Wishbone - Annual Report 2020
Registered Charity number - 1170527
Contact details – karen@wishbonetheatre.co.uk or
paul@wishbonetheatre.co.uk
Public address – 2[nd] Floor Flat, 30 Duncan Terrace, London N1 8BS
Aims and activities
Wishbone is a theatre company that creates original new theatre and also educates the public in artistic process and in the themes of the artwork.
What the charity does
Artistic work/education
Who the charity helps
The general public, and also specifically audiences who are socially excluded or marginalised.
How the charity helps
Provides audiences with original theatre productions of new work, and provides workshops and talks to emerging artists, students and the broader community on the artistic process and social themes explored in the artwork.
Charitable objects
To advance public appreciation of the arts and education in the arts in particular by staging performances of original new theatre and artworks using film, still photography and audio recording, and by providing workshops that explore themes and creative practice.
Governing document
Foundation Model Constitution, (whose only voting members are its charity’s Trustees)
Organisation type
Charitable Incorporated Organisation
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Income and spending – please see Financial Report
Activity summary
Pre-Covid
New work - Belongings
Over January 2020, Wishbone’s Artistic Directors decamped to Ramsgate with a view to developing new work set in Thanet, and also to build relationships with the local arts network which we hope will be a more fertile environment for funding than London.
New work focused on themes of bereavement and the strange journey of everyday objects of the deceased. Setting the show in Ramsgate with its proliferation of charity shops has been inspiring.
Preparation work has involved interviews with volunteers and managers in local shops, interviewing a solicitor specialising in medical tribunals, a field trip to Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, and extensive photography of Ramsgate.
We plotted out the story structure of a full-length show through a combination of improvisation and story structure sessions.
While based in Ramsgate, we formed good contacts with local arts organisers and began to explore various options for performance venues. The Loop the Loop Festival was an option for us before the advent of Covid 19
Lockdown activity
Through Spring-Summer 2020, ADs Paul and Karen created and uploaded “Cakemaker” to the Wishbone website – a micro-sized film about an elderly woman experiencing dementia. Paul’s script was inspired by his mother’s later years with the condition. Voiceover was provided by the late Yvonne Gilan (Chariots of Fire, Fawlty Towers) who recorded the script as her last performance.
Trustee Juliet Prague introduced Karen and Paul to the Fluxus method, and guided them in their development of the method for innovating form in a live online format. Over 2020, Wishbone created several double-screen
improvisations using the very simple tech of iPhones and Zoom. Early Fluxus films were set in their respective homes, and then in exterior settings where landscape began to become an important element in the composition. These included one filmed in Ramsgate during early September 2020 which brought the figures to the same beach after walking through different parts of Ramsgate.
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The last in the series was set on opposite sides of the Thames on a rainy October evening, culminating in the figures passing each other on Waterloo Bridge.
Mountain High Valley Low
Wishbone were selected to perform at the Sonic Trail of the Ramsgate Festival of Sound. This festival was originally scheduled for July, but was postponed to September 2020. Costs included headphone hire but the artistic improvement justified the expense. Wishbone received a fee of £700 for the run of performances in Vale Square in Ramsgate and acclaimed as a highlight of the Festival.
Wishbone had been contracted to perform the mini show at Canary Wharf in July 2020. Because of Covid restrictions, the run has been postponed to October 2021, timed to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.
Belongings – film project
Wishbone decided to redirect the work on Belongings from a theatre project into a medium-length no-budget film. This choice was partly because of practical issues regarding the viability of theatre work in a Covid-restricted world, and partly because of creative lessons learned through Fluxus. Work began on a screenplay in late 2020.
Wishbone Financial Report 2020
The amount of £10.86 was carried over from 2019.
In the first quarter donations were received from Paul Murray, and indirectly, from Karen Glossop, to ensure the Wishbone remained solvent, and to pay for webhosting.
In the second quarter, a deposit of £1750 was received in advance from Canary Wharf Ltd, of a total of £3500 due for performances of Mountain High Valley Low at Canary Wharf, as part of their arts programme. The performances were postponed until September 2021, owing to Covid, together with remittance of the outstanding
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amount. A deposit of £350 was also received from the Ramsgate Festival of Sound in advance for performances of Mountain High Valley Low in September 2020.
In the third quarter the outstanding amount of £350 for performances in the Ramsgate Festival of Sound was received .
In the final quarter Wishbone began buying film and recording equipment in preparation for their medium length film ‘Belongings’ set in Ramsgate, with shooting scheduled for June 2021.
The amount of £1938.45 was carried over to 2021.
Signed
Paul Murray
Artistic Director, Wishbone
Confirmed by Trustees:
Hansjorg Schmidt ………………….. Juliet Prague………………… Mark Rodbert…………………….
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WISHBONE ACCOUNTS 2020
1st January- 31st December 2020
carried over 10.86
INCOME 29/01/20 8.44 Donation to cover webhosting costs 02/03/20 26.44 Donation to cover webhosting costs 03/04/20 26.44 Donation to cover webhosting costs 07/05/20 26.44 Donation to cover webhosting costs 29/05/20 1750 Canary Wharf Ltd (MHVL show fee) 30/06/20 350 Ramsgate Festival ( MHVL show fee) 01/09/20 381 Props expenditure refund 05/10/20 350 Ramsgate Festival ( MHVL show fee) 11/11/20 146.45 Donation
TOTAL 3076.07
EXPENDITURE
| 15/01/20 | 8.44 | Web hostiing Ionos |
|---|---|---|
| 14/02/20 | 8.44 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 18/03/20 | 26.44 | Web hostiing Ionos (new plan) |
| 16/04/20 | 26.44 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 15/05/20 | 26.44 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 16/06/20 | 26.44 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 15/07/20 | 26.44 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 30/07/20 | 15.79 | Expenses voiceover artist Alien Boy recording |
| 13/08/20 | 295 | Silent Disco headphone hire MHVL |
| 14/08/20 | 10.97 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 27/08/20 | 20.82 | Sound cables |
| 01/09/20 | 381 | Props purchase |
| 01/09/20 | 25.54 | Props MHVL |
| 16/09/20 | 18 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 15/10/20 | 18 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 27/10/20 | 35.5 | Belongings filming equipment |
| 29/10/20 | 5.9 | Belongings filming equipment |
| 30/10/20 | 98.15 | Belongings filming equipment |
| 30/10/20 | 6.9 | Belongings filming equipment |
| 09/11/20 | 10.98 | Belongings filming equipment |
| 16/11/20 | 18 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 16/11/20 | 18 | Web hostiing Ionos |
| 22/11/20 | 9.99 | Belongings props |
TOTAL
1137.62
WISHBONE ACCOUNTS 2020
carried over 1938.45
reviewed and signed by Mark Rodbert Juliet Prague HansJorg Schmidt