Present Projects We have had to amend slightly this page due to some progress. Rather than mentioning the various projects individuals have offered the partnership and the numerous ideas we have, it was considered better to concentrate our creative energies on just this one. Although referred to informally as the Arkwright Project, very early on a working title was given to it, Tryals and Tribulations. The title was chosen because the story evolves around many tribulations and at least one important trial that was to revolutionise, in its industrial sense, first England and many parts of Britain, then the world. The cause of all this mayhem? It was called the spinning jenny. To many people the name Richard Arkwright is synonymous with its invention but is this true? When we began to research the story of Arkwright and the establishment of Cromford Mill, it seemed a straightforward tale of history. However, the deeper we looked into the history of our 'jenny', the more muddied the waters became. Throw into this bubbling cauldron of invention the names Thomas Highs, John Kay, James Hargreaves and season it with a touch of Jedediah Strutt and Samuel Need. Add some financial bargaining based on 18th century 'futures' dealing then garnish with not a little political manoeuvring and that makes for the rich stew that becomes our story! Who said what to who; who stole this or that, who was a thief and who a liar, all of this adds to the wonderful colour of all the characters that populate this story, even though some of them by this show only now begin to see the light of their worth. Now obscure men who struggled in Lancashire to one who went from a barber in Preston to become High Sheriff of Derbyshire. More remarkably, this is a true story. HOW WE WILL TELL IT Tryals and Tribulations will not be any ordinary theatrical project. A brief glance at the skills and experience of the partnership's present membership already hint at an ambitious take on history. Songs and music to us are at least as powerful story-telling tools as is the spoken word and drama. So we seek to combine the two as catalysts to each other rather than merely to complement each other. From that approach has come a method for doing the show which to our knowledge has never quite been done this way before. It will be a band and an acting company coming together, that is true; but a musical it certainly is not. Our way of doing this and why, is borne out by our constitutional aims as a Society. This project is shortly going forward to funding and when it does, those people and organisations assisting us will be credited on this site.

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