Colette was interviewed on BBC Essex about Love Letter to Southend, our project to commemorate 125 years of Southend being a borough. People are invited to write or design a postcard expressing how they feel about their town. We’ve received hundreds of beautiful designs already and all will be proudly displayed at Village Green on […]
‘Question Time Cabaret’, by Talia Randall: “a fun, rowdy and political knees-up” A commission for Planet B festival in Peterborough… – A night of variety performances from artists responding to issues of feminism, immigration/migration & climate change, taking place on Aug 11th – These performances will be mixed in with a Question Time style panel where well known and community experts […]
The songwriters who spent a week here at Metal creating new work for Estuary Festival’s Songwriters LAB are once again performing their collaboration at this year’s Leigh Folk Festival… Among the songwriters are Alasdair Roberts and Lucy Farrell whose group The Furrow Collective won the award for Best Group at the 2017 BBC Radio Two Folk […]
Well, this is lovely! Thanks, The Guardian! Metal has been picked out as Culture highlight of Southend, along with our friends at The Railway, Chinnerys, & Southend Film Festival. Village Green and its awesome line-up gets a special mention. Got your tickets yet, festival lovers?
The wonderful Benedict Newbery is back in the house for another week, working on new poetry. He’s a joy to have around and we can’t wait to see the fruits of his time here. Welcome back, Ben! One of the poems he wrote while on residency last April ‘My Dad’s Hospital Trip to Southend’ has […]
LOVE THIS. Great podcast featuring songs & chat from the Young Songwriters of the SoSlam LAB that took over Chalkwell Hall with their stunning talent a couple of weeks ago. We miss hearing them every day! CHECK THEM OUT – PLAYING LIVE AT PEGGY SUE’S SUNDAY 23RD APRIL – 4-7PM
New writing theatre company Old Trunk feature in the Echo today ahead of their double-bill of critically-acclaimed plays Pramkicker and Fran & Leni at the Palace Theatre Westcliff next week. Fran & Leni – Wednesday 19th April Pramkicker/Fran & Leni Double Bill – Saturday 22nd April Both plays are by award-winning writer Sadie Hasler and directed […]
The quite wonderful Heidi Wigmore is pitched up in our sunny Project Room at Chalkwell Hall this week, and has already sparked out several very compelling pieces. We’re enjoying catching sneaky-peeks of them as they unfold, and rather hope she forgets to take them all with her when she goes!
The lovely poet Benedict Newbery came to stay with us for a week last year and developed some fantastic new work based on the theme of the Estuary. He was a joy to have around. He’s just shared with us the fact his Southend poems have been published in the latest edition of the South Bank […]
We were delighted to host a Young Songwriters LAB by the brilliant SoSlam here at Chalkwell Hall last week. Selected participants aged 11-18 got to work intensively with songwriters and industry facilitators for four days culminating in a showcase of their impressive new work. It was a wonderful week, and we greatly enjoyed being treated […]
Metal and Change Maker Associate Producer Kate Marsh are very happy to announce the selected Metal LAB participants. Following a national call-out and an unprecedented response of 177 applications, the selected group of 25 artists will attend intensive week long development sessions exploring through movement ‘the in-between’ that sits beyond the ’normative’ and ‘othered’ body. […]