EQUILIBRE HORSE THEATRE REPORT. ON 2001

The grant received from the Ronald Duncan Trust was used to fund the 2 001 Equilibre performance The Horse. The money funded the salaries and expenses of 12 professional and 14 amateur performers; designers and technicians, set design and costume.

As important, this initial injection of funding triggered further funding from other agencies, which created a whole raft of satellite events that furthered the recognition of the Ronald Duncan Trust.

1500 people came to see the performances during the 6-day season, some of which were very moved. The results of our evaluation exercise made by questionnaires provide written evidence of the positive response of a significant proportion of the audience. Out of 112 responses 100 wrote that they would come again!

It is harder, however, to evaluate the benefits to the young students involved in the process, but we have seen these benefits, in terms of personal growth and gaining confidence and experience. We know that some have secured jobs in the arts, travelled abroad, gained in their abilities and achieved better career prospects.

In April Equilibre presented a poetry evening at a local venue where Gillian Clarke read a collection of poems that she has written for Equilibre Horse theatre over the last 8 years, she was accompanied by live music created for the evening by our musical director Jez Danks and his son Tom. This event was partly supported by the Welsh Academy.

Funding the main event has ensured that many other satellite events have been able to take place. There have been 7 workshops open to anyone in the community who might like to have an Equilibre experience of their own, part funding by the Lottery Board ensured these could run with no charge. Using the horses as inspiration and working in the Carreg arena we hosted a day of musical composition led by our musical director creating music for horses attended by 8 people. A day of ceramic art led by well known artist Meri Wells where each of the 17 participants made their own Equilibre horse and a day of physical performance led by one of our company performers Ian Morgan.

In November 2 days were spent making large willow and tissue lanterns to create a herd of lit horses as part of a local fire procession on November 3rd. these were led by artists Meri Wells and Liz Turton collaborators in Equilibre.The Equilibre horses took part in the lantern procession through the streets of Machynlleth where about 3000 people came to watch, a huge event in this little town.

There was also be a mini Equilibre performance as part of a hospitality evening for one of our sponsors who provided a new stable floor for the event, and another planned for the spring. Part funded by Horscomfort and Arts and Business Equilibre also benefits in terms of attracting publicity and new audiences.

In addition, we were able to secure a little additional funding from the Arts Council to secure an artist in residence to work during the making of the performance. Managed by Artworks Wales Eleri Mills RCA produced an exhibition for our performance season at Carreg inspired by the rehearsal process, she has since led two series of workshops for the community in venues in Machynlleth based on the same theme, her work will culminate in a solo exhibition of her work at The Museum Of Modern Art Wales next March.

During November we mounted an exhibition of art inspired by Equilibre over the years at Celtica a local large tourist attraction, information boards about the company and its benefactors accompanied this.

Furthermore the performance has been documented on two television programmes and five-radio programmes as well as featuring in all of the leading newspaper in Wales and The Stage. There is also a debate on the Internet as a result of the review written by David Adams as to the nature of Horse Theatre and its validity.

All of this creativity is directly related to Ronald Duncan’s poem The Horse. This poem formed the foundation of all of the work of Equilibre Horse Theatre this year. There is no doubt that the unique nature of Equilibre driven by the inspiring and mythic nature of the horse has generated and will continue to generate a huge amount of creativity. In a society where the value of the Arts is being continuously undermined, we believe that the contribution Equilibre has to make is of increasing value particularly in this place of rural, isolation, where pride is being generated in a theatre of international interest

We estimate that we have directly affected 2500 people through our workshops and performances, 5000 people through processions and street parades and inestimable audiences through television and radio.

Without the funding of the Ronald Duncan Trust none of this would have been possible and we are all indebted to you for your generosity. Thankyou.