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Ickworth uncovered film
Community writers visited Ickworth in the summer of 2021 to create a script for a digital performance inspired by Ickworth House (National Trust), its history, architecture, collection, and estate. The project faced many different iterations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What was delivered in collaboration with the National Trust and West Suffolk College was a 50-minute, feature-length film The Spirit of Ickworth, inspired by individuals visiting Ickworth. The film, its writers and actors captured a moment in time at Ickworth where the estate’s ‘spirit’ was brought to life and those who visited Ickworth expressed how the estate made them feel.
The group brought their own interpretations, observations and views to the creative mix and developed a script led by Associate Artist Danusia Iwaszko. The Ickworth project took five community writers (drawn from our outreach programmes – from recovery, survivors, neurodivergent and Act Your Age participants) who wrote new scripts, 18 students from West Suffolk College’s Creative Media department filmed, produced, and edited the film. The short film was presented to an audience of community artists and the National Trust at Theatre Royal.
Audience feedback
“Congratulations, we thoroughly enjoyed The Spirit of Ickworth – a sensitive production, embracing the complexities of people’s lives, and the need for time, and space in tranquil surroundings. Ickworth delivers so much diversity, challenging open space for escape, or quiet relaxation to just be at one with everything on offer in this truly unique and impressive sanctuary.”
“Amazing to see what they filmed in five days”
Abbi Lang, Senior Programming and Partnerships Officer, National Trust
“The project strengthened relationships between the organisations, as well as enabling creativity in evolving the project due to the pandemic, and hard work to push through to the end result. The film launch on 8th April was a wonderful celebration of the project for each organisation and individuals involved. We now have the film as a piece of history from the project, which we look to share further with the community.”
The Ickworth Mail Project
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