Eddi of Manhood End: A project for the Cultural Olympics

The famous Rudyard Kipling poem, ‘Eddi of Manhood End’ centres on the small town of Selsey (population c. 5,000) in West Sussex. There are plans now developing to stage contemporary opera-chorale based on this poem, which will be performed over several nights in 2012. The performance is being designed to create a lasting legacy for community involvement in the arts.

This potentially great project has deliberately set out to involve a range of communities and organizations from the outset. As well as local schoolchildren, including disaffected teenagers, local fishermen and other traders will play a key role alongside amateur choirs and other performers.

Local artists and designers have signed up to play their own part in the developments, and Chichester Canvas is working on the design of the auditorium. The music has been specially commissioned and, once written and performed, will take on its own life, and is expected to reach out to more remote audiences whenever it is performed.

A detailed cost breakdown, together with arrangements for project governance, are currently being prepared to fit alongside a vision document that was completed at the tail end of 2008.

Pamela Howard FRSA, with her international expertise as theatre director and scenographer, is the driving force behind this ambitious and exciting project. She outlined the proposals at a local RSA Fellows meeting held in January 2009. She now invites and would positively welcome further contacts from Fellows across the whole of South Central region – particularly from those who may have something to offer to take the project to the next stage and also to see it through to a successful conclusion.

Please email Pamela Howard or phone on 01243 601087.