The sixth and final programme produced by Merlin Films for Tyne Tees Television that looks at the arts scene around the region. In this programme a look at the arts scene in the Newcastle area with a look at several youth projects including with Dance City who are bringing dance into a local primary school, and the Tyneside Youth Theatre Workshop who put on a production of ‘Twoccers’ about the consequences of car crimes. The programme also looks at a project with the local Probation Service...

The sixth and final programme produced by Merlin Films for Tyne Tees Television that looks at the arts scene around the region. In this programme a look at the arts scene in the Newcastle area with a look at several youth projects including with Dance City who are bringing dance into a local primary school, and the Tyneside Youth Theatre Workshop who put on a production of ‘Twoccers’ about the consequences of car crimes. The programme also looks at a project with the local Probation Service bringing musicians and arts to work with offenders to help reduce re-offending. Title: In A City Art Art in an Urban World Newcastle In a shopping precinct at Cruddas Park in Newcastle members of the band Rhythm Plus perform using various percussion instruments. Views of the Scotswood Road Bridge changes to Tony Dunne Arts Officer for the Leisure Outreach Project at Newcastle City Council explaining his strong belief that art can play a part in creating confidence and widening skills. As Rhythm Plus continue to perform a panoramic of the city of Newcastle and a young boy wearing a cowboy hat dancing to the music while walking along a concrete wall. Two professional dancers perform together in a studio at Dance City. In voiceover Debbie Thomas Dance Development Officer for Dance City talks about how dance can break across barriers of expression and can be used to help develop other skills. As Debbie provides details on the work she does, she talks about Dance in Action, a project which features pupils from Hawthorn Primary School in the West End of Newcastle working with Dance in Action Worker Stephen Wright. As the children work with Stephen on their performance, he talks about the benefit they get in physical activity and that he based his work on application rhythms to create movement. He believes that dance is more than movement, it shows the children something different and can be fused into their contemporary lives. Sitting in the window of an upstairs terraced houses in Benwell is poet Gillian Allnutt who reads one of her poems about the area. She talks about her reasons for moving to Newcastle stating that outside of London it is the most literary city in England. As she walks the area speaking with some of the locals and standing at a bus stop as a Newcastle Busway’s bus departs, she talks about the reasons why she became a writer. University of Northumbria student painter Gregory Mitchell and his friends appear from Blackett Street carrying large rolls. In front of Grey’s Monument, they begin to unroll and tape down what turn out to be a series of painted images produced by Gregory of the Sistine Chapel. As they continue to set up the drawings people walking past look on curiously with Gregory explaining why he made them. With his Sistine Chapel now laid out on a studio floor, he criticizes the city for its lack of studio space. As it begins to rain Gregory and his friends begin to roll up the artworks. Nearby on Grey Street another artist Angela Hughes (M.A.) paints the scene using chal k on black paper. She talks about why she likes working on the street and that she has always wanted to paint Grey Street as she likes the movement of the people and its atmosphere which she finds inspiring. In a gallery a montage of her artworks. On the corner of Waterloo and Thornton Street the home of the Newcastle Artists’ Group. Inside sculpture and secretary for the group Brian Ord talks about how Newcastle has a tradition of education dating back to the 1950s. As two artists work on their respective pieces in two different spaces next door to each other Brian talks about the formation of the Newcastle Artists’ Group in the early 19th century through to today explaining its ethos of taking the best art that is being produced in the area and take it to a wider audience nationally as well as internationally. As a Tyne and Wear Metro train crosses the Byker Viaduct Brian explains that he was born and raised in the area and that a lot of his work is based on his childhood roots. The Byker Wall development changing to a piece of his sculpture which uses similar geometric shapes. A montage of other pieces in a gallery, some featuring Brian standing next to them. He talks in voiceover about how his work combines both associations he has of the past as well as formal values. Inside a Northumbria Probation Service office in Newcastle musician Jim Hornby leads a group of male offenders performing blues music. As the music continues, Jim talks about how he became involved in this project that places artists and musicians in different setting. Standing in a corridor is Senior Probation Officers Dave Gardiner who also talks about the project which places artists and musicians like Jim into probation centres to look at different ways of working with offenders in the community. Dave provides details of the types of offenders working on this programme while Jim explains why blues music was the most receptive form of music the group were able to work with. Returning to Dave he explains that the programme is linked to aims of the probation service to reduce offending and to give those on the course choice in their lives. Archive news footage possibly of the Meadow Well riots in North Shields featuring a stolen car being driven dangerously. The film changes to actors from the Tyneside Youth Theatre Workshop performing scenes from the play ‘Twoccers’ about young people who ‘take [cars] without owners’ consent’ (TWOC). The Director of the Tyneside Youth Theatre Workshop Joe Price talks about the development of the production and that those in the group, all aged between sixteen and 25, are an ideal age being the same as many of whom the play is trying to reach. Another scene from the playing being performed inside a youth centre with teenagers watching and Joe explaining have he hopes the play will spark a debate. As members of the backstage team work with Joe to take down a stage, he talks about the formation of this open-access group because there was nothing else like it in Newcastle. Joe believes that youth theatre can change people’s lives. Following another dramatic scene from ‘Twoccers’ Tony Dunne from Newcastle City Council explains how the play touches on specific issues that are of particular interest to young people in the West End of Newcastle. As parents and children arrive at a school writer Pauline Hadaway talks about her involvement with Live Theatre and an Arts Council residency on the Cowgate estate in the city. As a group of children from Cowgate arrive at Live Theatre, they play with the lighting controls as they are given a tour of the facility by Pauline. Standing nearby is David McNally who is a Probation Service Assistant, he talks about how projects like this can make a real difference in people’s lives, giving them access to something that isn’t immediately available to them. As three young boys come out onto a stage, Pauline talks about after having a wonderful time the children will go away with something to focus on and produce a play they would like to make which she and Live Theatre can help with. Back on the Cowgate estate children playing and nearby two young men, one in a car, talking with each other. Over a montage of the area Jim Price talks about the concerns that children may graduate from getting into a car that has been stolen to becoming a ‘Twoccer’ themselves when they get older. He hopes that the intent of the play was to make people think before getting into the back of a car as well as think about the end results. The programme ends on the final scene from ‘Twoccers’ and one disabled character being replaced with another following a crash and Rhythm Plus finishing their piece at Cruddas Park. Credit: Electricians Alan Robinson, Alan Sharp, John Mason Consultant Marshall Hall Production Co-ordinator Jennifer Chapman Sound Ken Davison, Gail Westwood, Paul Graham Graphics Dave Richardson Executive Producer for Tyne Tees Trevor Hearing Production Assistant Pauline Grant Research Catherine Hearne Music John Cook Editor Bernard Helm Camera Dave Dixon Directed and Produced by Peter Chapman Title: A Merlin Films Production for Tyne Tees Television End Title: Copyright Tyne Tees Television 1993