Flying Workshop

With Nath­an Peter Wong, we devel­op tv drama and anim­a­tion for young people and fam­il­ies. Every show—quirky or profound—features diverse and relat­able char­ac­ters. Industry lead­ers have ment­ored us and com­mis­sioned our work.

Best Bugs Forever

Our first anim­a­tion fol­lows the escapades of a com­munity (or infest­a­tion) of friendly ver­min. The show was com­mis­sioned by The Walt Dis­ney Com­pany, which added its char­ac­ter­ist­ic vibrancy and pol­ish. Fifty-two epis­odes (in six lan­guages) have been pro­duced by the Academy-Award®-nominated stu­dio, Je Suis Bien Con­tent. Fam­il­ies across the world have enjoyed the show on Dis­ney Chan­nel, ABC Aus­tralia and oth­er networks.

Character Parts

Fly­ing Work­shop has a fam­ily focus. In parallel—and in contrast—we’re explor­ing arrest­ing adult drama and fac­tu­al pro­gram­ming. Char­ac­ter Parts com­ple­ments Fly­ing Workshop’s recog­nised name while estab­lish­ing our pres­ence as ‘grown-up’ inde­pend­ent screenwriters.

Petergate Publishing

Our books will move young read­ers to grow in under­stand­ing, cour­age and resi­li­ence, to explore and improve their world, and to express their ima­gin­a­tions through the arts.

Real Experiences

We work on paper, on screen and in the ima­gin­a­tion. But we long for the tact­ile, ana­logue, bare­foot, hands-on world too: authen­t­ic lived experiences.

Real Creativity

Gen­er­ous ment­ors helped make our early dreams real­ist­ic. We aim to share that good for­tune through pub­lic­a­tions, edu­ca­tion and group events for people pur­su­ing a cre­at­ive liv­ing and life.

Real Childhood

Once, our plan for a low-key, irreg­u­lar par­ent-and-child magazine seemed suf­fi­cient. But now, a pos­it­ive, anti-pink, out­spoken, inclus­ive, un-plastic move­ment for fam­il­ies is imper­at­ive. Now we must build broad­er media and exper­i­ences under­pinned by hope, resi­li­ence and respect.

Hearts and Culture

Our fledgling char­ity cam­paigns for cre­at­ive and per­form­ing arts spaces, resources and edu­ca­tion in region­al communities.

The Harris Institute, Preston

Start­ing in 2015, we instig­ated a £5 mil­lion bid to restore a Grade-II*-listed Vic­tori­an-era land­mark for the com­munity. We envis­aged its quarter-acre of floor space buzz­ing with edu­ca­tion in cre­at­ive and tech­nic­al crafts, exhib­i­tions, music, film and per­form­ance. Sadly, the building’s poor con­di­tion hal­ted our work. Now, a broad­er coali­tion is driv­ing the pro­ject ahead, and we look for­ward to con­trib­ut­ing our expertise.

Stuart Gibson

director, publishing consultant, project developer

stuart@theopengroup.com

A var­ied edu­ca­tion means Stu­art knows a little about journ­al­ism and theatre, and rather more about education.

At theatres in Sydney and Lon­don, Stu­art found an affin­ity for arts mar­ket­ing. His knack for vibrant writ­ing and design was wel­comed at Schol­ast­ic Aus­tralia, where he pro­moted edu­ca­tion­al and children’s books. In 2002 Stu­art foun­ded a pub­lish­ing con­sultancy, which has provided edit­or­i­al and design for 160 books with some 500,000 cop­ies in print.

His work at The Open People centres on themes of storytelling, child­hood, edu­ca­tion, cre­ativ­ity, design and innovation.

Please be reas­sured that Stuart’s com­puter is not cur­rently on fire: that’s his smoky Lapsang Souchong.

Peter Hilton

arts and experience consultant, project developer

peter@theopengroup.com

When young, Peter quickly recog­nised the power of storytelling.

After join­ing a pro­gress­ive youth theatre, Peter honed his quick wit, impro­visa­tion and writ­ing skills. His ear for dia­logue and accents coun­ted, but an empathy for oth­ers did most to ground his por­tray­als. Later train­ing in Com­munity and Edu­ca­tion­al Theatre saw Peter encour­age the trust and esteem of dis­en­fran­chised young people as they told their own stories.

Peter’s know­ledge of theatre and tele­vi­sion extends across the uk, us and Aus­tralia. He’s drawn to mus­cu­lar, char­ac­ter-driv­en drama.

Along­side his own work, Peter’s career in the arts, her­it­age and tour­ism sec­tors has included roles at The Sydney Opera House, Lon­don’s Bar­bican Centre, York Museums Trust and Madame Tussauds.

Peter is known for his humour, humane insight and good judgement.

The Open Group Pty Limited

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aus­tralia

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The names and logos for Petergate®, Book Design Aus­tralia®, Hearts and Cul­ture™, Mod­est Store™, The Open Group™, The Open People™, The Open Store™, ‘Open’ logo™, Real Child­hood™, Real Cre­ativ­ity™, Words with Ways™, Print is Read™, A Book Inside™, Char­ac­ter Parts™ and Spice and Friends™ are trade­marks of The Open Group Pty Limited.

The name and logo for Fly­ing Work­shop™ are trade­marks of The Open Group Pty Lim­ited and Nath­an Peter Wong as joint-ven­ture partners.

The name Best Bugs Forever™ is a trade­mark of The Walt Dis­ney Com­pany Lim­ited in asso­ci­ation with Je Suis Bien Content.

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