FIRST STEPS

2010 marked Northern Stage's 40th Birthday. To celebrate this special anniversary our staff have already walked 40 miles, and throughout 2010 we presented 40 new works from Northern artists, had 40 seats for sale and 40 reasons to celebrate.

We also began a new and exciting project with 40 babies.

This 3 year project will work with 40 newborn babies and their families. In the first year we want to capture hopes, fears and pearls of wisdom about the imminent arrival with new parents and create a 'living book' of the babies' first year. We hope that the project will provide us with the chance to research the possibilities of creating work with and for this very young audience of 0-3 year olds.

Our first event in February 2010 was a great success and a really inspirational day. We met 40 brilliant parents, parents-to-be and their families. Through some short film interviews we learnt about cravings, nanageddon and happy childhood memories to pass on to the new arrival. It was a fantastic first step and we have some brilliant photographs of the day. In April we met the some more new borns and in July the babies (and their parents) came along to our big 40th Birthday Summer Fete. We rounded off the year with a sneak preview of our under sixes Christmas show, The Little Boy who Lost the Morning.

If you are part of our project look out for the First Steps facebook group and we will hopefully see you all again soon for year 2 of the project!

If you would like any more information about the project, please contact Amy Fawdington at afawdington@northernstage.co.uk or telephone 0191 242 7240.