I’m late with this blog as I’m having some health issues. This time three years ago I had come back to work after treatment for early-stage breast cancer. Fast forward and there are concerns, worries and scans. I’m not able to be in Belfast with Mycelial but the team is, lead by our Senior Creative Producer, Carly McConnell. Carly is from Belfast and worked side by side with me during the workshops with the co-creators – Carly will chair the panels – this is a good thing, the team strong.
Creating Mycelial was four years in the making, workshops started in 2020 with the Aotearoa/New Zealand Sex Workers Collective, West End Women & Girls Centre and women supported by Changing Lives. In the Autumn of 2021 I had returned to work and we started working in Ireland. Communities in the North and South.
I met one of the women from Dublin long before the workshops, she talked about the Nordic Model and its impact on the women working on the streets. How the streets felt less safe, the community of women now hidden and the control with the clients. Having to go down a dark cul-de-sac, going further than you would have done before and seeing a fox. She talked about the Pride March in Dublin, the bridge and choices made. It stayed with me throughout. The bridge, the fox and the black cat.
We created characters, drew scenes and wrote dialogue. We wrote creatively about the stars, moon, sunsets and sunrises. Our routines, wishes and favourite colours. The spaces were safe and as with all workshops not product led, a place to use creativity to stop, rewind and fast forward.
To be clear our relationship with the co-creators is current and ongoing, as I’m aware, I’m talking in the past tense. They are centre stage throughout. When the script was written in response to the workshops, they were invited to read, comment and it was amended if needed. Anonymity was important for some, stigma and whorephobia a live issue and concern.
We step and keep moving forward together and in solidarity with the post show panels during the tour. We have guests on stage after the screenings, some co-creators others activists. Every screening makes space for interaction, debate and discussion. This is what we intended. Mycelial represents those we work with, diverse and intersectional. It captures their talent, insight, intelligence and asks for a future where everyone has a home, heat, equality, community and hope.
Catrina
