Annual Report 2019 – 2020
Registered Charity Number
1165997
| Contents | |
|---|---|
| Chairperson’s Report | Pg. 3 - 4 |
| Co-ordinator’s Report | Pg. 5 - 7 |
| Double R Arts Pre-Pandemic | Pg. 8 - 11 |
| Double R Arts response to the Covid Pandemic | Pg. 12 - 15 |
| Double R Arts Workers | Pg. 16 |
| Our Partners | Pg. 17 |
| List of Alumni Members | Pg. 17 |
| List of Trustees | Pg. 17 |
| List of Funders | Pg. 17 |
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Chairperson’s Report
I was appointed Chairperson of Double R Arts in October 2019, having been involved with the Youth Theatre Group since 2015 and a Trustee of the group for 18 months prior to the appointment.
This report covers the period September 2019 – August 2020 during which time, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were considerable changes for Double R Arts. At this point I should like to express the thanks and gratitude of the Trustees for how Beth, Rachel and their fellow workers adapted to the challenges brought about by the pandemic and of course to the young people who, in such difficult times, continued to embrace the work and ethos of Double R Arts.
Prior to the pandemic, Double R Arts fulfilled one of its greatest achievements – to put on a huge Christmas spectacular, the Christmas Express, at a local high school, All Hallows Catholic High School, in conjunction with Penwortham based dance school, PM Dance Club. The show was hugely successful with sell out performances and achieved what it set out to do – raise invaluable funds for a local
hospice, St Catherine’s’ Hospice Lostock Hall, in memory of the late father of three young members of the dance school and Double R Arts. The tribute paid to this gentleman by this show was truly outstanding.
Our last senior show, Never Said Goodbye, equally played out to full audiences and was the final opportunity for a number of our seniors to perform together. It was also our last show before Double R Arts was forced to close down its face-to-face sessions due to the pandemic in March 2020. But never one to be defeated by challenges, Double R Arts took up the mantle of continuing to inspire its young people via holding virtual sessions on a weekly basis and, through this, produced various concerts online, including an end of year performance and a virtual PAWW event in August 2020.
During the course of the difficult times created by the pandemic, all at Double R Arts have continued to operate with the professional, caring, passionate, creative and dedicated manner that they are renowned for. The team has not allowed any of the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic to affect the young people’s enjoyment whilst attending virtual sessions and the attitude has continued to be “the show will go on”. Evidence of the positive attitude and dedication to hard work is illustrated by the incredible work that has been achieved in the last 12 months,
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producing a wide range of shows and events throughout what has been a very challenging year. The standard of work from both the workers, volunteers and the young people involved continues to be
exceptionally high and a great deal has been achieved and celebrated. The young people continue to challenge themselves and have enjoyed participating in every activity, which has shone through greatly at
every performance, be it in person or virtually. Their commitment and dedication is commendable and the underlying ethos of the group to support each other within the “Double R Arts Family” flourishes as always.
We continue in our efforts to increase our funds in order to re-invest in the charity and to enhance our services and delivery. We welcome all fundraising ideas and we are exceptionally grateful for all support.
As the Chairperson, I am filled with confidence and assurance that, over the next twelve months and beyond, Double R Arts will continue to flourish and serve to be a welcoming, inspirational and motivating place for young people in the South Ribble area.
I would like to pay thanks to the Trustees, Coordinator, Workers, Volunteers and young people for making Double R Arts such a wonderfully imaginative and enriching haven, which enables young people to shine, build their confidence and feel part of something truly special.
Tracey Newsham
Double R Arts Chairperson
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Co-ordinators Report
Welcome to our fifth annual report that celebrates the fantastic work achieved throughout 2019 – 2020. However, like everyone across the world Double R Arts was hugely affected by the Covid – 19 pandemic that first started in March 2020 and even as I write this, we still are dealing with the effects as we move into our 10[th] year. Despite the challenges that 2020 brought, we were still able to create some fantastic work, discovering that virtual technology allowed us to run sessions and create ‘live’ performances
through computer and phone screens. ‘Learning as you go’ was definitely the theme for the first part of 2020. Before the pandemic started, we were incredibly lucky that our Seniors got to perform their annual production in February 2020, ‘Never Said Goodbye’ and in December 2019 we did the ‘Christmas Express’ – two Christmas concerts, performed at All Hallows Catholic High School in aid of St Catherine’s Hospice. We also managed two concerts at Penwortham Town Council’s latest building ‘The Venue’, one of these concerts were performed by our Senior members and the other with a small group of our alumni.
Despite the many challenges and differing ways of working that this last year has brought us, children and young people continue to be at the heart of our work and their development, engagement and enjoyment is vital to everything we do. This has never been more important this year as everything for children and young people went ‘online’. With home schooling and lockdowns, their ‘normal’ way of life was taken away and any type of engagement had to be done via a screen. We became aware of the huge impact this was having on our members as we began to bring in weekly catch ups where at the start of every virtual session we would speak in depth to each member on the virtual call about their week and how they were feeling. Sometimes these conversations took the whole session, but as workers and those who cared about the impact the lockdowns were having on our young members mental health, we knew this was time well spent. Unfortunately, we did lose regular contact with some members and workers as they were not comfortable with the virtual sessions, but we did maintain some contact through emails, texts, and occasional phone calls.
We also kept in regular contact with our alumni members, many of whom were struggling with changes to university courses and struggling to find work as they left university during the pandemic. Ironically despite us all being in separate rooms, sometimes in different areas of the country, I believe that the Covid pandemic did bring us closer together,
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as we found that members from across groups supported each other through virtual sessions, performances and conversations.
During the last six months of the year and during the pandemic we worked hard to create virtual performances that would still entertain and engage audiences, and we managed three ‘live’ virtual concerts with members of our Senior Youth Theatre, alumni and workers performing. We also created virtual end of year shows for all three
groups – D&D, Junior and Senior Youth Theatre, which allowed us to say goodbye to the seven members of the Senior Youth Theatre leaving us in 2020. Bridget, Agnes, Gabriel, Lois and Chloe were all original members of our first Junior Youth Theatre in 2013, while Lottie and Reilly joined us a year later and Sara joined us as a technician in 2018. Luckily they did all get to perform in their final show ‘Never Said Goodbye’ in February 2020, however we still wanted to make their last virtual event with us special. We ended the year with a virtual P.A.W.W. (Performing Arts Workshop Week), which again was done fully using Zoom, and despite being a challenging piece of work it was great fun and involved pre recorded scenes, live vocal performances and fantastic characterisation from the members involved.
Double R Arts was originally formed in October 2011 as a result of very successful youth arts work being carried out across South Ribble for almost 30 years by Ron Blenkinship. He was incredibly passionate about the work and the positive impact it could have on a young person’s life and he believed in the 3 C’s - Care, Consideration and Cooperation and these formed the basis and the ethos of all of his work in the performing arts. When Ron decided to retire in 2011, a group of his ex-colleagues, young people and parents of young people came together to form Double R Arts, as we all truly believed this work had to continue. When Ron passed away less than 12 months later in July 2012, we decided to carry on the work to continue his legacy and give many more children and young people the opportunities that so many of us had because of Ron.
Nine years later and we are still moving from strength to strength, and despite the challenges of the Covid Pandemic, we still had new members join us while we were working virtually. I am very privileged to be involved with and run such a passionate and creative organisation and I have an amazing team of workers who make it all happen on a weekly basis. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Double R Arts Team for 2019 - 20; who due to Covid did change and alter during the
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12 months, with more alumni members coming forward and getting involved as well as workers coming back to run virtual workshops and perform in virtual events. Stephanie Greer, Cat Morewin, Rachel Cooper, George Parkinson, Harrison Newsham, Oliver Marland, Ben Seed, Molly Wyatt, Bridget Flynn, Jorge Bradbury, Katie Stokes, Amy Donnelly, Zack Leigh, Rachel Blenkinship, Maurice Wright and
Angela Blenkinship who have all been involved with different groups, performances and events both in person and virtually throughout the year. Their passion, care and creativity allow Double R Arts to operate and give so many children and young people opportunities that they may not have had.
I would also like to thank the Double R Arts Trustees who have continued to provide excellent support ‘behind the scenes’ allowing us to continue to operate successfully. They have also had to navigate the challenges that the Covid pandemic has brought us as a charity and their support these last 12 months has been incredible. I would also like to thank the organisations that have provided us with funding over the last 12 months enhancing the work that we do, particularly as we have been able to create some really interesting pieces of work virtually.
This last year has brought unprecedented challenges that none of us could have foreseen, yet we knew that stopping Double R Arts was not an option and we had to find a way to continue our work with our wonderful members if we were going to survive. Even though we are not trained counsellors or psychotherapists we believe in supporting the ‘whole child’ and providing them with a safe and secure space where they can feel and do anything they want to, and we believe we were able to create that space virtually for the last six months of our year. We know that we cannot solve many of the problems our members, alumni, and families experience, but if we can provide normality and in some cases fun for the member, that can be very important, when going through difficult times, as we all have this year. The need for our work and organisation has become vital for some of our members and we have been honoured to be trusted and brought into their lives, making me realise that is it so important we continue to carry on the positive work of Double R Arts. As a small charity, in an ever-changing environment there will always be challenges ahead of us, however we will continue to remain strong and resilient, delivering our Double R Arts groups and sessions with the same ethos that we always have done, whether that be in person or online.
Beth Blenkinship
Double R Arts Coordinator
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Double R Arts Pre-Pandemic (September 2019 – March 2020)
As we moved into our ninth year, we were engaging with over 70 children and young people on a weekly basis across all four groups (Monday and Tuesday D&D, Junior Youth Theatre and Senior Youth Theatre). We welcomed new members into the D&D groups after a successful D&D PAWS course and had a number of members move from Junior into Senior, so each group spent a number of weeks rebalancing and finding their strengths again, as this is really important at the start of any new academic year.
After the success of ‘the Christmas Spectacular’ at All Hallows in December 2018, we decided that we wanted to do a similar event again, but this time it would be for charity, raising funds for St Catherine’s Hospice, in memory of Chris Martin, the father of three of our members, who sadly passed away in May 2019. Working with PM Dance (a dance group that operates from the same building as us and has all three members involved as well), we put together
the ‘Christmas Express’ that was performed in December 2019 at All Hallows Catholic High School. The event saw audiences of over 300 people come together to watch over 100 children and young people perform a variety of Christmas songs and sketches, while raising money for a great local charity. Through ticket sales, raffles, and refreshments we raised over £2600 for St Catherine’s Hospice, and we managed to do the cheque presentation just before we had to close due to Covid.
As usual we performed at Penwortham Christmas markets with members of the Junior Youth Theatre singing carols at both the Priory Lane Centre and outside the Venue. However, this year we worked with local businessman Michael Bailey, as four of our Senior members, Darcy, Rose, Elise and Evie, along with alumni member Oliver Marland, took on the roles of ‘Santa’s Elves’ to accompany his Santa Claus. As Michael Bailey wanted to do this for charity, he didn’t charge for children to see Santa Claus and gave any donations made from the event back to Double R Arts. This was a fantastic opportunity for Double R Arts and a very generous offer from Michael Bailey, which we continue to be grateful for.
We also had the opportunity to perform at Penwortham Arts Centre ‘The Venue’, which has been recently taken over by Penwortham Town Council, having previously been run by Lancashire County Council as the local library. ‘The Venue’ was a very different performing space to the Arts Base at the Priory Lane Centre, providing a more intimate
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setting, meaning that performers were much closer to the audience than being on the stage. In November 2019, a group of our Senior members became the first group of Double R Arts members to perform there, revisiting songs and scenes from previous productions and events. It was a great opportunity for our members to perform in a different space, that was more relaxed, intimated and
stripped back. The audience of family and friends really enjoyed this different event and we planned to do more in the future.
In January 2020 a group of our Alumni members’ performed in ‘The Venue’ as well, as a fundraiser for Double R Arts. Alumni members Rachel Cooper, Harrison Newsham, Oliver Marland, Louise Champness, Rachel Eaton, Molly Wyatt and Ben Seed, all performed their favourite moments from previous productions they had been in and some new songs chosen specifically for the event. It was compared by Double R Arts worker Cat Morewin, who also performed. Again this was a great event and further Double R Arts events were planned with ‘The Venue’ to have a regular performing slot.
Fortunately before we had to close due to the Covid pandemic we were able to create and produce our Senior Youth Theatre show ‘Never Said Goodbye’ and this one was very significant as it would be the final performance from five of our original Junior Youth Theatre members that had joined us in 2013. Again in September 2019, further changes came in the Senior group as three members had left, including our two most senior and experienced males Oliver and Harrison. However six very
strong performers graduated from Junior Youth Theatre into Senior, creating another very strong youth theatre group in terms of ability, dedication and commitment.
In March 2019, the Senior Youth Theatre had performed ‘The Show Must Go On’ a musical adaptation of King Lear. This was another very dark piece, after the joy of ‘Raise Your Voice’ in 2018, yet the group had yet again risen to the challenge superbly. Therefore, this year we wanted to change the tone completely and Rachel Blenkinship (Senior Youth Theatre lead worker) created a piece based around the ‘Hollywood and Broadway’ era taking inspiration from musicals such as Follies, Company, Sunset Boulevard and A Chorus Line. Since we had
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such a naturally talented cast, with both fantastic vocal, dramatic and movement ability – the challenge was to create something that would allow all members to have their ‘moment’ particularly the seven that would be leaving later that year.
‘Never Said Goodbye’ followed the story of nine characters who reunited after many years as their beloved theatre where they all started their
careers was to be closed down. However, through a series of flashbacks the audience would be able to see how their characters developed and the reasons why their relationships were as they were, in the present. Rachel created a story where there were two versions of the characters ‘currents and pasties’ and older members would take on the older ‘currents’ roles and the younger members of the group would take on the ‘pasties’ roles. Even though the two actors would never meet on stage in scenes, the different versions had to work
together to ensure that characterisation carried through in both portrayals of the character. This piece was complicated due to the intertwining storylines and the importance to ensure that everything made sense to the audience. Again we also challenged our members with some large scale musical numbers, which were often created to be performed by characters older than themselves, yet they all portrayed their characters and created performances
that were sensitive and mature, with the musical numbers enhancing their stories.
Due to the scale of the show many of our Double R Arts workers became involved in different elements, under the direction of Rachel. We also had Senior Youth Theatre members Lottie Wyatt and Agnes Roberts design and paint the set and design the publicity, for the final time before they would leave us later in the year.
The production was performed in February 2020 for four performances. ‘Never Said Goodbye’ was the Senior Youth Theatre’s main performance this year, and without us realising it at the time, became our last ‘live’ performance with an audience for many months to come.
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Double R Arts response to the Covid Pandemic (March 2020 – August 2020)
When the Covid Pandemic meant that we had to stop and face-to-face sessions, we knew that we had find ways of maintaining contact and a connection with our members. As the use of virtual technology became more common in the early weeks of the lockdown, we tested different video platforms, including Skype, Microsoft teams and Zoom to find the best way we could connect with our members, engage and create elements of performance. Zoom became our platform of choice, and the trustees agreed to pay for a monthly subscription, as it gave us more options within the platform, such as breakout rooms and the option to record work being done. The ‘paid’ version also gave us many more security options when working with our members, so that we could make the virtual sessions as ‘safe’ a possible while working remotely.
We began virtual sessions in April 2020 and these ran until May 2021. After combining some of our groups for the first few weeks, as the number of children and young people engaging with us grew, we reverted to our usual D&D, Junior and Senior groups, running weekly sessions on Monday and Tuesday evenings via Zoom. We got a regular group of children and young people engaging with us weekly, with other members dropping in and out of sessions, depending on how they ]were feeling on that day. Therefore, it was important that the Zoom link was sent
to all families each week, so that members always had the option to join us if they wanted to.
Initially we began using the sessions as an opportunity for our members to talk to us about how they were feeling, and how home schooling was going. We asked every member to tell us one positive thing about their week, and this could vary from what they had watched, or if they had
managed to see a friend (virtually and then in person when allowed). These discussions would often spark other conversations and as workers we really felt that we were finding even more out about our members, as we had the time ‘chat’ which didn’t always happen when working towards a production or event. We
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began to adapt different drama games and activities that we found worked on Zoom, and the members became more and more used to working on the platform with their confidence growing week on week. We found that members who can sometimes struggle within a larger group setting were more confident on Zoom, which was a fantastic outcome for us, and as we became more confident and comfortable with the platform, we were able to challenge our members more regarding their performances and scenes that they were able to create, despite all being in different locations. Watching our members embrace the changes was very rewarding as we knew that by making things work virtually we would be able to find a way to keep Double R Arts going throughout the lockdowns and pandemic.
At a request from some of our younger members, we also began to run a weekly ‘Dance Time’ sessions where our worker Rachel, would teach the participants a new dance Routine each week. These were really popular, and we had members from all groups joining in (as well as some parents occasionally). We ran this session on a Friday afternoon, as it was always a great way to start the weekend.
Quite early in the first lockdown we also started to experiment with options for ‘live performances’ via Zoom. We quickly realised that choral and group singing was not an option due to the delay, however that soloists could perform to backing tracks or play instruments and this could be viewed and heard by an audience on Zoom. We realised this was definitely a way to be able to keep performing and keep connected with our wider Double R Arts family, our members and our wider network of supporters.
During the first lockdown between March 2020 and July 2020 we devised and performed three virtual concerts: Double R Arts Live Virtual Concert in April 2020, Sunday Chilling at the Movies with Double R Arts in May 2020 and the Double R Arts Disney Concert in June 2020. At each of these concerts current Double R Arts members, alumni members and workers performed a range of songs, related to the theme. Initially they were a new challenge from a technical perspective, but it was wonderful that we could still bring ‘live performances’ (albeit through a screen) to our audiences. The other great thing was the engagement from our alumni members and due to that we had members performing from their homes in South Ribble and Preston, but also from their university accommodations ranging from Durham to London.
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We were also able to use these concerts as a form of fundraising for Double R Arts, as all our other income streams had come to a stop due to the pandemic. We also were not charging a subscription fee for the sessions and doing it on a ‘pay what you can afford’ basis. However, as we still had some expenditure, we created a crowdfunding page and asked family and friends to donate throughout the concerts, and the other virtual performances as well. We also supported our alumni member Harrison Newsham, with a virtual concert he did for a charity - COCO (Comrades of Children Overseas) as we supported him technically and with several performers for his afternoon and evening virtual concert. Harrison kindly allowed us to use this event as well as a fundraising opportunity for Double R Arts allowing us to increase our crown funding total during that event. Through the different virtual events
between April and July 2020 we raised just under £1000 through crowdfunding which was a testament to the work created by our members during such strange times.
It was through creating these concerts that we also made a small amendment to our logo, by adding the hashtag #keepconnectedkeepperformingkeepsmiling. This became a tag line throughout the lockdown and all our virtual sessions and work, as these became our main aims for our members and our wider Double R Arts families.
With success of the concerts, we decided to try and do virtual ‘end of year shows’ combining elements of live and recorded performances, while still doing our traditional certificate presentations. Calling these shows ‘Marking the Moments’ we sent all our members certificates in the post prior to the virtual event, so that when they were ‘presented’ with their certificates they could hold them up to the screen for the audience to see. These performances worked really well, and with the D&D and Junior groups we were able to see some of their performances from the ‘Christmas Express’ and some new live and recorded scenes that they had worked on via Zoom in the weekly sessions. It was very important that celebrated our Senior members as well, since seven members were graduating in July 2020. Luckily the Seniors had been able to perform their final show before the lockdown, however it was still hard to not be able to celebrate with our members in person as we had done for so many
years. However, we were able to create video montages for each member that were shown as a dedication to them during the event before they were also ‘presented’ with their certificates. Despite it being a very different ‘end of year presentation’ it was very special and will be remembered in Double R Arts’ history.
Our PAWW (Performing Arts Workshop Week) usually ends our year, with two courses being run for our younger and older members. Despite restrictions being lifted in July 2020, we decided it was still safer to attempt a virtual P.A.W.W. inviting members of our
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Junior and Senior group to engage with us daily across a week, while we created a original piece, with a full story, scenes and musical performances. PAWW Take 1 – Back to the Zoom 2035, had nine members engaged. In the piece set 15 years in the future, they all played older versions of themselves and created a ‘fake future’. The piece looked at them reuniting and how the way they had changed over the years affected their relationships. It was a brilliant piece and the group worked really hard to
create characters, stories and scenes – while all in separate homes – that still made sense, flowed, and gave dramatic and comic moments. It was a great achievement and great way to end a very unusual year for Double R Arts.
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Double R Arts Workers 2019 - 2020
Beth Blenkinship Double R Arts Co-ordinator, Senior Youth Theatre Lead Worker, D&D Lead Worker (Monday and Tuesday) Coordinator and worker on all Virtual Sessions Rachel Blenkinship Senior Youth Theatre Lead Worker, Junior Youth Theatre and D&D Support Worker. Worker on Senior Youth Theatre, D&D, Junior Youth Theatre and Dance Time Virtual Sessions. Amy Donnelly Senior Youth Theatre Support Worker, Junior Youth Theatre Lead Worker and Senior Youth Theatre Support Worker on Virtual Sessions Zack Leigh D&D Lead Worker (Monday and Tuesday), Junior Youth Theatre Worker Kate Stokes Junior Youth Theatre Lead Worker Maurice Wright Junior Youth Theatre Worker and Senior Youth Theatre Support Molly Wyatt D&D Support Worker on Virtual Sessions George Parkinson Senior Youth Theatre and Junior Youth Theatre Support Worker on Virtual Sessions Rachel Cooper Senior Youth Theatre support worker on Virtual Sessions Cat Morewin Senior Youth Theatre support worker on Virtual Sessions Jorge Bradbury Double R Arts IT ad Technical Support
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Our Partners 2019 - 2020
Steve Caswell, Marie Curran, Councillors - Penwortham Town Council Suzanne Simpson, South Ribble Borough Council
Richard Adamson and the staff – All Hallows Catholic High School Shaun Bradbury and Jorge Bradbury – Wrennalls
Samantha Beattie – Progress Housing Group
Double R Arts Trustees 2019 - 2020
Tracey Newsham Chairperson Maria Adamson Secretary Marilyn Deverill Treasurer
Irene Moore
Alistair Newsham
Jim Patten
Tim Young
Double R Arts Alumni Members involved in 2019 - 2020
Harrison Newsham
Oliver Marland
George Parkinson
Ben Seed
Rachel Cooper
Louise Champness
Rachel Eaton
Funders in 2019 - 2020
South Ribble Borough Council
Michael Bailey - Keller Williams Estate Agents
Tesco Bags for Life Covid 19 Fund
Progress Housing Group
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DOUBLE R ARTS AAxounts to 31 August 2020 INCOME EXPENDITURE 2019120 201812019 5157.47 3443.00 1753.00 2325.95 5401.48 951.25 420.00 513.00 2019120 402.92 235.86 1692.50 305.89 1172.47 201812019 345.88 572.64 2140.00 738.90 2807.52 87.28 2383.28 3378.78 1660.00 984.11 648.46 Subscripth)ns Insurance Equiwnent Rent Pu¢ty ShLwN expen8es Gala FestNaWL, Penwortham Professi(Kl fees Staff travel Pen Summer Professlonal t8 Summer Expenses Sundry expon8 tyonatlon from Christmas Show Summer subs Performances Misc income Sponsor DOnaOn8 120.00 4139.32 258.90 2084.75 377.80 2570.40 2235.04 542.36 2243.57 12138.24 -12061.00 77.24 14807.68 -15722.81 -915.13 12061.00 15722.81