News and Events

 

Keep Taking The Tablets

Brilliant and moving new play from Duncan Sibbald and Will from Sunny Arts

I have been working with Duncan on this over about four months, getting the script absolutely right. And it's a great play that is going to do some good about raising awareness about Mental Health. We're currently casting and rehearsing and looking for bookings to get this play seen. If you've any ideas of places we could perform it do get in touch. 

 

 

Premiere of 'Someone To Watch Over Me' Duke of York's Cinema, Brighton 

Well this has come and gone now but I can't take if off here as it was a lovely and special event. You see the Duke of York Cinema is my favourite Cinema in the world and almost my favourite place in the world so it was so great to have our film shown there. And it went down very well with an enthusistic audience and most of the actors in the film managed to get there, some even wore swanky clothes. There was an after film talk and managers from Brighton Council talked about their work on elder abuse and then we couldn't stop the Mayor of Brighton from giving an impassioned speach about how important the fim and the issue was, which made us all feel how useful the film was. Thanks to Poppy for helping to organise such a great event and to Alex for working with The Duke Of York's to get the film on the screen so beautifully. Some feedback from the audience:

"a brave and moving film that ought to do some good"

STOP IT! in Wales

On the 27th of Ocotber we performed Stop It! in Wales for the People First organisation's conference about hate crime. It was a great day with loads of energy from the audience who joined in everything. There was great turn out of Police officers who were'nt shy about getting on the stage. We did the show for the whole morning and then finished of the conference at the end of the day with a Happy ending scene set in a Disco. Of course audience memebrs joined in this! (We stayed in  a posh hotel which June loved of courseas she was in her true element).

 Play in a Day

Justin Coe and I (Will) did a play in a day in Yeovil for a conference on the 19th of October. We met the group at about 10.30am for the first time and then performed the play to the conference at 3pm the very same day. It was no small piece either, almost a complete version of Joseph and his technicolour Dreamcoat re-set into a modern day version about people with disabilites fulfilling their dreams. We hadlghts, music, costume and singing and dancing too- and all in 4 hours. The audience said it was better than the versions they'd seen in the West End of London!

 'Someone To Watch Over Me' plays Brixton Town Hall

On the 26th November we performed 'Someone To Watch Over Me' for Lambeth Council at Brixton Town Hall. It was a good show and interaction with some excellent work from the participants, getting to the reality of abuse. The performers did well in such a big old venue so well done Justin, Andrea, June and Will. The event was really well recieved by the organisers and delegates and we can all now say we've 'played Brixton Old Town Hall', I mean, the Rolling Stones probably can't say that can they! 

'Someone To Watch Over Me' Training pack now available

The training pack which incorporates the film is now being distributed by Lincolnshire County Council. They created the training pack around the drama. Apparently over a hundred copies of the pack have now been sent out so it will be being used across the country which is great. We hope it will help to raise awareness of the issues and help to make a difference.

We played Bradford City Football Club

Earlier this year We did some performances in Bradford. The first show was for the Council's Safeguarding Conference and it was an excellent event. We ended up facilitating most of the day with more than the usual amount of interactive techniques and we introduced the lovely 'happy ever after' scene where people come up on the stage and give Phyllis a happy ending to the 'Someone To watch Over Me' presentation. It works really well as we don't like leaving people upset. We will make this excercise an integral part of this particular presentation. The event was held in Bradford City Football Ground. It's always fun playing footbal stadiums (the conference rooms not the the pitch). We have played the Chelsea football ground in London too. When we were touring with 'Jake's Justice' we used to keep count of the number of football grounds we passed on our travels. I think we passed about 20 different grounds. This was particularly interesting to Justin and Nick but to me and June who dont know anything about football, let alone what the off-side rule is, it didn't mean a lot, (phlistines).

Playing 'Someone To Watch Over Me to older members of the public

We were back in Bradford the following week to play a number of shows of 'Someone To watch Over Me' for the Accent Organisation. Michelle Bradley did a brilliant job organising this and raised a grant specifically for us to come and perform to older members of the public. We really enjoyed performing to these audiences and found them very different than performing to professionals. The interaction was very heartfelt. 

STOP IT! A 'Real' Trainings -  Recognising and Responding to Abuse

This is a seriously funny interactive drama presentation for people about abuse. It comprises of seven scenes describing the different types of abuse. With lots of audience participation this presentation is great to perform. We did it for Richmond Council's Keeping Well. Keeping Safe conference in September and it was really well recieved by over two hundred people with learning difficuties. And they said it was "brilliant!"

Bestest wishes,

Will