[for Lewisham Urban Opera MARATHON - see here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/thomasguthrieluo22]

What is Lewisham's Urban Opera?

Building on the Royal Opera Houses iconic Write an Opera programme (1979-2015), participants collaborate in every aspect: composing music and script writing, designing sets, costumes, performing, managing and advertising. This process gives vulnerable groups a voice, builds confidence, strengthens communities, develops transferable skills and reduces isolation needed now more than ever in a big shout of WE ARE HERE!

Since September 2021 charity Music and Theatre for All have been working with 5 schools while growing a Saturday community group from across the borough of Lewisham. The community group, led by MTFA artistic director Thomas Guthrie and dynamic duo Gwyneth Herbert and Susannah Tressilian, are supported by a fantastic team of local multi-disciplinary industry professionals. The Lewisham Urban Opera 2022 project (LUO22) is building a new and unique peoples' Opera from scratch especially for Lewisham Borough of Culture.

Following a successful Arts council award for the first phases of the project we are now fundraising for the performances: first in July - when we will share a preview - then in December, when the opera will be performed in all its glory. Every penny counts to realise the wonderful collaborative work of over 250 participants, professionals and volunteers, and to involve many more Lewisham residents in a show to remember, a legacy of arts skills building, group development and friendship across cultural, age and ability divides.

Together, we are creating a spectacular show to celebrate the hope of a worldwide post-Covid resurgence of art and culture during 2022.

Why Lewisham?

Although MTFA has recently relocated to Dover, the majority of its Urban Opera core team is still based in the borough. When Lewisham's successful bid for London Borough of Culture was announced, MTFA seized the opportunity to present its very first Urban Opera so close to our artists' homes.

MTFA held an online Roundtable in March 2021 to introduce and discuss the Lewisham Urban Opera project. 100% of those in attendance thought that Urban Opera is a good idea for Lewisham 2022 and that the project could have a positive impact on mental and physical wellbeing.

About MTFA

Music and Theatre for All is unlike any other arts charity. We think differently. We ask difficult questions. And we want change.

We believe that storytelling, singing and theatre are essential to community and therefore vital for all of us, now and always

We believe we urgently need to make usable, exciting spaces where storytelling and music-making can happen, pandemic or not, in accessible ways and where anyone can feel comfortable

We believe accessibility is an integral part of what makes things good

We believe in the power of beauty, compassion, empathy and tolerance to change lives

We work with imagination and energy to improve the reach, quality and accessibility of culture for everybody, offering elite cultural experiences without being elitist

MTFA is driven by a simple aim: to reach, move and transform people with the best possible live performing art. Have a look at one of the songs we made with hundreds of friends and neighbours, and one of the first national responses to the Covid crisis back in March 2020, (now archived for the British Film Institute), shown and heard on BBC One and Radio 3, as well as US and Finnish Television, and raising over £10,000 for Help Musicians (and its never too late to give! Thank you!).

MTFA Website