‘ATCHING TAN: A Gypsy Wife, is one of the picks of the week in both the Observer On Sunday and The Sunday Telegraph’

ATCHING TAN: A Gypsy Wife is on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 26th July at 2.15pm. The play will also be the BBC download of the week. Colorful and authentic drama set around the goings-on of Long Summer Traveller Site. When young couple Charity and Sol arrive on the site, their new neighbours Lovvie and Nelius are forced to make some difficult decisions when they discover Sol’s dark secret. Starring Candis Nergarrd and written by Traveller Dan Allum. In 2011, Dan Allum’s first Radio 4 play Atching Tan was shortlisted for the BBC Imison Award for Best Play by a New Writer and Candis Nergaard was shortlisted for Best Actress for the BBC Audio Drama Award.

A Gypsy Wife features 3 regular Romany Theatre Company performers – Candis Nergaard, Damian Le Bas and Patricia Keegan alongside new Traveller actress, Sian Willett. The 5th member of the cast is Danny Dalton currently appearing in the National Theatre’s production of War Horse.

A Gypsy Wife BBC link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01l1dkp

Romany Theatre Company’s Atching Tan Radio Drama was recognised at the first ever BBC Audio Drama Awards held on 29th January 2012. The BBC’s first ever Audio Drama Awards were held at a special ceremony hosted by actor David Tennant in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House, London. Dan Allum, writer of Atching Tan was nominated for the Imison Award for Best Radio Drama Script and Candice Nergaard who played Luvvie in the play was nominated for Best Actess in an Audio Drama.
The winners of the awards for Best Acress award and Imison award for Best Radio Drama Script are as follows:-
• Best Actress in an Audio Drama: Rosie Cavaliero, Lost Property: A Telegram From The Queen by Katie Hims
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4
• Best Actress in an Audio Drama – RUNNERS UP:
– June Whitfield, A Monstrous Vitality by Andy Merriman
Producer: David Hunter, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4
– Candis Nergaard, Atching Tan by Dan Allum
Producer: Charlotte Riches, BBC Audio Drama North for Radio 4
The winner of the Imison Award for Best Radio Drama Script broadcast in 2010 by a new writer is: Amazing Grace by Michelle Lipton
Award presented by: David Edgar
Judges: Society of Author’s Broadcasting Committee: Alison Joseph, Mike Bartlett, Lucy Caldwell, Nazrin Choudhury, Christopher William Hill, Karen Liebreich, Sue Limb, Karl Sabbagh, Colin Teevan and John Taylor)
Imison Award for Best Radio Drama Script – RUNNERS UP:
– Atching Tan by Dan Allum
– The Pursuit by Matt Hartley
– The Barber and the Ark by Marcia Layne
To see the full list of awards, winners and runners up go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/290112-bbc-audio-drama-awards.html
Congratulations to both Dan and Candice for their nomination.

Recently, I was reminded about the need for ‘breaking down the barriers of ignorance’.  Following the shocking news of 24 men in Bedfordshire being kept as slaves on a traveller site, I overheard a couple of people I consider as friends only 4 feet from me talking about the arrest of 4 Traveller men for being gang masters.  They looked at me and dropped their voices so I could not hear the rest of what they said.  What I did hear said was ‘A lot of this goes on with them; more than we know!’ and about Dale Farm I keep hearing people say ‘If they are Travellers why don’t they travel?’

The first  incident shocked and saddened  me because these were people who consider themselves to be open minded and not racist and yet they can come out with comments and generalisations for a whole race of people like this. However, these two incidents have made me realise how important Romany Theatre Company’s work “improving the wider community’s understanding of what it means to be Gypsy, Romany, or Traveller” is.  Our Atching Tan Project has made several contributions towards this work including the Atching Tan Radio Drama series and our Atching Tan Education Pack both of which are available on our web-site

The next step of the Atching Tan Project is research. We want to carry out research on Gypsy, Romany, Traveller Women and the 2 World Wars.  To undertake the research we are looking for volunteers who are able to work on their own to look at one of two different topics:-

• The role of Gypsy, Romany, Traveller women in the community over the last 50 years.
• The role of the Gypsy, Romany, Travellers in the first and second world wars

We will be asking volunteers to decide which topic they would like to research and to carry out that research.  Carry out the research using the Internet, books, libraries any sources that they have access to.  The volunteers will need to give at least 20 hours to their research and writing a report of what they find.  As part of their volunteering there is an opportunity to gain the OCN Developing and Using Research Skills accreditation as part of their research.

We still need a few more volunteers and for those interested we are holding a volunteer meeting at our office in Cambridge on Wednesday 5^th October 2011 at 3pm.  If you are interested, please contact us and we will give you further information of what you will need to do and can give you directions to Llandaff Chambers.

Today is Daniela’s last day with Romany Theatre Company including her holiday.  We wish her well with her new project and hope that she will stay in touch. It has been great to work with you Daniela, you are always so professional in you attitude to work.  Like you we have learned a lot from the Atching Tan Project, the people we have met through the project and each other.  Thank you Daniela for the fantastic work that you have done, the education pack would not have been half what it is without you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello. Sorry it’s been so long. I’ve been incredibly busy for RTC since the launch of the education pack, but there hasn’t really been very much to tell you all. Now, on my last day working on the Atching Tan project, there’s some news to report and some goodbyes to say.

Since the education pack launched, I’ve been working on preparing everything that the Atching Tan project has produced over the past two years – from the education pack through to press releases – for archiving with Cambridge Records Office. My office has been swamped with pieces of paper, CDs, and cables. It’s been a feat of organisation, but it’s just about done.

After two years, weeks spent writing, days spent listening to audio material, hours spent in meetings, and nights spent worrying, Atching Tan: an educational journey into the world of Gypsies, Romanies, and Travellers, our education pack for use at Key Stages 2 and 3, has seen the light of day.

We hope that you didn’t miss Atching Tan, which was BBC Radio 4’s afternoon play on Tuesday. We’re utterly delighted by the positive feedback that it has received so far, but please do tell us what you think here, too.

If you’d like to take a peek at the script, BBC Writersroom have thrown it up on their site for general perusal, and you can read a blog post by Dan, our director and Atching Tan’s writer, there as well.

I’ve just noticed that four of my most recent posts have had titles punctuated by an exclamation mark. Obviously there is too much excitement and drama going on at RTC. I have attempted to restrain myself for this entry and maintain a modicum of decorum. Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday 23 November, BBC Radio 4’s afternoon play will be RTC’s Atching Tan. This isn’t quite the Atching Tan that you’re used to, though. This is the back story to Neilus and Lovvie’s marriage. This is how they met, and how Lovvie had to decide whether or not a traditional Traveller marriage and life was for her. Read the rest of this entry »