Tom Beardshaw

Sadlers Wells played host on Thurs to the launch of The Future Playground: an online community of artists creating theatre, dance, visual art, music and other art forms for children. Started by Fevered Sleep and built on the Ning platform, The Future Playground is a place for sharing, discussing and collaborating on issues, projects and events.

The project was insprired in part by the National Theatre Wales community site, also using Ning. In it's first year, the NTW community has become a place where the Welsh theatre community meet and share their work and collaborate on the first year of productions of their new National Theatre.

The project was commissioned by David Harradine, who's the Artistic Director of Fevered Sleep. We've worked together with Sarah DeFriend on the design of the site, using minimal distractions from the conversations members are having.  Fevered Sleep and Fuel staff have had basic training in Ning administration and online community building, and I'll be supporting them over the first few months of the project.