Kenneth Emson’s ‘Town and Countryside’ trilogy burst onto the London stage with ‘Rural’ produced by Box of Tricks Theatre at The White Bear in January 2007. This play has gone to be read on Broadway in January 2008 and used as a sample text by the National Theatre Studio in a workshop with training directors.

‘Whispering Happiness’ is scheduled for production in 2008 in London and possibly also Berlin.

The concept for the third part ‘Collapsing Colonies’ is that the play will be devised during workshops taking part throughout 2008 using a mixture of professional actors and community groups within the region of Essex. During these workshops participants will work directly with artists to explore themes of displacement, heritage and conflict to pool information which will feed directly into the writing of the play.

These workshops will take place in Chelmsford, Colchester and Thurrock. Following the development of the play there will be a rehearsed reading using a mixture of actors and workshop participants within each of the three boroughs.