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#81 Marcia Wright Dawn Chorus

Photo of Marcia Wright

Marcia Wright

I woke early again. At 4 a.m. But I took the opportunity to have my own personal celebration of May Day and the Dawn Chorus. I grabbed a cuppa and threw open my bedroom windows. Wrapped in a warm blanket I listened to all the sounds of the birds in full song, as dawn slowly broke. It was fantastic. And I remembered the words of a Padstow song from fifty years ago:

“Unite and unite and let us all unite

For summer is acome unto day

And whither we are going we will all unite,

In the merry, merry morning of May.”

Precis

On 16 March 2020, one week before official government guidance, and just as Covid 19 was turning into a global epidemic, the Performance Ensemble went into lockdown. Our weekly company workshops came to an abrupt halt, and we disappeared behind our individual front doors. The easy ways of communicating, face to face, were no more. But we still needed to connect. Nine of the company started to keep diaries of their experiences, as a way of overcoming the isolation. Here they are: 31 days of lockdown, recorded during the months of March and April, beginning on 16 March and ending on 1 May, just as restrictions started to be eased. Edited by Barney Bardsley