Musical about links between Birkenhead Park and New York

Apr 15 2009 Birkenhead News

Debut performance for musical about links between Birkenhead Park and Central Park, New York

A MUSICAL looking at the links between Birkenhead Park and Central Park in New York will be performed for the first time on Sunday.

Footpaths in the Grass has been written by a group of young people working with Brian McCann from Active Drama.

The play is self-contained but has been designed in the hope that a second act will be written with youngsters working on a similar project in New York.

The production is part of Parks for People, a programme of activities to link the two parks which has so far included workshops in drama, art, design, history, research and scriptwriting.

Cathy Warren of Parks for People said: “It celebrates the life of Birkenhead as a people’s park and the audience and actors will move around the park during the performance.

“This is just part one.

“The idea is that at some point we will be able to work with young people in New York to create their half of the play.”

Eighteen young people have helped script the play, with some working just on the music.

The score will be performed on Sunday by musicians from Totally Talented.

The connection between Wirral and the famous USA green space dates back to 1850 when F L Olmstead visited Birkenhead Park as part of a tour of Europe.

Olmstead later became famous as the designer of Central Park, into which were incorporated many of the features he first observed in Birkenhead.

Brian McCann from Active Drama told Liveguide: “It’s very fast-moving and it goes from action to song to poetry to personal reflections.

“There are also scenes looking at important figures from Birkenhead’s past, like Edward Kemp and Joseph Paxton.

“The idea was to create a standalone piece that can be adapted and added to another piece with the same sort of style.”

Performances – which are free thanks to funding from CABE and the Heritage Lottery Fund – are on Sunday (April 19) at 11am, 1pm and 2pm.

Meet at Birkenhead Park Pavilion.