Full Harvest South Downs National Park

“Wild Garlic”, River Ouse, Sarah Hehir

Through charming rhyme and rhythm, Wild Garlic charts the close bond of a father and daughter- from the childish glee of springtime swims to the grown woman mourning his death, the river and its flora and fauna provide a comforting constant.

Credits

Written by Sarah Hehir

Read by Madeleine Gray, Sidney Kean and Sarah Hehir

Edited by Elliot Lampitt

Commissioned and produced by Applause in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority.

With special thanks to Gill Corris and U3A, the people of Lindfield, The Bent Arms Pub and Lindfield Life Community Magazine

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Sarah Hehir

Sarah has been a writer, dramatist and a drama teacher for over 20 years. She performed at Kosovo’s International Literary Festival in 2019, and in 2013 she won the BBC Writer’s Prize for a radio drama Bang Up where the North Downs became part of the narrative and was broadcast as the afternoon drama on Radio 4. An accomplished writer for Theatre, Film, Radio and TV she was recently chosen as the commissioned poet on the Turner Prize ‘Connect together’ a project using words and ideas collected through community workshops to create an epic poem about the journey from London to Margate.

“Cement Bags”, River Adur, Sara Clifford

Ever passed a disused building and wondered about what stories it had to tell? Cement Bags brings to life the hustle and bustle of the Cement Factory at Beeding. Meet the women who worked there on the telephone exchange and listen to their lives in parallel to the building, from its glory days as an industrial hub to its poignant decline.

Credits

Written by Sara Clifford

Read by Jean Trend

Recorded by Oliver Cherer

Edited by Elliot Lampitt

Commissioned and produced by Applause in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority

With special thanks to Dylan Moore and Ian Weild

We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, there are nine more podcasts for you to enjoy so please subscribe to this series.

Sara Clifford

Lead writer/Dramaturg for Full Harvest

www.saraclifford.com

Sara works as a writer, director and community artist, and has written over forty plays including commissions for the Soho Theatre, York Theatre Royal & Nottingham Playhouse. She has been Writer in Residence at the University of Brighton and at Chichester Festival Theatre, and her work has been produced in France, Italy, Guadeloupe and Hong Kong. Her play A Thousand Days, was a Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn award.

As Artistic Director of her company, Inroads ( www.inroads.org.uk)  she works with local communities to write place-based work rooted in their stories, and has developed six site-specific participatory pieces, with a new show coming for 2022, Two Pairs of Eyes, seed funded by Farnham Maltings.

In 2019, she was Writer in Residence for the South Downs Park/ Applause, and the resulting show, Cherry Soup, toured rural venues across the Park.  She is the lead writer on Full Harvest, the project which developed from this.

“Nature’s Storehouse”, River Meon, Lucy Flannery

Exploring the history and mythology of the South Downs as a man uses his love of running to work towards recovery both physically and mentally.

Credits

Written by Lucy Flannery

Read by John Knowles

Recorded by Oliver Cherer

Edited by Elliot Lampitt

Commissioned and produced by Applause in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority.

We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, there are nine more podcasts for you to enjoy so please subscribe to this series.

Lucy Flannery

Lucy’s writing career has included: working with Alison Stead and Roy Hudd on Like A Daughter, a drama for BBC Radio 4, being commissioned to write an original play, Tomorrow Will Be Too Late, as part of the D-Day 70th Anniversary Commemoration and writing Nan a one-minute monologue created during lockdown for Ink Festival. She has worked on the Chichester Festival Theatre’s playwriting course and most recently as Writer-In-Residence at the University of Plymouth. She is both an artistic practitioner and an FE College Governor, she is experienced in working with young people.

“Celestial Navigation”, River Ouse, Sara Clifford

A poignant tale of family relationships, the intergenerational bond between a young woman and her grandfather is explored against the backdrop of a busy Ferry town. A reminder that we don’t know what we have until it’s gone.

Credits

Written by Sara Clifford

Read by Madeleine Gray and Sidney Kean

Edited by Elliot Lampitt

Commissioned and produced by Applause in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority.

With special thanks to the people of Newhaven and Andrew Bishop.

We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, there are nine more podcasts for you to enjoy so please subscribe to this series.

Sara Clifford

Lead writer/Dramaturg for Full Harvest

www.saraclifford.com

Sara works as a writer, director and community artist, and has written over forty plays including commissions for the Soho Theatre, York Theatre Royal & Nottingham Playhouse. She has been Writer in Residence at the University of Brighton and at Chichester Festival Theatre, and her work has been produced in France, Italy, Guadeloupe and Hong Kong. Her play A Thousand Days, was a Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn award.

As Artistic Director of her company, Inroads ( www.inroads.org.uk)  she works with local communities to write place-based work rooted in their stories, and has developed six site-specific participatory pieces, with a new show coming for 2022, Two Pairs of Eyes, seed funded by Farnham Maltings.

In 2019, she was Writer in Residence for the South Downs Park/ Applause, and the resulting show, Cherry Soup, toured rural venues across the Park.  She is the lead writer on Full Harvest, the project which developed from this.

“Meanderings”, River Cuckmere, Rosanna Lowe

An elderly woman reflects on her meandering life as it mirrors the bends and breaks of the River Cuckmere. Life is never quite what it seems on the surface and her winding journey finds diversity in the landscape and its inhabitants, proving that where there is life there is hope.

Credits

Written by Rosanna Lowe

Read by Jean Trend, Grant Brookes, Odi Oquosa and Rosanna Lowe

Recorded by Oliver Cherer

Edited by Elliot Lampitt

Commissioned and produced by Applause in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority.

The final story mixes some verbatim material from interviews with fictional text. A very special thanks to Ollie Barber and Odi Okaka Oquosa for sharing their very personal stories. Thanks too to all the members of the Arts on Prescription creative writing group.

Thanks too to Ann Bloomfield of Active Arts and Chrys Brookes, Anthony Elvin, Jon Pratty of MSL Projects, Tara Reddy of Arts on Prescription, Phil Potter and Craig, Sarah Janes, Chris, Bill and Alice Lowe and Rosie Lee. And, of course, the rivers.

We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, there are nine more podcasts for you to enjoy so please subscribe to this series.

Rosanna Lowe

Rosanna is an experienced writer, director and performer. Pieces she has written/directed have been performed in theatres in the UK, France, Malaysia and the US and include the devised show Hummingbirds at the Young Vic, nominated for a Total Theatre Award in Edinburgh, Chester Tuffnut at Polka Theatre, The Bacchae in the Cultural Olympiad and co-writing/co-directing portmanteau feature film London Unplugged. She has written two climate change radio plays, winning Radio 4 and IRDP awards. Her work often focuses on history, people and place and ranges from sketch-writing for TV series Horrible Histories to co-writing Brighton The Graphic Novel. She has worked in travel writing, winning awards with the Royal Geographical Society Award and The Times. She lived in Guatemala during its civil war and wrote Volcanoland, a travel narrative, collecting extraordinary stories and testimonies about the war and its aftermath. She was the commissioned writer for Goonhilly Village Green, a multidisciplinary festival celebrating the nature, heritage and community of Goonhilly Downs. She is currently the Lead Storyteller for interactive children’s show Printer’s Playtime. She has worked on various heritage and engagement projects with arts organisation MSL, creating a series of audio story poems called Ordinary Extraordinary inspired by Hastings residents. Rosanna has run numerous creative writing projects, often with children, but also with mothers from Holloway Prison and with Creative Future. She currently runs writing for wellbeing sessions for Arts on Prescription, which caters for people, like herself, with mental or physical health inequalities.

“The Baptism”, River Rother, Theo Toksvig-Stewart

A dark and unexpected tale about a young girl who meets a mysterious figure by the River. A modern-day myth about being careful what you wish for.

Credits

The Baptism was written by Theo Toksvig-Stewart

Read by Madeleine Gray and Sidney Kean

Edited by Elliot Lampitt

Commissioned and produced by Applause in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority.

With special thanks to the staff and students at Alton College.

We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, there are nine more podcasts for you to enjoy so please subscribe to this series

Theo Toksvig-Stewart – focusing on the River Rother

Theo is a dyslexic writer and actor. His play Endless Second was shortlisted for the Holden Street Theatre Award and the Sit Up Award at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe. The play transferred to the Park Theatre and Pleasance Islington as part of each venue’s ‘Best of the Fringe’ season and was commissioned as an audio drama for BBC Radio 4.

In 2020 Theo was commissioned by Warts and All Theatre to write an adaptation of Robyn Hood developed with children in care in Wellingborough. He was part of the BBC Writersroom Drama Room Scheme 2019/2020 and the 2021 Minack Emerging Playwrights Programme.