A SHOEBOX OF SNOW INTERACTIVE
A Shoebox of Snow Interactive is an online extension of the BBC Radio 4 drama about the intimate stories of our most treasured possessions.
"So what about you? What weird and wonderful stories and experiences are prompting you to hang onto and hoard objects in your home, car or workplace? How much more valuable are the objects you love because of the stories they tell?”
What’s the weight of your memories?
Story Juice project managed and co-produced this interactive extension of BBC Radio 4 play, A Shoebox of Snow by Julie Mayhew.The play, which was nominated for Best Audio Drama at the BBC Audio Awards, is about an elderly couple who hoard trinkets, knick-knacks, doodads, thingamajigs and whatnots in shoeboxes in their home. When they’re threatened with eviction by the council they can only take a shoebox with them, and a touching story unfolds about the meanings we attach to objects and why we save them.A Shoebox of Snow Interactive takes that premise and invites listeners to share their own stories of the objects they treasure.How much more value does a story give to a pen, theatre ticket, or shell? What if you had to let go of your past and sell the object? How easy or hard is that and what price can you put on a memory?Using social sound platform Audioboom, the Shoebox Of Snow website enables people to record and upload their stories with one click. It launched prior to the first broadcast of the play to generate conversation and participation and extend its life online.
Think of all those trinkets, knick-knacks, doodads, thingamajigs and whatnots you’ve hoarded over the years – the dictionary your Dad gave you with a picture on the inside cover he’d drawn when he was five, the gawdy and thoroughly unfashionable handbag you used on your wedding day, the scrap of paper your favourite film director signed, the slightly questionable painting your friend did of you when you were 16, your first ever comic book… All these objects tell fascinating tales about who we are and what we care about… That’s what this project is about.
A Shoebox of Snow is produced by Justine Potter for Red Productions / Savvy Productions and starred Richard Briers. The interactive extension of the radio play was covered in The Stage, The Independent on Sunday and Broadcast. Mini-plays inspired by the theme were also produced and published on the website as a further extension of the storyworld. The Story Juice one by Hannah Wood is called The Anniversary Card and you can listen here.
