Looking Back: Facing Forward

Our first ever outdoor arts production!

Looking Back: Facing Forward was an original piece of promenade theatre. Incorporating live music, props, puppets, music and installations.

Audiences were invited to join DIY actors on a journey and take time and space to Look Back on Salford’s History and Face Forward to all our Futures. It opened with an original song created by the DIY Theatre Company with musician Sarah Atter.

I loved this piece. It was happy and sad and hopeful.

The show was built on an Inside: Outside project that included research and development. We worked on two key areas to build the performance. These were research into the social history of Salford and of Peel Park and training in Outdoor Arts.

Look back at our “Inside: Outside project”

Looking Back: Facing Forward at the Peoples’ History Museum

Excerpts from Looking Back: Facing Forward were performed at the launch of ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ at the Peoples’ History Museum. This landmark exhibition on disabled people’s activism, opened in November 2022 with a launch to mark the start of Disability History Month. The exhibition ran until October 2023. One of the mini-installations from Looking Back: Facing Forward, created with artist Nerissa Cargill Thompson, was included. The installation showed a scene where the patients find their voice and protest with placards.

Looking to the Future

The performance of Looking Back: Facing Forward ends with a re-vised version of our “We Have a Voice” song:

We have a voice

The power to choose

What we do

And who we are!

Our thanks to Community Learning at Salford City College and Salford City Council Ranger’s Service for their support for this work.

Our thanks also go to the National Lottery Heritage Fund who provided funding for this project.