Solidarity
Whilst we remain apolitical as an organisation, we find ourselves in a position of huge frustration at the recent government announcement and, sadly, the predictable lack of clarity. We understand the seriousness of the Pandemic, and this is reflected in our processes, procedures and staff training in order to ensure we are as safe as we can be. We have, at no small expense, ensured that both ourselves and the venue we work in, are COVID secure. We work with young people who are spending all day in far less COVID secure Schools. There is a huge lack of common sense being applied to the the decision making around the lockdown. As far as we are concerned, our company provides a safe, secure educational environment for our young people. A place where they can leave their anxiety at the door. A mental health check in. We are not alone. All over the local area, similar sized organisations are feeling the same. We are entitled to no support. No financial help. We send love and solidarity to all of the other local organisations in the same situation as us.
We continue to seek clarity as to whether we can continue. We believe our service is essential to many, and also believe that we cannot really do this remotely.
Feed the Children
Our campaign to get Central Bedfordshire Council appears to be gaining some attention which is great. They have seemingly backed down under pressure from all angles, and announced that the Free School meal voucher scheme is being extended to include this half term. The fact that this was announced in a press release on Sunday afternoon tells you that there has been a bit of a panic. It is excellent news of course, but the fight is not over. This scheme does not cover the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children who all get free school meals. Now many of those will be in a position to afford to eat at home. After all, we estimate that around 12% of children in Central Bedfordshire are entitled to free school meals. However, this does not tell the full story. COVID has hit many families very hard. Many of those kids who are entitled to free school meals usually will be in a parlous position due to huge gaps in funding and support. The free School meals campaign needs to include families who are working too, but who have suffered catastrophic losses to their income or businesses. We have the money. The government have spent less than half to support families than they did on the Banking crisis bailout. Local councils have been provided the funds to support those in need, but many of them are rather reticent on providing evidence of how and who they have supported. None of this matters though….If there is a hungry child, then we have failed. It is as simple as that. There are two things I suggest everybody read….the first is a facebook post from someone called Lucy Wood
Lucy Wood
23 hrs ·
When I was a child my Mum spent all her money on alcohol. She left me home alone for hours often with empty cupboards. Once I was so hungry, I mixed everything I could find in the kitchen in a big pot and ate it. I was sick for a week.
I would turn up on peoples doorsteps that I knew in the area and ask for food. I was taken in by an old man named John who would feed me and I would often be sitting on my aunts doorstep when she came home from work. One such evening my aunt lost her temper, walked me to the pub my Mum was in, pulled her out and they started fighting outside the pub. Despite all the traumatic childhood memories I have, that one is so vivid. I was so desperate to stop that fight. I was six years old.
According to some small minded people, I deserved to starve as a child because my Mum shouldn't have given birth to me. I quite agree, I wish she hadn't, my childhood was a living nightmare but it was peoples kindness that got me through it. I dread to think how I would have turned out if it wasn't for the kindness of strangers, my aunt/my rock and moving in with my Dad when I was 10, saved me.
Don't be so quick to condemn vulnerable children to starvation, they should never be punished because of the actions of their parents. The Tories are scum because they have the power to offer kindness and a decent meal to children in need but they have chosen not to. All whilst they burgle the public purse to keep their cronies bank balances fat.
The second recommended read is a book by Kerry Hudson called “Lowborn”, which tells the tale of Kerry’s upbringing in poverty.
We are headed into another pandemic, that of poverty.
An estimated 14.3 million people are in poverty in the UK
8.3 million are working-age adults, 4.6 million are children, and 1.3 million are of pension age
Around 22% of people are in poverty, and 34% of children are
Just under half (49%) of those in poverty are in “persistent poverty” (people who would also have fallen below the poverty line in at least two of the last three years). This is as of 2016/17
Working-age people in poverty are increasingly likely to be in working families
Most poverty rates aren’t all that different to what they were at the start of the 2000s. The most marked reduction has been in pensioner poverty, it is almost half as common as it was back in 2000, while rates for working-age adults are now slightly higher
Poverty rates fell in the years after 2010, as the UK recovered from the financial crisis, but are now showing clear signs of rising again
For full information on the above figures and more click here
Please lets keep the pressure on those that can do something about this.
Sign our petition
Triple threat?
I’m often irritated by this phrase. For those of you who don’t know, it is a phrase, much loved in theatrical circles, to describe someone with acting, singing and dancing skills. We have worked with many young people who are excellent in all three of these disciplines, so my annoyance with the phrase is not targeted at them. However, there is an inbuilt implication that to only have two “threats” is to be deficient in some way. There is of course, an added complication. We worked with a young man around 14 years ago, who had never appeared on a stage. He is about to graduate from drama school with what I would call an “Octopus threat”, in that he can act, sing, dance and is a multi instrumentalist. He is quite brilliant. However, this does not make him better than Ian McKellen. Performance should not be about the acquisition of skills to make others feel deficient, but more about building your own personal skills and being the very best version of you. I worry that sometimes our drama schools are obsessing about the triple threat more than working on building the person.
Why Up-Stage?
I recently had a long conversation with a friend who asked me what was the difference between Up-Stage and other Youth theatre providers. It's a difficult question to answer for many reasons. I always make sure that we get across to our parents that we are independent. This is not to criticise the big franchises that offer a similar service. They have their place as much as we do. I just pride myself that we know every child very well. We know what they are confident about, what they are not confident about, and quite importantly, what they are not yet capable of. Larger franchises tend to have their content chosen for them, and their techniques dictated. This, of course, provides continuity, but I think our children deserve more than that. We have recently said goodbye to one of our students who joined us when she was 8 years old. We saw a small, shy child, flower into a confident performer, who is now pursuing a career in the performing arts. We don't take the credit for that, she does. What we do take the credit for is providing a caring, nurturing environment for young people to discover themselves. The sessions are precious to them. They want new people to feel welcome, but also want them to understand that the sessions are precious to them. I am so very proud of the sense of pride that they have in their groups. They create small families. As a result of this, I tend to write a lot of the plays that we perform. From comedy to tragedy, we ensure that the performers are given opportunities to think, create and develop within a framework specifically written for them. We do perform others work of course, and the variety also helps, but I believe that we are unique on the offer we have.
Drama undervalued
With the endless cuts and devaluation of the so-called "Soft" subjects in the education system, I suppose that I should be happy. Surely, well-established companies like Up-Stage will benefit from the obvious taste for drama? Well...no basically. Once the subject starts to disappear from the psyche, it can remain elsewhere. Drama should, and does, seep through into every subject, every day. The life skills and confidence it brings are essential. I have never heard of a scientist that doesn't use creative thought processes when working, and yet, the powers that be seem to be oblivious to this fact. If I might also address the idea of "Soft subjects". The arts brings in Billions of pounds to this country. That is clearly not the only benefit, but if, like this government seems to think, that you can only judge value financially, then it still "wins". The other values, the ones that every child I have worked with seems to understand fundamentally, are there for all to see. The tourism, the mental health benefits, the everyday skills of teamwork....this is just the tip of the iceberg. So no, I do not want to see drama disappear from Schools. I see what we do at Up-Stage as something that enhances that. In the meantime of course, we might be providing the only regular drama that children get. If that is the case, then so be it. However, I think we should all be fighting this. I know of one local school that has removed drama from its timetable. I worked in one that has now removed it as a regularly timetabled subject. This is an attack on culture, and one on those, many of whom can ill afford to pay for drama privately. We are working on many ideas to help this situation, but please, protest, complain and write to people.