The Haunting of
Freedom's Song
It started with a choir.
Kate was in the audience, watching a performance, when they introduced a scene that one of the choir members was working on. Martin Scott had written something that needed to go further. She knew it. So she went and told him!
That's how this begins. Not with a funding application or a development programme. With one person watching something and thinking: this has to be a play.
Rise and Howl paired Martin with director Chrissie Poulter, and got behind the process of developing that scene into something bigger. What started as a moment in a choir performance became the seed of a full-length work exploring Black history, Bradford, and the stories that live in between.
"A young man in Bradford, betrayed by his brother, discovers the healing nature of creativity, music and fellowship. He is shown the power of expressing your own history in the face of racial discrimination and the complexity of family."
The workshop at Bradford Arts Centre was where we got to see what it's becoming.
What happened in the room
We worked on scenes. We got into the guts of how a script is structured, not in the abstract, but on our feet, with the text in hand. Chrissie Poulter facilitated, which meant we were in extraordinarily capable hands. She knows how to make a room safe enough to take risks in.
We met new actors. Brilliant, generous people who came and gave the work their full attention. That's the thing about opening the door. The right people walk through.
And then we got to see a new version of the scene that started all of this. The scene Kate saw in that choir hall. It's changed. It's grown. You could feel the weight of where it's going.
This is what development looks like at Rise & Howl. Messy, collaborative, honest. A story that deserves to be told, finding its shape in a room full of people who care about getting it right.
The Haunting of Freedom's Song is by Martin Scott. Directed by Chrissie Poulter.
Watch this space.
Check out our interview on BCB Radio
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