A Year in Lockdown
A Word from Artistic Director, Jim Pope
“ This time last year, on March 15, we faced the reality that our beloved production of “Can I Help You?” by Philip Osment at Omnibus Theatre, Clapham would have to close. My first response was to go home, lie under a duvet and escape the world in a sea of Netflix and salted snacks. I had been intending to take a much-deserved holiday anyway and now there was an enforced one coming my way. Fortunately for me, I work with executive director Rhian Davies who is the most committed and driven person I know. She told me there was a lot of work to do and all our current engagement projects could be adapted for online delivery. “How on earth could we keep going now and what is zoom anyway?” I said, or something along those lines. It didn’t take long before I found out…..”
MARCH
On 15th March of 2020, we performed our final show of Can I Help you? at Omnibus theatre, before the final week was called off as the country went into lockdown. Our Artistic Director, Jim, was nominated for Best Director at the OFFIEs Awards.
APRIL
In April, Playing ON delivered an online intensive week of workshops for our youth programme Drilling Diamonds in partnership with Spotlight Youth Services in Tower Hamlets.
MAY
In May, we were awarded emergency funding by Arts Council England to help continue our work safely during national lockdown. Thank you to Arts Council England and to National Lottery players for making the funding possible.
JUNE, JULY & AUGUST
In the summer of 2020, Playing ON converted to a charity, and took part in the Arts Marketing Association Small Scale Development Programme.
Despite restrictions, we managed to continue socially-distanced filming for our flagship youth project film Concrete Hearts with Drilling Diamonds using go-pro cameras and clever filming tricks. The project was in collaboration with Spotlight Youth Services, and funded by The Young Londoners Fund, The Wakefield and Tetley Trust and Arts Council England.
In August, Concrete Hearts went live from Spotlight during lockdown via YouTube, which is still available to watch here!
SEPTEMBER
In September, Playing ON were awarded core funding by the Baring Foundation. We were getting stuck into rehearsals at Rose Bruford College with MA Theatre for Young Audiences & MA Actor-Musicianship students, where we created UNShore. UNShore is a devised musical journey that explores gender and sexuality through the medium of fish and sea creatures.
OCTOBER
October was a busy month here at Playing ON. We embarked on a project with Urban Tribe, a group of ELFT clinicians, staff and service users working alongside East London NHS Foundation Trust.
We received Arts Council England Project funding for organisational development which supported an exciting Research and Development week at Lewisham College with the cast and creative team of UNShore, where we played with technology and innovation to experiment transferring our projects onto digital platforms in the future. The funding also enabled us to launch a new Instagram page and revamp our website - bringing us up to date!
NOVEMBER, DECEMBER & JANUARY
At the end of 2020 our short film 'Concrete Hearts' was shortlisted for a Children & Young People Now Art and Culture Award.
In November, we turned 10 years old and released a special 'Happy Birthday Playing ON' video featuring all of our closest friends and colleagues.
Just before the third national lockdown, we squeezed in two weeks of intensive socially-distanced filming onsite with East London NHS Foundation Trust and Urban Tribe, to produce multiple short training films and one long feature film entitled The Art of Medicine.
“This was one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on and was a great outlet for my creativity and reflections. So therapeutic and an amazing tribe we’ve built!”
FEBRUARY & MARCH
In February, we screened our incredible film The Art of Medicine to a watch-party group of consultants, Psychiatrists and Urban Tribe to rave reviews!
In March, we delivered our first 2-day online training experience in working with lived experience and vulnerable groups, to be the first to know of our next training opportunity, click here!
“Well done everyone! Great to see it all pulled together and to see the many layers of experience that reflects NHS life!”
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