‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was the resulting performance of my Independent Practice and Research module in my final term at university. This was a completely devised performance that was written and directed by me. The performance focused on the lives of two survivors of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and their struggles since then. This project showcased the different techniques I had gathered throughout different modules throughout my time at university. ‘Artist as witness’ being a main source of help for me as this previous module had focused on telling a story of a traumatic event without overdramatizing.

This was the first time I had ever had complete control over my own project and the direction in which I wanted to take it. Being in charge of writing, directing and casting my own show was big change for me and having no one to fall back on made me adjust the way I had worked previously. As the Hillsborough disaster had impacted so many people, families, victims and friends it was important me to make sure that my piece was factual. As well as vising the Hillsborough archives in the Liverpool City Centre library, I also interviewed survivors of Hillsborough about their experiences. This allowed me to enter the first rehearsal with my cast knowing what I wanted from the piece and being able to share factual information with them. Research was a key aspect of this progress and I believe that this showed in the final performance.

Although I feel I am a natural leader and did have my own vision for my piece, it was important for me as a director to work collaboratively with my cast throughout the rehearsal process. My cast needed to be as invested in the story as I was in order to create a moving performance. My way of working was generally to give my cast the scene that I had written, tell them the emotions and objective of the scene block them on stage and then allow their actions and movements to come naturally. Unless I wanted something specific done at a point in the scene I found the way of creating a naturalistic piece was to just allow my cast to navigate their way around the scene.

Creating this piece has helped me realize my identity and approach to theatre as a practitioner. I feel it has helped me progress as an artist constantly molding and re molding work encouraged me to push myself to always think of new and better ways of doing things.

Overall I was very proud of my piece and believe I succeeded in making a key piece of political theatre. However, I do wish to keep expanding and developing my piece over time. A major development for me would be to include more stories from different survivors of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Although my piece focused on two survivors’ stories, there are many more to be told and if I can be the one to give them that platform I would be honoured.