There’s that famous saying; “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” coined by Elbert Hubbard in the original phrasing of “He picked up the lemons that Fate had sent him and started a lemonade-stand” (1915). The phrase is used to describe a situation where something seemingly goes wrong, but you make the best of what you have been given.

We were told that our original site area, Grantham, was no longer available for us to perform in on the 10th of May and we were to make use of the LPAC to perform our performances. Determined not to loose all meaning of this project, our group wanted to gain a space that was more than just an empty studio with 4 black walls. We started looking into emailing the local council in the hope we’d be able to use one of the empty shops on lincoln high street, but it was soon suggested we attempt to gain the Zing cafe in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

After a short exchange of emails we were granted access to the space at the end of the room. The space comes ready set with varying things we feel will actually make our performance more interesting than if we used the space in Grantham.

The Zing cafe area has;
– A TV we can play some form of information or promotional video on
– Sofas and other furniture we can make use of if we see fit.
– A notice board we can put posters on
– A Book shelf
– Leaflet rack we can put information booklets in.

After spending time in this space, getting used to this area, we have come to the decision that this area to perform in will possibly be more beneficial to us than the empty shop in Grantham, as we are using a ‘non-theatre location’ (Wilkie, 2002) which just so happens to still be in use as a space that works in the retail industry on a daily basis.

Hubbard, Elbert (February 1915), “The Fra: A Journal of Affirmation”, The Fra (Elbert Hubbard) 14 (5): xxiv–d, archived from the original on September 13, 2012

Wilkie, F. (2002) Mapping the Terrain: a Survey of Site-specific Performance in Britain’, New Theatre Quarterly, 18, 2, 140-60.