A voice-over at the conclusion of each episode of the iconic police procedural from the 1950’s The Naked City informs us in deep tones that ‘There are eight million stories in the Naked City – this has been one of them’. The population of New York city, where the series was set, was then and remains, vastly larger than that of Leeds. Nevertheless, if the narrative principle is followed, there are 750,000 stories in our city, and yours is one of them. We have already collected over 200 stories from people we have worked with and who have shared their thoughts and reflections with us as part of the Performance Ensemble.
Some of these stories can be found on the website – click below
Many have been presented in the various performances we have produced since 2014.
I have lived in many cities in my long life – most of the time, I have arrived in a city and set up home there because of the work I’ve been involved in – Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle. I have travel extensively for work in Europe, Middle East, Far East, Australia and for a time lived in the beautiful city of Jerez de la Frontera in the South of Spain, my bolt-hole, enjoying sherry wine and flamenco and able to relax and think.
Now I’m living – and working – in Leeds. I like this city, I’ve been here now for seven years years on and off. I am very pleased that despite Brexit the City Council decided that we would keep faith with the European idea of a ‘City of Culture’ and we at The Performance Ensemble really supported this. You might remember that as a city we were talking about whether we could make a bid to hold this title as far back as 2014 and there was a great deal of excitement about the possibilities this would open up for Leeds to make its mark on the European ‘stage’. Regardless of what has happened since to frustrate that, as a city we have been planning and investing in a year of activity that celebrates the living culture of Leeds. In 2023 we will be presenting and promoting our story to the rest of the UK and the world. Importantly this includes individual stories – and that is where you come in.
It may be a cliché – they always have a root in reality though – but people in Leeds are friendly. We talk to each other in the shops, in the park, at the bus stop. There are problems of course; what city doesn’t have challenges to really bring about social justice, to support everyone that needs it? Where are there ever people who aren’t isolated, worried about finances, under all sorts of pressures? But people in Leeds have looked out for each other and that has been really clear over the last year when Covid has made the difficulties that many people face even more challenging. Within all this though are many stories of people helping their neighbours, helping strangers, coming up with imaginative ways to deal with what the last long year has thrown at us – and keeping on being creative.
Our last project ‘The Promise of a Garden’ was a shining example of people coming together to make something beautiful – not just those who told their stories on the stage at Leeds Playhouse in August, but those who contributed by making the flowers that were part of the show’s design, those who came along as audiences to support their friends and family, and the financial support from partners from the city itself. Leeds is a city that believes in the importance of the arts and culture. There is an aim that Leeds should be a brilliant place to grow old in. That’s why I want to live and work here – to help make that a reality. There is never enough financial resource of course – but there is a lot of faith in the project. We will need this to realise our vision for 2023, 1001 stories shared from people from every corner of he city.
Why 1001 stories? Well as legend has it, that’s the number of nights Scheherazade kept telling stories to the King in order to save herself. It’s an image of how compelling stories can be when they are shared. And yours is one of them.
Why is the idea of ‘story’ so important to our project? Why are stories important in general? Well, everyone will have their own take on this – mine goes something like this: it’s personal – if you can tell your story, your way, on your terms, you can’t be ignored. True there may be no-one listening (and that’s where the Performance Ensemble comes in – we will make sure there are people listening – and reading – and watching), but organising your ideas, hopes, regrets, your whole life story or just one tiny fragment gives you power over it. Maybe your approach is to embellish ‘the truth’ – and that’s a slippery concept isn’t it? Maybe you find a new angle on events and experiences that you hadn’t explored before. But it’s your truth and no-one can deny that. In some ways we are looking at the story as an art form – it’s a way of creating a thing, an object that can then be communicated and shared with other people. That’s a simple definition of ‘art’ and you can approach story-telling as an art-form or not. In the Performance Ensemble, that’s the way we look at it but it’s up to you. Our approach doesn’t even require the English language to get the essence of the story over – there is something very powerful about ‘feeling’ someone’s story as they tell it in their mother tongue.
If you think about it, stories are impossible to avoid. Every newspaper headline, every advertising hoarding tells a story, everyone you pass in the street or sit next to on the bus is giving you a small insight into their story, and you are doing the same. ‘Story telling’ as a considered process is just taking some control over that, and being open to the possibilities of connecting with other people through it.