The REPort - Issue 9 - Christmas 2019

Issue 9 Winter 2019

Second Star To The Right And Straight On Till Centenary Square!

With the opening of two new West Midlands Metro tram stops, theatre-goers can now journey directly from the city centre to Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

A very warm welcome to this festive edition of The REPort.

The magic of the season is well and truly upon us at The REP, as our wonderful Christmas cast take to the skies in Peter Pan, our fantastic donors continue to give the gift of theatre and audiences and party-goers enjoy sumptuous treats in Marmalade.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Rachel Cranny Head of Fundraising

In this Issue: - Welcome - Christmas at The REP - Giving Big to Beginning - The Magic of Theatre - Lost Boys and Girls - Glittering Prizes - Shifting the Dial - Foundry Festival - REP First Update - Events

And to celebrate the opening of the new direct service, stars of our Christmas show, Peter Pan, boarded the tram for a flying visit.

West Midlands Metro trams are now picking up and dropping off passengers at the new Library stop – just across Centenary Square from the theatre.

Christmas is a magical time at The REP and this year’s spectacular staging of Peter Pan has been reimagined for the people of Birmingham. The show features Dudley-born Lawrence Walker in the leading role of Peter Pan alongside an 18 strong cast of pirates, lost boys and the villainous Captain Hook. Audiences can expect thrills and adventure with sensational flying in stunning adaptation of much loved children’s classic. This is a huge production with a big heart and a warm message about family and runs until 19 January Walking in a winter wonderland Centenary Square has become a festive wonderland for families this Christmas. The REP is joined by an indoor ice-skating rink, a

big wheel and a 55 metre rotating tower experience that will make visitors fly like Peter Pan! The REP has teamed up with Ice Skate Birmingham to offer all Peter Pan ticket holders a discount on the skating rink. REP customers simply need to show their theatre ticket to a member of staff at our BOX Office to receive a special discount voucher. The voucher gives them access to the concessionary rate of just £8.50 per ticket rather than £12.00 per ticket.

Eat, drink and be merry with Marmalade We at Marmalade believe that good food is for life, not just for Christmas! But we’ve made an extra special effort none the less and have a delicious festive menu for all to enjoy. What’s more, we’re priced so that even Scrooge himself might treat his family to dinner - two courses cost just £19.50 and three courses only £24.50. To beautifully round off a festive meal or if you simply want to reward yourself after a shopping expedition - we’re serving mulled wine and mince pies from the bar over the season.

Giving Big To Beginning Beginning Backstage is a bold new project we’re launching with St Basil’s, Birmingham’s Youth Homelessness charity. The aim is to give vulnerable young people hands-on experience of backstage work, so developing vital skills to boost their future prospects. Lighting, sound and stage management: they’re all areas of skill shortage nationally where a major producing theatre like The REP can help.

What endorsements we’ve had! Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, describes Beginning Backstage as “a fantastic example of how we can help young people at risk of homelessness in our city”. CEO of St Basil’s, Jean Templeton, says her team are “excited about working on the project, which will engage our young people, allowing them to feel valued and invested in as well as helping them develop skills to move forward and into employment”.

To raise funds for the scheme, The REP joined the annual Big Give Christmas Challenge. It’s a national fundraising initiative that allows charities to raise funds for new projects and provides match funding by doubling all donations. The challenge took place between 3 and 10 December and raised an incredible £15.2 million for UK charities. For Beginning Backstage we set a target of £10,200. The good news is…we did it! We exceeded our target and raised a total of £11,974. We can now make the ‘Beginning Backstage’ project a reality.

On behalf of everyone at The REP and St Basil’s, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone for their support! A fantastic number of individuals generously donated during the challenge, as well as a number of

Birmingham businesses including Pinsent Masons, Hortons Estate, BHSF, Pertemps and Veale Wasbrough Vizards.

Here’s what Alex Summers, Director of Learning and Participation, had to say: “Beginning Backstage is a potentially life-changing opportunity that will offer young people the chance to forge lasting friendships, grow in confidence and gain vital skills for the workplace”.

At a time when homelessness is sadly all too prevalent in Birmingham, with even Banksy himself creating a mural in our city to highlight the issue, we are proud to be playing our part. From all of us at The REP, to everyone who supported our challenge, thank you for giving homeless young people a brighter future this Christmas.

The Magic Of Theatre Proving that we can create magic moments (and melt hearts) beyond our stages in Birmingham we recently arranged for a young boy from Worcester to meet The Snowman…over 6000 miles away.

Five- year-old Oscar Saxelby-Lee has a rare form of cancer and is currently receiving treatment in Singapore.

By coincidence our production of The Snowman was also out in Singapore so we arranged for Oscar and his family to see the show and meet the cast afterwards.

The Snowman’s motorbike was even given a special ‘Oscar’ personalised number plate by our production team especially for the visit. Magic!

The Lost Boys And Girls If you’ve seen our ground-breaking Christmas version of Peter Pan (there’s still time!), you’ll know a thing or two about lost children. They’re the vulnerable ones. They live at the edge of society, disconnected from the security of home and family…

What better time, then, for us to adopt as our fundraising partner for Christmas 2019 The Children’s Society, a national charity with a Birmingham hub that works with the country’s most vulnerable children and young people. Many are refugees and migrants. They are truly the lost ones: geographically, financially, emotionally, psychologically. One source of the help they urgently need is provided by The Children’s Society’s Birmingham drop-in facility. Young people up to the age of 25 can go there for advice, signposting and support related to mental and emotional wellbeing.

It takes two to partner, of course. As registered charities both The REP and The Children’s Society will benefit from bucket collections held throughout performances of Peter Pan, which runs until 19 January 2020. For every £1 raised, 25p will go towards the work of The Children’s Society and the remainder will support REP First: our campaign to raise £1 million for our work with new artists, communities and audiences from across our city.

You have such a great track record of supporting our Christmas partnerships, and we think you like the connections we make with each show. During last year’s Wizard Of Oz we held bucket collections in aid of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Heart Transplant Unit (Tin Man

seeks heart). Before that, audiences for One Hundred And One Dalmatians supported (you guessed it) Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. Over the past two years, the generosity of REP audiences has put more than £11,000 into our buckets at Christmas.

But we’re not just raising money. Those lost boys and girls may spend Christmas without presents unless you can help. So, on behalf of The Children’s Society, we’re collecting gifts for children and young adults aged 4 –21.

We’re looking for anything new you can spare: hats, scarves and gloves, toiletries, craft sets, books, toys for toddlers and handheld games. Please drop them off at the Box Office. All gifts received with deep gratitude.

Roseann Thompson from The Children’s Society has the last word on why it’s important to prevent all those boys and girls from feeling lost; “We are so excited to have partnered with The REP for their Christmas show this year. Across the West Midlands we work with children who are experiencing disadvantage on many levels.

Christmas is a time when gaps between those with and without become much more obvious, but by pulling together as a community, we can offer the support, warmth and hope needed by so many”.

The Dial Shifts (Again) With almost every issue of The REPort there’s an update on Shifting the Dial (but if you’re new to the project, it’s about improving young black men’s resilience and wellbeing, in partnership with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust, First Class Legacy and the Centre for Mental Health and funded by the National Lottery Community Fund). So what’s new this time?

Glittering Prizes There’s nothing like an award to tell you when you’ve done well. We’re delighted to have picked up two in the past month.

Following its world premiere here, Inua Ellams’ play, The Half God of Rainfall, produced by The REP in association with Fuel and Kiln Theatre, was awarded Best Production of a Play in the inaugural Black British Theatre Awards.

We also recently received The Phoenix newspaper’s Anniversary Award for Championing Diversity at a ceremony celebrating community achievement across Birmingham.

Not to be out done, our wonderful events team at Unique Venues Birmingham, were crowned Hospitality Venue of the Year 2019, not once but 3 times!! We were thrilled to accept these fantastic industry awards from Downtown In Business, Global Hospitality Awards and the Prestige Awards. In addition, the team were also awarded Outstanding Venue of the Year by the Asian Business Chamber of Commerce.

And there’s more! Hezron Brown, a graduate of our Get Started in Theatre programme, has won a 2019 Pride of Britain award.

Hezron had a really tough time growing up. Bullied and excluded from school, he was even forced out of his family home, ending up on the street and then in a gang. Facing jail, he was given the chance to turn his life around, so he joined Get Started in Theatre, a project we run with the Prince’s Trust. He completed the programme, got work at The REP, and has gone on to set an amazing example of prize-winning courage and determination for countless young people.

Here’s what: we just held our bi-annual Fix It event, a conference where interested people get together to share ideas. This time the theme was ‘Making Public Health Approaches Work for Young African Caribbean Men’. The event was attended by leaders in the public health sector and supported by Birmingham city council and tough questions were asked. What is a public health approach to youth violence? How can public health prevent youth violence and promote resilience? And when the talking stops, what are the solutions? What actions are needed?

Chaired by Project Partners Nathan Denis from First Class Legacy and Kadra Abdinasir from Centre for Mental Health, the day was packed with contributions from a diverse group of passionate individuals and organisations. The Mayor’s Office, the Police, the Council, the Health Services, theatre companies – they were all there. Then there were young local artists like Armano, Danman, Tias & Rev who generously shared their real stories. A highlight of the event was Danman’s film, Brotherhood, that moved and inspired everyone.

You can still catch it on YouTube: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=QaOjV_WCd18 It wouldn’t have been a REP day without some drama. Closing proceedings were our very own Light Post Theatre, who set the agreed actions in motion in their unique style. Watch out for the sequel, planned for March 2020. If you’d like more information about our Shifting the Dial project, please contact samina.beckford@birmingham-rep.co.uk.

REP First It is hard to believe that we are now entering the final phase of our REP First campaign.

Since the launch of our appeal in April 2017, we have been truly humbled by the response from our audiences, donors, funders and sponsors. As a result of this generosity, we have now raised over £900,000 and are edging ever closer to our target of £1 million!

Foundry Festival Returning for a second year, our REP Foundry Festival offered a vibrant and inspiring snapshot of theatre created by West Midlands emerging writers and theatre makers.

This year’s varied programme featured plays about family, divisions between cultures and autobiographical stories, and because we could all do with a laugh, comedy too.

Over the two weeks there were 20 performances, including eight new plays.

The festival was free to attend and over 1700 people came to see new work during the course of the two weeks.

Although tickets were free we also encouraged audiences to make a donation and as a result we raised £1,320 to support future REP Foundry artists.

The REP’s Foundry Festival features artists who have been part of the theatre’s pioneering professional development programme REP Foundry has been generously supported by the Leverhulme Trust and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Funds raised so far have directly enabled a number of projects and initiatives. Recent successes include; securing the support of 90 KPMG LLP as sponsor of our youth theatre for a second consecutive year, launching a pioneering community cohesion project with local primary schools and community support workers, providing BSL interpreters for our adult drama group and offering local children in care, free tickets to watch our production of Peter Pan. As well as these examples, REP First continues to provide vital core funds to support The REP’s extensive artistic and outreach programmes, whilst raising awareness of our charitable activities and demonstrating the powerful potential of the arts.

REP Events Until 19 January Peter Pan 18 January Peter Pan Design Event for REP Friends (Details TBC)

16-18 January Beneath The City - An Upstart Theatre Production with a cast from our Young REP, Adult Drama and Lightpost Theatre Companies

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