Impress supports promoters with a disability

In Autumn 2008, Impress supported Wolverhampton Disability Arts Charity Outside Centre to present funny man Lawrence Clark. In December, Sandwell’s Ideal for All, celebrated International Day of Disabled People with a showcase of local and regional disabled artists. In February 2008 Blue eyed soul worked with over 40 dancers, from schools and the community to create Trace, a high quality cohesive performance, which gave rise to rapturous applause. Following this Black Country Touring supported a seminar at the Arena, which brought together key partners, participants and like-minded individuals and organisations. There is a strong group of people in Wolverhampton, working to include Deaf and Disabled people and Blue Eyed Soul provided a dance project that demonstrated the potential of them working together.

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At Dudley Muslim Association seventy five people came to see storyteller Peter Chand and Apna groups first promotion. Apna are a group of young men with learning disabilities who attended many weeks of workshops to build up skills and understanding about promoting events. Impress is also about creating opportunities for disabled artists, and Extant (the UK’s only company of Blind actors) are capturing imaginations with their sensorial cabaret that takes place entirely in the dark. Extant are also engaging local visually impaired people with workshops. In autumn, we aim to work with BCT promoters to bring deaf and disabled artists with an international reputation to the Black Country. This will be achieved by working with Dadafest – Liverpool’s International Deaf and Disability Arts Festival for City of Culture 2008.

Black Country Touring and Impress

Impress, supports promoters with a disability to put on shows. Impress began in spring 2007 with promotions by Walsall Deaf People’s Centre, Sandwell Deaf resource centre and Dudley M Power who are a user led group of people with learning disabilities. Dudley M Power invited Anjali Dance company to do a show at the Arena. Anjali are a group of learning disabled people who love dancing. They are from Banbury in Oxfordshire. One hundred people chose to go to see the show. People came from Wolverhampton, Halesowen, Dudley, Walsall and Shropshire.

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In Autumn 2008, Impress supported Wolverhampton Disability Arts Charity Outside Centre to present funny man Lawrence Clark.

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• “very funny and entertaining!!”
• “Got “the message” across in a way people would remember.”
• “Really enjoyable, funny and stimulating – my kids also enjoyed it.”

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In December, Ideal for All, which is Sandwell’s Independent Living Centre celebrated International Day of Disabled People with a showcase of local and regional disabled artists. The drama of the Discovers, the dance of Side by Side and the cabaret of the Nasty Girls received a rapturous applause from a large audience of disabled people.

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In February, 2008 seventy five people came to see storyteller Peter Chand and witness Apna groups first promotion. Apna are a group of young men with learning disabilities. They are based at Dudley Muslim Association.

Black Country Touring delivered workshops to help Apna group decide the audience they wanted to target and select a professional touring show appropriate to that audience. Together they worked as a team towards the successful promotion of the show.

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As part of their training they visited the Arena to learn how to transform Dudley Muslim association into a Theater. Throughout the process of the workshops the Apna Group learnt about Marketing and Publicity, Front of House, Box Office and Stage Management. The workshops enabled those involved to gain new skills and confidence. Peter Chands show was attended by Head of Social Services and Head of Adult Learning in Dudley, both were very excited about the results of co-working between Adult Learning, Advocacy and the BCT promoters scheme.

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Impress is also about creating opportunities for disabled artists, and Extant (the UK’s only company of Blind actors) are capturing imaginations with a sensorial cabaret that takes place entirely in the dark. For it’s blind performers this provides a wonderful creative element to play with. In April, Wolverhampton Art Gallery are presenting Extants’ unique Forum theatre “Eye For Um Eye”. The show reflects situations’ conflicts and dilemmas facing visually impaired people. Extant have facilitated Black Country Touring to meet with visually impaired groups and involve them in providing stories and experiences for the show. Workshops with visually impaired groups are taking place in Dudley with Offsight and in Oldbury with Sandwell Active Independent Blind Association. BCT thank SAIBA for organising an evening at the Wagon and Horses pub to discuss questions posed by Extants actors.

If you would like further information about Impress, the shows or even how to organise your own show please contact Black Country Touring.

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