The ReFramed Project comes to Sage House – supported using public funding from Arts Council England

The company will include participants from Sage House, their families and support staff, plus a team of professional creatives, led by local director Fiona Dunn.

In the series of creative imagination workshops, they will explore the musicality of people living with dementia using words, music, movement, poetry, and laughter.

The professional creatives will create a 45-minute performance of sung narrative-dance in response to the workshops and Chichester Festival Theatre will host the one-off performance for an audience of all participants, and Sage House and Chichester Festival Theatre's outreach programs.

The ReFramed Project will also be filmed for online use and a celebratory screening at Sage House.

Fiona Dunn said: “During lockdown I cared for my parents here in Chichester, one after another, with terminal cancers. This led me to study as an End-of-Life Doula and to volunteer at Sage House, where my Wednesday mornings were filled with wonderful, funny, inventive and moving conversations with the DayBreaks participants. I knew I wanted to make a piece of theatre which showcased these wonderful people and their carers. I wanted to ‘ReFrame’ how we see dementia, even for a moment — not just in memories, but as present creative contributors.”

The ReFramed Project has been awarded funding by Arts Council England and will be in collaboration with Sage House and Chichester Festival Theatre.

"We are honoured to be working with Sage House - their expertise and passion for their community is expressed every day in their bustling and vibrant building and we are excited to share our creative practices and give confidence to carers and families to work imaginatively. If we breathe, we can create”, Fiona added.

The whole of Sage House will be encouraged to play a small part in the storytelling, so when people next visit they can:

- Fill in one of the ‘beautiful questions’ leaflets

- Pop it in the ReFramed post box to potentially be part of the ReFramed creation

You can follow the ReFramed Project on thereframedproject.co.ukto find out the latest news.

For more information about Sage House, go to dementiasupport.org.uk.

“Just think what you want and don’t get upset if it’s not right what you thought, sometimes you just have to look and listen, and think and think, and try and do what you can do.” – Fiona Dunn