CITY OF LONDON ALDGATE PROJECT

 the Aldgate Project

The Aldgate project was an eighteen month programme of events, workshops, and research that culminated in the writing of The Secret of Happiness, ultimate performances and an exhibition in and around Aldgate Summer Festival in June 2018 that celebrated the opening of Aldgate Square. The project also established the  Aldgate Community Events, (ACE) a voluntary community organisation  that is now managing future cultural events on the borders of The City of London.  Claque Theatre,  ACE, London Corporation and the wider community worked collaboratively on this Heritage Project  based on the principles of a community play.  

The Heritage Project

This Heritage project, based in Aldgate  and the City of London is  on of Claque's Empty Gallery programmes.  It is made up of three strands :  Aldgate in Camera - an outdoor tour of Victorian photographs mounted on sites close to the point of view of the photographer; Aldgate in Conversation - a short documentary and audio recorded and filmed interviews and conversations with Aldgate residents;  and Exhibitions in a Suitcase - personalised exhibitions of people's lives in suitcases.  You can find out more about this inspiring project on Claque's Empty Gallery website or the Aldgate Community Events Website.  ​Click Below

Aldgate in Performance 

Alongside the Heritage project, a research team has been working with Jon Oram and playwright Stephen Lowe to create a community play script.  Over the past  39 years Claque has developed process of 'finding a play' for a community  that now involves community soundings, historical research,  drama searches  and creative workshops. The  value of turning research into drama is the opportunity it gives a community to  empathetically reflect on its past, evaluate  it's present and conceive  a vision for the future.  All the creative events throughout the project have been  designed to inform the play script. It will now form the basis of performances in and around the square and be an integral part of the Summer Fair. The play itself has been hampered by a three year delay on the delivery of the square so it's production, if it is to take place will be at some future date.