a professional playwright and write poems, songs or short monologues giving a voice to public artworks. WE'RE NOT ASKING FOR CROWDFUNDING, JUST LIKES AND YOUR VOCAL SUPPORT. SO IF YOU LIKE OUR PROJECT, PLEASE SAY SO AND LEND YOUR VOICE TO SPEAKING STONES! We record everyone's work using professional actors and musicians and put it all on a digital story map, bursting with photos and sound-clips, captioned for anyone with hearing difficulties. If you're out for a walk, find an artwork on the map and it will speak to you from your phone. It's like Pokemon Go for street art! We work with community organisations such as libraries, choirs, and social clubs. Our stories are uncovered by librarians, local historians, retired railwaymen, joggers, mums, dads, grannies, kids and cyclists... anyone at all who has a favourite artwork in their street, whispering to their imagination.

What we'll deliver:

• Script-writing workshops with sessions for local people
• Digital audio trail, free to access and available 24/7
• Live launch event for the community
• Community singing with a local choir
• Poetry & digital art commissions

Why it's a great idea:

Speaking Stones invites residents to discover the art hiding in plain sight or glimpsed from the bus on theway to work or the shops. From sphinx statues to graffiti goddesses, centred on local landmarks and made by local people, audiences will be able to connect with the art that gives Crystal Palace its cultural identity. Through workshops, the imagination and creativity of the community will make something that couldn’t be replicated anywhere else. By providing a space for eveyone to share their stories, we help build bridges between people of all ages and from all backgrounds. Through our community partners we’ll engage hard-to-reach communities who may feel excluded, such as younger and older residents, as well as speakers of English as a second language. We'll make dual-language stories to celebrate our diversity. In working with partner charity Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, Speaking Stones will help mobilise community action to conserve local sculptures.

Steps to get it done:

• 01/04/21 (or upon confirmation of funding) - Confirm project timeline with community partners
• 05/07/21-11/07/21 - Draft contracts and project briefs for team-members
• 05/07/21-25/07/21 - Outreach/ begin recruiting writing workshop participants
• 12/07/21-18/07/21 - Send contracts and project briefs to team members (including flyer & poster designs)
• 12/07/21-25/07/21 - Confirm contracts and creative brief commissions with returning project team members
• 26/07/21-01/08/21 - Writing workshop participants contacted and confirmed
• 26/07/21-01/04/22 - Social media campaign begins on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
• 02/08/21 - Local history writing workshop (to appeal to older residents)
• 03/08/21-08/08/21 - Script notes to local history workshop participants
• 09/08/21 - Online writing workshop
• 10/08/21-15/08/21 - Script notes to online workshop participants
• 16/08/21 - Song writing workshop
• 17/08/21-22/08/21 - Lyric notes to song writing workshop partcipants
• 16/08/21-22/08/21 - Artwork photography site visit
• 23/08/21 - Kids and families writing workshop
• 24/08/21-29/08/21 - Script notes to kids and families writing workshop participants
• 30/08/21 - Dual language writing workshop
• 31/08/21-05/09/21 - Script notes to dual language writing workshop participants
• 06/09/21-12/09/21 - Final copy of scripts from local history workshop arrive
• 13/09/21-19/09/21 - Final copy of scripts from online workshop arrive
• 20/09/21-26/09/21 - Final copy of scripts from songwriting workshop arrive
• 27/09/21-03/10/21 - Final copy of scripts from kids and families workshop arrive
• 04/10/21-10/10/21 - Final copy of scripts from dual language workshop arrive
• 11/10/21-17/10/21 - Scripts distributed to actors
• 03/01/22-09/01/22 - Event flyer and poster designs confirmed & sent to printers
• 10/01/22-11/01/22 - Rehearsals with actors
• 12/01/22-13/01/22 - Recording sessions with actors
• 17/01/22-23/01/22 - Recordings mastered and assigned to composers
• 24/01/22-06/03/22 - Music composed and added to audio tracks
• 31/01/22 - Digitally finished photographs arrive
• 31/01/22-06/02/22 - Song rehearsals with Palace Acapella Choir
• 07/02/22-13/02/22 - Song recording with Palace Acapella Choir
• 31/01/22-20/03/22 - Audio and video assembly with captioning
• 28/02/22-31/03/22 - Press releases sent to media organisations, interviews arranged
• 28/02/22-31/03/22 - Promotional social media activity
• 20/03/22 - All clips uploaded to digital map
• 21/03/22-27/03/22 - Beta testing of digital map
• 01/04/22 - Live launch event at The Paxton Centre, digital map launched
• 01/04/22-01/05/22 - Social media engagement with map users
• 04/04/22 - Invoices of creative team requested, community partner expenses and overheads requested
• 01/05/22 - All outstanding invoices settled, final accounts reconciled

To encourage participation from those excluded from culture by cost, our trail is free. It’s available 24/7 and captioned to be even more accessible. Speaking Stones will bring families and communities together to work with professional artists and share stories with their neighbours. Even if social distancing is still in place when our trail launches, Speaking Stones will be safely accessible: either outdoors or from the comfort of your sofa. We ran a pilot trail in Haringey last summer, which has now reached over 7,000 people. Participation jumps whenever the sun comes out, with growing engagement on social media @StonesSpeaking. Critical Moment Theatre is committed to giving early-career theatre-makers paid opportunities to write and perform for an offering with high production values. Speaking Stones will provide those opportunities, at a vital time when theatre-makers have so often been excluded from pandemic support.