Families rehearse for Sunderland's Public Record music celebration with National Theatre

Public Record, a celebration of the people and music of Sunderland will be performed by community members and professional artists from across the city at The Fire Station on April 25-27 next year.

Families have been attending weekly dance and drama sessions, ahead of the new production led and produced by Sunderland Culture and Sunderland Empire in partnership with the National Theatre. The show is part of the National Theatre’s Public Acts, a nationwide programme creating extraordinary acts of theatre and community.

Last year the programme produced five episodes of The Odyssey one at The Fire Station, which culminated in an epic finale production which brought performers from all five locations together on the National Theatre’s Olivier stage in August 2023.

Now four community groups are taking part in creative workshops at the Sunderland Empire and in community venues, theatre trips and creative social opportunities, working towards some participants being involved in the production of Public Record in 2025.

The four groups are Back on the Map, Connect Company, The Odyssey Alumni group and Sunderland Nigerian Families Group.

Anthony Hope, senior Creative Learning manager at Sunderland Empire, explained: “The Nigerian families group has been meeting in our studio space for six weeks, and we’ve had some fantastic feedback from them about the sessions – and the Empire.

“Folasade Fasoyiro and her daughter Sara were part of The Odyssey production last year and Sade, as she’s known, said at the time that she was sure Nigerian families living in Sunderland would be interested in taking part in something similar.

“So when Public Record was announced Sade used her WhatsApp group to tell other Nigerian families what was happening. Through Sade we organised these sessions and 18 people, aged from four to late 40s, have been attending.

“We’ve had dance and drama sessions and been finding out what sort of performing arts the group is interested in. Sade said that the group members love to dance and to perform, but didn’t know where to go or who to talk to about doing so in Sunderland.”

National Theatre’s director of Public Acts Emily Lim, co-director and choreographer Dan Canham and Sunderland-born musician Ross Millard (The Futureheads) have teamed up to develop Public Record.