On 19 March 2020, Kat Joyce and Nathan Curry, co-Artistic Directors of Tangled Feet were poised to make a presentation to The Steel Charitable Trust’s trustees, hopeful of being awarded the inaugural Luton Matters Award (Arts and Heritage). By then, of course, we all knew what was coming and, sure enough, four days later, the country was plunged into lockdown with caution, fear and uncertainty taking the reins.
The decision was taken to delay the final assessment for this award until June, to allow the candidates to re-group, to establish what the future might hold and how – if – they would be able to operate in it. By June, Tangled Feet was able to demonstrate to Trustees that it had positive work that it could do and adaptations it could make to a Covid world and beyond, as a result of which it was awarded a £90,000 grant over a period of three years.
Tangled Feet is an artist-led theatre ensemble and a charity, formed by a group of friends graduating from Middlesex university in the early 2000s. It creates original physical theatre using collaborative working methods, and often performs outdoors or in non-traditional performance spaces. Already a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) of Arts Council England when it applied to the Trust (and renewed in 2022), it had roots, but was not rooted, in Luton. This was something it wanted to change and, coinciding with a recent move to the Hat Factory as its administrative base, the potential of the Luton Matters grant was the perfect coalescing of opportunity to do that.
Tangled Feet’s proposal had three strands:
- to create productions of a national calibre in Luton and deliver broadly accessible performances to a local audience
- to adapt existing and create new high calibre children’s productions for subsidised touring to Luton schools
- to provide, through paid internships and collaboration with Next Generation Youth Theatre, mentoring and talent development for young, emerging artists in the area
Here are some examples of how Tangled Feet met that brief.
But When? is an outdoor performance experienced on headsets allowing audiences to follow four friends on their journey back to each other after a long separation period due to lockdown and the restrictions of 2020. This unique theatre experience was made through collaborative workshops with local young people and offered a paid intern role to a local young person.
A co-production with Luton organisations, Next Generation Youth Theatre and the Culture Trust, But When? was performed to great acclaim on the streets of Luton’s Hat District in November 2021.
In the summer of 2022, an empty shop unit in Luton Mall was transformed into a theatre space presenting six original short performance works commissioned from the company’s cohort of artists. Not only did this provide a free theatre experience for over 1,000 people over three days, it also provided a development opportunity for ensemble artists to become lead artists in the production and performance of their own work. In addition, a paid internship opportunity was created for an Assistant Stage Manager on the project. The video shows the delighted reaction of the shoppers-turned-audience for the hour.
Belongings is one of two new Tangled Feet productions, this one in partnerships with Rowan Tree Dramatherapy, created specifically for schools during this period. The show focuses on the experiences of children in the care system and engaged six such children from Luton as its creative advisors at the development stage in 2022. The show premiered in London in early 2023 followed by tours to Luton primary schools and other venues. Funding from The Steel Charitable Trust leveraged funding of £48k from other sources, and the show looks set to become part of Tangled Feet’s repertoire into 2024 and beyond. You can read more about it in the Big Issue article.
In their own words…
We wanted to thank…The Steel Charitable Trust for your investment in us over the last three years, which has enabled us to make some really strong and impactful creative interventions in Luton, and which has really been a bedrock during time of extreme uncertainty in the cultural sector. Being able to use the funding to underpin the creative costs of new work made in and for Luton has been crucial to our journey. We’ve no doubt that TF’s funding and support from The Steel Charitable Trust will have been a positive influence on the NPO decision.
Kat Joyce, co-Artistic Director
The final year of Steel funding has seen us consolidate and build on the success of the previous two years, with many projects running longer and having more profound outcomes than we originally planned for. It has enabled us to really bed in our relationships in Luton with other cultural organisations, with schools and with creatives and emerging talent. Some of the projects created during the Luton Matters period will have an ongoing life over the next few years.
Nathan Curry, co-Artistic Director
Photo credits: But When? Nathan Curry Belongings: Greta Zabulyte
steelcharitabletrust.org.uk 