Stourbridge theatre group overcome roof collapse with unique way of putting on Christmas show

Express & Star

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00:00Expressionstar.com at St. John's with Susan Wallin MBE, the founder of the

00:07Side-by-Side Theatre Company and Derek Lidington the project manager for the

00:13Side-by-Side Theatre Company which works with learning disabled youngsters and

00:18adults to give them opportunities in the performing arts but recently you've had a

00:25bit of a problem Derek if you can just say with the part of the roof

00:30collapsing and putting the Christmas concert in jeopardy.

00:34Yes, I said it was out of the blue. We weren't expecting any issues with the roof.

00:42There were no cracks, no signs that anything would happen and then at the end of September Sue,

00:50myself and our secretary were in the office when we heard a tremendously loud noise

00:57and our first thought was that it was a car accident on the ring road.

01:03I rushed out to look to see if it was.

01:06Yeah and we obviously found out that a large piece of plaster had fallen from about 15

01:14meters high onto the floor below and just smashed to smithereens sending the

01:19plaster all over the full extent of the floor.

01:25It means now you immediately put all that red and white tape around it didn't you?

01:30To cordon it off so that nobody went in there because we didn't know how safe or

01:35dangerous it was after that and from then on we were trying to get hold of people that might

01:40come have a look at it and assess it because that's the first thing that's got to be done.

01:45Is it safe? Are there other places where it might come down?

01:49Yeah, so that's where we started and it's taken till now to actually get a contractor to carry out

01:59not only the repair but the testing as well of the remaining plaster sealing and then we decided

02:07that we had no choice but to also consider installing safety nettings just under the plaster work

02:17so that as a precaution should anything happen again in the future.

02:25Of course we've had to cancel the Christmas concert.

02:28Well I was going to say it's put the Christmas concert in jeopardy in fact cancelled because

02:34I believe the work starts on Monday with the contractors but that's going to be quite a long job isn't it?

02:39It's yes it'll take at least three weeks so that depends on what they find.

02:45Already knew we'd have to cancel it didn't we because you can't get the public in when it's dangerous and yeah.

02:52So the students are very disappointed but the consolation is our digital media class

02:59are going to film bits of the concert.

03:02That's what I was going to say the they've come up with a great idea

03:07the digital media class that meets here on a Friday morning are going to film the concert

03:12make it available maybe to parents family I'm not sure on that

03:16if you could just tell us a little bit about that filming a concert because if they'd have done the

03:20concert we'd have used the chancel and the floor yeah and then you'd have had all the audience here

03:25so it's it's a concert on some stage now we get they've had to learn a new technique which is

03:31totally different from being on the stage and with the digital media going to film certain pieces of it

03:39so they don't they're not just standing in front of an audience they'll be in the aisle in the

03:45latex and different places like that that's where we put up our Christmas decorations early

03:50yeah so that we could do the filming and it's going to be Christmas and you know they're quite

03:56happy about that they're very good but they had to change the technique of performance for it so

04:01we've had to give a few weeks of time for that but that's partly what the group's all about isn't it

04:07giving them the skills the techniques in the modern yes performing arts so I guess they're

04:13so in a way it's had it's had you know a positive effect in that way yeah even though it's negative

04:20that they can't get the family to come and see and Susan you started the side-by-side theatre

04:26company 27 years ago now yes you've performed in a lot of venues nationwide and in Europe yes Sweden

04:34Prague 8 times Brighton yeah and it's and for the Royal Shakespeare Company we've performed with

04:45their two theatres there for their open stages project wasn't it it's been a bit of a labour

04:52of love for the two of you haven't you not least the renovation of this former St John's Church or

04:57still St John's Church but what a beautiful venue for them to perform and learn

05:04the arts in but there's been a lot of work gone into it since you took the building over in 2018

05:082019 and Derek's behind all that he's brought it all together and made it work yeah I mean there's

05:16probably no areas that you haven't uncovered in terms of renovating and bringing it up to a

05:24uh no I think that's true um it it was completely rewired from the you know when we bought it

05:33the electrics were condemned so everything you see all the lighting all the sockets the electrical

05:39work is new uh we had to upgrade the heating the main heating as well so we put in these

05:47fan convectors the um the main area where you could take rests and breaks and the toilet areas

05:58have also been completely uh ripped out and new systems put in we've got an office a reception

06:07area and we've still got a kitchen to reinforce this didn't we yes the uh we had to reinforce

06:14the floor by putting steel girders in to support the mezzanine and um yeah and all this obviously

06:23was done under the watchful eye of the local authority and um also the uh we're a grade two

06:31listed building here so uh the lady involved in the preservation department had to come and also

06:38approve what we were doing yeah and Susan how many um students are you uh teaching in a week

06:45because you're open most days aren't you in weekdays monday to friday yes I only teach on a

06:50monday tuesday and thursday night and then we've got other teachers teaching wednesday thursday

06:56and friday and what sort of skills do they learn obviously performing arts drama yes it's

07:02performing arts which covers a lot of dance drama mime physical theater and we've got music on

07:09thursdays and so it covers the whole area and what do the students get out of it and their families

07:18well if you interviewed some of them it's their whole life that you know they couldn't do without

07:22you know when we had to have that break for covid i know Paul got upset all the time didn't he it

07:29really does matter to them that much and we've got people who come along who're terrified of saying

07:34anything and stepping out in front of others who now give me some more lines they you know they

07:39haven't got enough to do they just shine yeah yeah and i think the important thing is we are

07:46doing something that is worthwhile and that means a lot to the members they feel worthy and they

07:56they then thoroughly enjoy performing for their family friends and the general public at large

08:03that means a lot to them i mean the fact that we're working towards something you know we're

08:08not just a social club it is about learning the skills and then performing those to as a

08:14higher standard as possible as professional standards also and we do festivals as well

08:20yeah so they you know they get adjudicated by professionals so it's all working towards you

08:26know doing something that's very important to them and of course achieving it yeah christmas

08:32is a big thing so it's great that you manage to save the production as it were yes um you know

08:40in a different form but in the modern what they've been learning yeah the modern age the digital age

08:46it could be just just as good yeah thank you for talking to us this morning we're here at

08:52st john's with judy alcock who's been with side by side for nearly 25 years you're almost going

08:59to get your uh watch aren't you badge your badge yeah after 25 years you've got one for 10 15 and

09:0820 years and you are involved heavily as you say you you almost live here you come here most days

09:15or every day and you're involved in the christmas production already looking very festive it's

09:20looking great thank you at the moment just tell us a little bit about what the christmas production

09:26entails i know there's bell ringing the singing and poetry poems

09:37all sorts bells it's all mixed up and you're a bit of a mentor aren't you to the students because

09:44you've you've obviously got a lot of experience in the performing arts tell us a little bit about

09:49what you've done in the past with side by side i started off as a student and then few years later

09:59came in to help out so i've had my um thing called mark slater award yeah last year for what i'm

10:11doing running around all over the jobs getting stuff from the most busy getting all the props

10:20down bringing them down sorting them out get them all set up a jack-of-all-trades then

10:28what did you think when the part of the roof came down and it was putting the christmas

10:33production in jeopardy or we just adapt to anything i just adapt

10:42to where we go or end up or so yeah i'm just adaptable well yeah because you've learned

10:51the digital skills along with the other students on a friday morning yeah so you've been able to

10:58um save the christmas production if you like and do it in a digital way yeah how's that how's that

11:06been good good we learn new stuff as we come in learning how to do um animation lights

11:20skills for the um lights how to do audacity how to do

11:32sound effects how to do all sorts of things to do with this podcast we do pictures digital

11:42photo booth changing the all the way it is like we can twist pictures stretch

11:53here with mark williams at st john's church side space he runs the digital class on a friday

12:02morning and uh you were telling me how uh in adversity has come out uh positivity absolutely

12:10it's it's it's always difficult when when you have a situation like this we've got this lovely

12:17building we just got it to the point where we think great we start to really utilize it and

12:23make it as good as we possibly can and all of a sudden you have a sort of semi-disaster

12:30and uh but it's out of that has come the fact that the digital media class

12:36through our use of film and because that's something that we are developing and we've been

12:42developing over the last few years that's enabled us to say to the groups that have been working so

12:49hard to put on a christmas show they we do this every year and it's something that they aim for

12:55they work really hard for put a lot of hard work and effort into um to have that snatched away

13:02is you know that's such a shame for everybody involved however what we have been able to do

13:09is say right let's go for it let's make a film and we that has enabled our group

13:17to sort of start looking at things like um working and graham we're looking at a piece

13:23of work that the students have done animation yes a little bit about what you do here too

13:29well we like to experiment around with different kinds of sort of digital media one of which is

13:36stop motion photography making little films and we look at different ways of doing it we have in

13:42the past used like toys and things to make the film and moving them around but this time we

13:48decided to experiment with drawings so the students have been making the drawings and then

13:55tom and luke beardsmore decided that they wanted to do a film about making a biscuit

14:02how we started so we started off by doing a bit of milling and

14:12we've planted the seeds and all sorts of things and then the poor old miller gets caught on the

14:17middle and then we have the cooking scene and we've got the butter and the sugar and the flour

14:23and here comes the cook and you can you can see the cook getting the rolling pin and flatten it

14:32and then it goes and he starts to cook the biscuits and the cook fetches them out the

14:37cooker you could say it takes the biscuit it takes the biscuit and then of course the final

14:42touch is eat it and uh up comes a big hand and uh they quickly disappear that's the bit i like

14:48that's the bit i like yeah yeah so he eats two biscuits and uh and chucks half of one

14:56backwards is that too much and how long has it taken to make this um film well probably about

15:02three weeks but we what we do we spend two weeks doing the drawings and then we spent uh about

15:09half half of our lesson about an hour or so last week and then we'll have a couple of hours to

15:15shoot it but the hard bit is doing all the drawings rather than the animation is relatively

15:21straightforward once you've created all the drawings but the idea was to involve all the students

15:27in making and doing the drawings so

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