Producing LYNNEBEC's Athletes Welcome Ceremonies on behalf of Birmingham 2022
It’s now August 2022, and the West Midlands was just in the thick of games time activity. The games have just officially closed and I, along with many others, are still reflecting on all the epic-ness that was Birmingham 2022. The city and region are still alive and buzzing with sports & cultural activity. It really does feel like a thriving place to live and work right now!
From 23rd-27th July, I had the immense privilege of being Lead/Senior Producer with queer-led performance company; LYNNEBEC. I actually began working with the company back in August 2021 and fast forward to now - we just delivered a brand new devised multi-disciplinary show, featuring 25 acting students from BOA Stage & Screen Production Academy, where we co-created a show called A THOUSAND WELCOMES and performed it to over 6,500 athletes from 72 nations & territories from across the globe.
As a leader, I’ve learned alot from this project. So too has the company’s Co-Artistic Directors Cat Butler & Jess Barber. It’s safe to say that we as a leadership team have all been tested for our firefighting abilities (I’d probably go so far as to say we’ve all earned a PhD in problem solving) and thank god we had the most excellent Company & Stage Manager working with us. If anyone ever needs someone with a ridiculous level of competence, problem solving skills for life then look no further than Elliot Mitchell who quite literally managed every detail of this monumental project! A huge gratitude to Elliot for his dedication & hard work in helping us make this project the success it was!
Creatively, the show was inspired by ‘A Thousand Welcomes’ in connection to the city’s heritage of 100 trades along with cultural influences from Balti & Bollywood dancing to the city’s reputation for never ending construction works… We hope that it gave athletes of hearty welcome to Brum, at the very least, they now know that being greeted with ‘alright bab!’ means hello!
It was a brilliant opportunity for me to revisit the line-management of a team, but this time around, exercise things I’ve learnt from the last few years of academic study, and experience in the sector. I oversaw the whole project on behalf of the company and the budget to go along with that. It was a golden opportunity to lead compassionately, using a distributed ‘flat’ company structure and in flexing each team member’s strengths. I also had the opportunity to bring in my mentoring and critical friend skills - asking questions alot and helping colleagues grow into newer versions of themselves. It was a delight to mentor Junior Producer Rodrigo on this whirlwind journey too - they won’t mind me saying that they’ve found within themselves a shinier new version of themselves & grown hugely throughout this project.
There have been a few company (and personal) themes emerge from this process and they are:
Resilience: the importance of being able to bounce back, again and again….
Pay attention: to and uphold values of equity & opportunity, holding open doors for others (most often facing barriers or disadvantages) and enable them to walk through with confidence
Care: for each other, the project, the young people involved - placing access front and centre
Surrender: when goalposts move on the daily; adapt, overcome & react accordingly - don’t try to control what’s uncontrollable
These are all valuable learning points and we’re still processing. The euphoria remains high in the wake of delivering such a major project and we’re full of gratitude and joy at how the shows were received by the athletes. There were many more highlights across the performance days, but one personal highlight was watching Team New Zealand’s Haka up close & personal - it really was an honour being in the villages alongside some of the world’s most elite sportspeople.
For now, the rest August is about resting, reflecting and consolidating learning: as a result of this project, team LYNNEBEC is super excited for what comes next….
You can read more about LYNNEBEC’s journey on the Athletes Welcome Ceremonies here.
Contact me or the company to talk about what we could deliver for you or your event/festival.
Email: amy@lynnebec.org or hello@amydaltonhardy.co.uk