Our age: Our stage

Through archival research and interviews with older people, an innovative project- ‘Ages and Stages’ aimed to explore the role the New Vic Theatre has played in the creative life of the people of Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire, past and present. The project also considered how ageing and old age have been portrayed in the theatre’s famous social documentary productions from the 1960s to the 1990s in ways that shed light on the experiences of those in the local community. Findings from the research were drawn together to create a new social documentary performance, ‘Our Age, Our Stage’ and the associated ‘Ages and Stages Exhibition’. Here, Miriam Bernard the Project Lead and Professor of Social Gerontology at Keele University talks about challenges and benefits of going outside the traditional remit of academic communication and the impacts it has had.