In August 2016 I was commissioned by the 42nd Street Youth Arts centre in Manchester to work as part of a creative team to develop a theatrical production exploring the lives of young carers. I have a number of years experience working as a socially engaged arts practitioner, and had worked previously with teenagers on a large scale research project. The commission was also part of a large research project developed at Queens University in Belfast by the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC). They had developed an application called LiveShout, an IOS application for live audio broadcasting. A major part of the funding was to commission a sound artist specifically to embed this application into the performance. I worked for three months with a number of young carers aged from 11 to 18 on ways to translate their lived everyday experience into sound design ideas for the theatrical project. On the 31st of January 2017 the work launched with 5 performances a day over a period of 6 days. I worked alongside a set designer, interactive video artist, screen writer and director, the work was an interactive and immersive audio video and live performance, which included the young participants. The average audience per day was between 45 and 50 over 10 days.
The play was shortlisted for the Northern Soul Theatre Awards in 2017.