On the 8th March, Steph and Mike from the project team visted Congleton History Society to talk about the project, share some initial research and ask the society for any help that they might be able to provide. We got a great response with lots of questions and many members not having heard of the plays previously. We have now sent out a call in their regular newsletter to ask for members to contribute their own stories related to the plays and interesting anecdotes about the town as well as asking for members to volunteer some of their time to help us with the research process specific to the Congleton and Astbury areas.

We were rerally excited and pleased to see the response from the society and canot wait to get started with the work in Congleton. In the next month we will hold an open session in Congleton library to pull some stories together and bring the members of the society together with the research team. 

Today we are pleased to announce our first delivery partner on the project, Astbury St. Mary's Church of England School. The school is a beautiful traditional and petite school set in the heart of the village of Astbury and we are thrilled that they have come on board for the project.
We are in the process of finalising the shape in which our delivery will take and the timeline into which it will fit but we will be working with Year 4 and 5 children as our research group and then engaging the many creative groups that they have at school, including drama club, musicians and the choir to develop the new material and stage the play itself.
As a Chruch school, Astbury celebrates All Saints Day with a celebration of light, serving as a contrast to the darker aspects of more well known celebrations of Halloween. This means that our Astbury play will reflect this and be developed alongside the children to bring light, humour and joy to a dark time of the year.
We can't wait to get started!!