I WITNESS HISTORY

A series of audio dramas which look at historical events from the eyes and in the imagined words of those who were there, or who might have been there.

About

I Witness History is as series of audio dramas about the small ordinary people, who have witnessed History in the making.

It can be about world affairs, or it can be very localised, a one off event or something that happens frequently or infrequently.

To celebrate these moments of history, we have chosen to mark one event a month, something that happened in that month 2,000 years ago, 10 years ago, or last year. Or any year in between.

It will be written from strong research – but always from the point of view of someone who was there – or who might have been there. This project will run across the years 2017-18, but of course the anniversaries come round year after year!

From those stories we’ve created a series of audio dramas, which you can listen to via the stories page. As well as the regular monthly episodes, there are some special series, and a launch event, where writer Brian Abbott tells his own personal story relating to the memories of a friend (Carrie Fisher) in a remarkable meeting in January 1977.

We hope you enjoy the stories, and we’re grateful to all those who have contributed to making this project.

Parrabbola

Parrabbola is a non-profit-making cultural organization that specializes in community development through participatory creative activity.

It was founded in 2004 and has been working in partnership with local authorities, community and cultural organizations to engage communities in the creative expression of their own lives and histories.

Since its foundation Parrabbola has had a strong focus on place-based heritage projects, some part-funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund. ranging from ‘Diving Through Time’, a community history of Thurrock staged with local people in Tilbury Fort (2005) through ‘Brighter Than the Moon’ – a collaboration with the African Women’s Forum in Portsmouth to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in 2007, on to ‘Land of Liberty’ – a community play reliving the influence of the Chartist Movement in Hertfordshire, staged in a circus tent (2010), till most recently (2019) ‘A Time to Gather Stones’ – a dramatic site-specific celebration of the founding in 1019 of the iconic St Benet’s Abbey on the Norfolk Broads.

In between, Parrabbola has undertaken many other community based theatre and multi-media projects both in the UK and overseas, all of them underpinned by the company’s strong ethos of community collaboration.

Our latest projects: This Distemperature (for Craiova Shakespeare Festival) / In My Mind’s Eye (for Newham Heritage Month)

To find out more about Parrabbola – contact us on info@parrabbola.co.uk