Signal Fire (n): a fire or light set up in a prominent position as a warning, signal, or celebration.
Signal Fires is now a series of Notebooks
Signal Fires: 6 Notebooks is a collection of texts written and shared from Signal Fires 2020: short plays, monologues, prose and poems, intimate and fierce. With them comes a new invitation: to gather around a fire of your own – be it a bonfire, a candle, or even a torch – with friends or strangers, to collaborate and connect. Share these texts again, or write new ones to perform alongside them; speak up, sing out, and light new ways forward, out of the dark.
Designed: Kevin Mount and Maddy Costa
Edited: Maddy Costa
Co-Produced ETT (English Touring Theatre), Fuel and Headlong
Accessibility Consultancy: Graeae
Book Printers: TJ Books
Written by
Kiki Katese (Rwanda) Alice Oswald (UK) Hema Palani (India) Will Power (USA) & Kim Scott (Australia)
Directed by
Adura Onashile
Performed
28 Oct - 7 Nov 2020
“When the theatres first closed, a group of touring companies came together to support each other; sharing ideas, learning, and resources. A collective of companies determined to keep making work, serving audiences, and engaging artists. Signal Fires was born from these conversations. As we all seek to make sense of what we’re living through and what comes next, we look to our storytellers to guide us forward. Each fire on its own is a small-scale coming together, but collectively, lit up across the UK, they represent a national act of storytelling. A chance to connect: to celebrate imagination and empathy in this time of isolation and uncertainty.”
Co-Produced by Fuel and Coombe Farm Studios and Eden Court Highlands in collaboration with The Woodland Presents
Signal Fires.
In the week 26 October 2020, fires were lit across the UK with storytellers and audiences sharing in one of the original forms of theatre. From spectacular bonfires to digital blazes; the nation’s leading touring theatre companies will present a series of theatrical events at locations across the UK in celebration of our fundamental need to tell stories.
Audiences heard stories from around the world, around campfires in the beautiful woods at Dartington. Performed by actors around socially distanced fires, audiences were taken on a journey around the world from the safety and warmth of a blanket and a hot drink. From 2-7 November, audiences in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, where live outdoor performances were not permitted under Covid-19 guidelines at the time, heard stories told to them over the phone, live and in person.
Fuel commissioned international and local writers, Devon’s own Alice Oswald alongside Kim Scott from Australia, Kiki Katese from Rwanda, and Will Power from the USA – to respond to the duality of fire, creating warmth and community as well as danger and destruction, as a symbol for the time we were living in.
Other companies involved in Signal Fires were 45North, Arcade, Beyond Face, Big Telly, Boundless, Eastern Angles, English Touring Theatre, Fen in association with Out of Joint, Fio in association with Tara Arts, Fuel, Graeae, Headlong, Hightide, Kestrel Theatre Company, Kneehigh, Macha Productions, National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, New Perspectives, Pentabus, Pilot, Paines Plough, SBC Theatre, Scottish International Storytelling Festival, Slung Low, Spare Tyre, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men and Yellow Earth Theatre. The companies worked with hundreds of UK freelancers. Each fire spanned different disciplines reflecting the breadth and diversity of the touring circuit. All fires were presented outdoors in front of socially distanced live audiences, or digitally for those who were shielding or unable to travel.
“Signal Fires is an unprecedented project born out of unprecedented times. It has been incredibly inspiring and humbling to connect with so many different touring theatre companies. To be reminded of the sheer breadth and diversity of the UK touring ecology, the audiences we engage, and crucially what we now stand on the brink of losing. Touring theatre companies are vital for sharing stories across communities, so we can learn from each-other and reimagine a future together. Signal Fires demonstrates the power of collaboration and the need to embrace both innovation and new ways of working if we are to weather the challenging months ahead.”