The Team
Productions
Participation
Partnership
Early Years
Older Audience
Monologues
Research and development
Awards |
THE TEAM
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PRODUCTIONS
M6 Theatre Company is acknowledged as one of Britain’s leading theatre companies specialising in creating and delivering dynamic, high quality and relevant productions for young audiences that aim to:
- Ignite the imagination
- Nurture the heart
- Challenge the mind
Founded in 1977, M6 is renowned for producing work that has deep emotional resonance with its audience and is as imaginative as it is powerful. Building on the strong ethos, skills and experience of the company, each project, however large or small, is carefully crafted with an awareness of and sensitivity towards the target audience.
Diversity is also central to M6’s work – in style, thematic areas, delivery and audience. All productions make a positive contribution to social and cultural cohesion and are accessible to children from different social, economic and ethnic backgrounds and themes.
M6’s rich and innovative creative programme includes:
- Inspiring, sensitive and highly visual work for very young audiences
- Powerful, specially commissioned contemporary new dramas for older audiences
- Compelling short single voice plays for specific audience
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PARTICIPATION
Access and Inclusion are central to the company’s ethos. A strong commitment to providing access to young people from all social, ethnic and economic groups is reflected in all M6’s participatory output: Youth Theatre Sessions, Outreach Projects, Interactive Workshops and Follow-up Resources.
Working creatively with this diverse range of groups also provides M6 with vital ongoing consultation opportunities that inform the content, style and delivery of future work.
PRODUCTION LINKED WORKSHOPS
M6 has a proven track record of creating and delivering specially designed interactive workshops linked to specific productions. These workshops, facilitated by theatre professionals, encourage young people’s personal development through a range of theatre techniques.
PRODUCTION RESOURCE MATERIALS
M6 creates imaginative and memorable resource materials to accompany productions. These are specially designed to further enhance the creative and learning opportunities initiated by the performance. These carefully crafted resource materials provide a wealth of valuable and flexible teaching aids. They complement many areas of the curriculum and provide additional stimulating opportunities for young people to interact with the performance long after M6’s visit.
“M6’s work continues to be of a high, thought provoking standard. M6’s style and ideas will filter down into the pupils’ work for years to come.”
Chris Martin, Head of Drama, Thornleigh Salesian College |
PARTNERSHIP
ARTISTIC PARTNERSHIPS
M6’s work is enriched by the variety of high quality emerging and established artistic partners the company collaborates with. The breadth and range of styles incorporated in M6’s programme enables partnership working with specialist theatre practitioners from the worlds of puppetry, mime, dance, mask, film, and music. M6 actively continues to build its portfolio of highly skilled freelance writers, directors, designers, composers, choreographers, actors and workshop facilitators. These artistic partnerships, built on shared values, make important and unique contributions to M6’s artistic development. |
FUNDING PARTNERSHIPS
As a registered charity, M6 Theatre Company relies on committed Revenue Funding and specific Project Grants to augment earned income enabling the company to develop, manage and deliver the highest quality theatre programme to a wide range of young audiences.
Core Funding
Revenue funding from Arts Council England NW, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council and Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA), provides the vital core income underpinning the company’s viability and success. Core funding also supports the company’s financial, administrative and creative infrastructure.
Project Grants
The company’s vibrant and innovative artistic and educational programme is also made possible by valuable support from a range of specific project funders. These mutually beneficial partnerships based on a shared vision and ethos enable M6 to enrich the lives of some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged groups in our communities. Recent project funding partners have included:
• The Nationwide Foundation
• SureStart
• The Tudor Trust
• Lloyds TSB
• Rochdale Youth Opportunity Fund
• The John Lewis Partnership
• Garfield Weston
• United Utilities
“M6 Theatre Company produces powerful and impressive work and has been recognised internationally. The Foundation is proud to have been associated with the charity and hopes it goes from strength to strength.”
Lisa Parker, Chief Executive, Nationwide Foundation |
ADVISORY & COMMISSIONING PARTNERSHIPS
M6 has developed key relationships with Rochdale Early Years settings, schools and Youth Service groups, which continue to inform the company’s work. M6 also collaborates closely with specialist organisations in the development and delivery of specific projects. Examples of recent commissioning and funding partnerships include:
• Action For Prisoners Families (APF) – “Homeward Bound”
• HomeStart – “When Sarah Met Stacey”
• Connexions – “Clueless”
• North West Health Authority – “Risky Business”
• Rochdale Teenage Pregnancy Strategy Group – a series of personal relationship Monologues
• Rochdale Children Schools & Families – “Parental Involvement”
• Oldham Ethnic Minorities Support Services – a series of multi-cultural projects |
AFFILIATIONS
M6 is:
- An Approved Manager of the Independent Theatre Council (ITC),
- A member of Action for Children’s Arts (ACA) and Assitej UK (The UK Centre of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People).
- An active participant in the North West Early Arts Champions Group
M6 Youth Theatre is an active member of the National Association of Youth Theatres.
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NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ARTS PARTNERSHIPS
M6 has developed strong national and international links with young people’s theatre festivals at home and abroad including:
• Imaginate – Children’s International Theatre Festival, Scotland
• TakeOff – Children & Young People’s Theatre Festival, Darlington
• Spark – Children’s Arts Festival, Leicester
• CIAO Children’s International Arts Organisation - Arts Festival, Berkshire
• Milk International Children’s Festival of the Arts – Toronto, Canada
These festival partnerships provide a showcase platform for M6’s work, opportunities to access other companies high quality work, debate best practice and forge new relationships with artists and arts organisations.
“I was captivated by the emotional, dynamic and honest performances. Broadcast through this energy, lie important issues, themes and scenarios… a fantastic foundation for discussion.”
Jeremy Stacey, Artistic Director, The Milk International Children’s Festival, Toronto. |
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 EARLY YEARS
M6 has specially created a range of high quality, innovative theatre experiences to serve the needs of the under 5 age group which:
• Enrich their experiences of the world
• Extend their communication skills
• Enhance their emotional well-being
Demand for M6’s early years productions grows and grows and the company is now recognised as a pioneer in the development of work for this age group. Productions incorporate dance, puppetry and storytelling to capture the imagination of each child. Performance includes the use of large-scale multi-sensory installations and interactive story-making projects.
“An excellent piece of theatre. The kind of visual experience our children need and love.”
Teacher, Rydings School, Rochdale.
“Can I come back here every day?”
Jaz and Flo enthusiast (age 4) |
MONOLOGUES
 Each year M6 commissions, performs and tours a series of powerful monologues which share the struggles, courage, conflicts and joys of different characters facing difficult decisions in their lives. This growing strand of M6’s work enables the Company to perform powerful and contemporary stories in a classroom, theatre space or conference setting.
These short single voice plays provide audiences with intimate, emotionally charged performances, which act as a stimulus for meaningful and important peer discussions.
The flexibility, intimacy and impact of M6’s monologues and accompanying facilitated workshops enable young people to explore the emotions, motivations and choices of different characters at difficult crossroads in their lives.
The success of these monologues has led to their publication.
All Talk – a selection of M6 monologues written by six North West based writers is published by Aurora Metro Press (2007). |
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
M6 are committed to experimental creative research and development to ensure each project is given the time and care required to reach full and meaningful fruition.
This collaborative research and development allows initial ideas, storylines and theatre forms to be tried, tested and refined by the skills, experience, observations and inspiration of artistic practitioners, specialist input and young people.
“Jaz and Flo creates a magical place full of wonder where children can feel safe – to explore and respond, to listen and feel, to sing and play. To watch and enjoy”.
Arts Council North West ‘Focusing on our Future’
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AWARDS
In recognition of M6 Theatre’s positive contribution to the lives of young people and pioneering approach to theatre for young audiences, the following nominations and awards have been bestowed on the Company in recent years;
- MBE Award to M6 Artistic Producer, Dorothy Wood
In recognition of ‘Services to Drama in the North West’
- Finalist for Art 06 Award for M6’s
‘innovative, relevant & high quality theatre for young audiences’
- Future Europeans Conference (Brussels)
Specially commissioned to perform monologue ‘Risky Business’
- Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards
Nomination for Best Productions for Young Audiences
- DORA Mavor Moore Award Finalist (Canada)
‘Outstanding Touring Production’ for ‘Breathing Space’
- The Writers Guild Award Finalist for bilingual production
‘Two Days as a Tiger’ or ‘Doh Din Kay Shere’
“A breath of fresh theatrical air… Gripping, emotionally involving theatre…”
Toronto Now
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