Hastings pop-up performance for Jubilee

MSL Discover and Barefoot Opera are working on the event called Sun Shall Rise which will take place during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend on Saturday, June 4 in Hastings.

MSL has commissioned Barefoot Opera’s Lucy Mulgan and writer Rosanna Lowe to create a new choral work to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Barefoot Opera’s choral director Jenny Miller has been working with professional singer and workshop specialist Lucy Mulgan to recruit a community choir.

The new work will be performed in Hastings town centre on Saturday, June 4 and will be reprised two weeks later on Sunday, June 26 at Hastings Sanctuary Festival (hastings.cityofsanctuary.org).

Margaret Sheehy, MSL director, said: “We hope it will be a memorable occasion for all those taking part and give impetus to our (MSL and Barefoot Opera) longer-term objectives. Choir participants will have learnt from exemplary professionals and developed skills and confidence in music and production.”

As part of the event MSL Projects are holding a drop-in hat making workshop with Radiator Arts on Saturday, June 4 from 10am to 1pm giving adults and children the opportunity to make a fantastic hat for the occasion. The workshop is on a pay what you can basis (minimum £1). To register your interest contact [email protected]

Event spokeswoman Dominika Hicks said: “Sun Shall Rise is another stage in an ambitious developing project The Wild Horn Fair.

“Begun during the first lockdown in 2020 on Zoom, MSL has been working with Rosanna Lowe, production designer Jane Bruce, and researcher Julie Gidlow, with funding from the Arts Council, Hastings Council and the Trinity Triangle Heritage Action Zone to create a new community street performance for several towns across England in 2023-24. There will be a small-scale rural tour of this version later this year.

“Sun Shall Rise will celebrate the history of England and the reign of our present queen and provide us with the opportunity to promote a major community production to potential partners for presentation in 2023.

“The Wild Horn Fair is a celebration of the High Street and will explore the relationships between established order and disruptive carnival.”

The project is funded by Arts Council England’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund, Sussex Community Foundation, Historic England, Trinity Triangle Hastings, Heart of Hastings and East Sussex Arts Partnership.

“This project has been made possible by a grant from Localgiving and Postcode Society Trust, a grant-giving charity funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

www.mslprojects.co.uk/sun-shall-rise

“MSL celebrates individual creativity, community and place. “We deliver placemaking through cultural interventions, integrating creative work with social, learning and economic objectives.”