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00:00Expressionstar.com at St. John's with Susan Wallin MBE, the founder of the
00:07Side-by-Side Theatre Company and Derek Lidington the project manager for the
00:13Side-by-Side Theatre Company which works with learning disabled youngsters and
00:18adults to give them opportunities in the performing arts but recently you've had a
00:25bit of a problem Derek if you can just say with the part of the roof
00:30collapsing and putting the Christmas concert in jeopardy.
00:34Yes, I said it was out of the blue. We weren't expecting any issues with the roof.
00:42There were no cracks, no signs that anything would happen and then at the end of September Sue,
00:50myself and our secretary were in the office when we heard a tremendously loud noise
00:57and our first thought was that it was a car accident on the ring road.
01:03I rushed out to look to see if it was.
01:06Yeah and we obviously found out that a large piece of plaster had fallen from about 15
01:14meters high onto the floor below and just smashed to smithereens sending the
01:19plaster all over the full extent of the floor.
01:25It means now you immediately put all that red and white tape around it didn't you?
01:30To cordon it off so that nobody went in there because we didn't know how safe or
01:35dangerous it was after that and from then on we were trying to get hold of people that might
01:40come have a look at it and assess it because that's the first thing that's got to be done.
01:45Is it safe? Are there other places where it might come down?
01:49Yeah, so that's where we started and it's taken till now to actually get a contractor to carry out
01:59not only the repair but the testing as well of the remaining plaster sealing and then we decided
02:07that we had no choice but to also consider installing safety nettings just under the plaster work
02:17so that as a precaution should anything happen again in the future.
02:25Of course we've had to cancel the Christmas concert.
02:28Well I was going to say it's put the Christmas concert in jeopardy in fact cancelled because
02:34I believe the work starts on Monday with the contractors but that's going to be quite a long job isn't it?
02:39It's yes it'll take at least three weeks so that depends on what they find.
02:45Already knew we'd have to cancel it didn't we because you can't get the public in when it's dangerous and yeah.
02:52So the students are very disappointed but the consolation is our digital media class
02:59are going to film bits of the concert.
03:02That's what I was going to say the they've come up with a great idea
03:07the digital media class that meets here on a Friday morning are going to film the concert
03:12make it available maybe to parents family I'm not sure on that
03:16if you could just tell us a little bit about that filming a concert because if they'd have done the
03:20concert we'd have used the chancel and the floor yeah and then you'd have had all the audience here
03:25so it's it's a concert on some stage now we get they've had to learn a new technique which is
03:31totally different from being on the stage and with the digital media going to film certain pieces of it
03:39so they don't they're not just standing in front of an audience they'll be in the aisle in the
03:45latex and different places like that that's where we put up our Christmas decorations early
03:50yeah so that we could do the filming and it's going to be Christmas and you know they're quite
03:56happy about that they're very good but they had to change the technique of performance for it so
04:01we've had to give a few weeks of time for that but that's partly what the group's all about isn't it
04:07giving them the skills the techniques in the modern yes performing arts so I guess they're
04:13so in a way it's had it's had you know a positive effect in that way yeah even though it's negative
04:20that they can't get the family to come and see and Susan you started the side-by-side theatre
04:26company 27 years ago now yes you've performed in a lot of venues nationwide and in Europe yes Sweden
04:34Prague 8 times Brighton yeah and it's and for the Royal Shakespeare Company we've performed with
04:45their two theatres there for their open stages project wasn't it it's been a bit of a labour
04:52of love for the two of you haven't you not least the renovation of this former St John's Church or
04:57still St John's Church but what a beautiful venue for them to perform and learn
05:04the arts in but there's been a lot of work gone into it since you took the building over in 2018
05:082019 and Derek's behind all that he's brought it all together and made it work yeah I mean there's
05:16probably no areas that you haven't uncovered in terms of renovating and bringing it up to a
05:24uh no I think that's true um it it was completely rewired from the you know when we bought it
05:33the electrics were condemned so everything you see all the lighting all the sockets the electrical
05:39work is new uh we had to upgrade the heating the main heating as well so we put in these
05:47fan convectors the um the main area where you could take rests and breaks and the toilet areas
05:58have also been completely uh ripped out and new systems put in we've got an office a reception
06:07area and we've still got a kitchen to reinforce this didn't we yes the uh we had to reinforce
06:14the floor by putting steel girders in to support the mezzanine and um yeah and all this obviously
06:23was done under the watchful eye of the local authority and um also the uh we're a grade two
06:31listed building here so uh the lady involved in the preservation department had to come and also
06:38approve what we were doing yeah and Susan how many um students are you uh teaching in a week
06:45because you're open most days aren't you in weekdays monday to friday yes I only teach on a
06:50monday tuesday and thursday night and then we've got other teachers teaching wednesday thursday
06:56and friday and what sort of skills do they learn obviously performing arts drama yes it's
07:02performing arts which covers a lot of dance drama mime physical theater and we've got music on
07:09thursdays and so it covers the whole area and what do the students get out of it and their families
07:18well if you interviewed some of them it's their whole life that you know they couldn't do without
07:22you know when we had to have that break for covid i know Paul got upset all the time didn't he it
07:29really does matter to them that much and we've got people who come along who're terrified of saying
07:34anything and stepping out in front of others who now give me some more lines they you know they
07:39haven't got enough to do they just shine yeah yeah and i think the important thing is we are
07:46doing something that is worthwhile and that means a lot to the members they feel worthy and they
07:56they then thoroughly enjoy performing for their family friends and the general public at large
08:03that means a lot to them i mean the fact that we're working towards something you know we're
08:08not just a social club it is about learning the skills and then performing those to as a
08:14higher standard as possible as professional standards also and we do festivals as well
08:20yeah so they you know they get adjudicated by professionals so it's all working towards you
08:26know doing something that's very important to them and of course achieving it yeah christmas
08:32is a big thing so it's great that you manage to save the production as it were yes um you know
08:40in a different form but in the modern what they've been learning yeah the modern age the digital age
08:46it could be just just as good yeah thank you for talking to us this morning we're here at
08:52st john's with judy alcock who's been with side by side for nearly 25 years you're almost going
08:59to get your uh watch aren't you badge your badge yeah after 25 years you've got one for 10 15 and
09:0820 years and you are involved heavily as you say you you almost live here you come here most days
09:15or every day and you're involved in the christmas production already looking very festive it's
09:20looking great thank you at the moment just tell us a little bit about what the christmas production
09:26entails i know there's bell ringing the singing and poetry poems
09:37all sorts bells it's all mixed up and you're a bit of a mentor aren't you to the students because
09:44you've you've obviously got a lot of experience in the performing arts tell us a little bit about
09:49what you've done in the past with side by side i started off as a student and then few years later
09:59came in to help out so i've had my um thing called mark slater award yeah last year for what i'm
10:11doing running around all over the jobs getting stuff from the most busy getting all the props
10:20down bringing them down sorting them out get them all set up a jack-of-all-trades then
10:28what did you think when the part of the roof came down and it was putting the christmas
10:33production in jeopardy or we just adapt to anything i just adapt
10:42to where we go or end up or so yeah i'm just adaptable well yeah because you've learned
10:51the digital skills along with the other students on a friday morning yeah so you've been able to
10:58um save the christmas production if you like and do it in a digital way yeah how's that how's that
11:06been good good we learn new stuff as we come in learning how to do um animation lights
11:20skills for the um lights how to do audacity how to do
11:32sound effects how to do all sorts of things to do with this podcast we do pictures digital
11:42photo booth changing the all the way it is like we can twist pictures stretch
11:53here with mark williams at st john's church side space he runs the digital class on a friday
12:02morning and uh you were telling me how uh in adversity has come out uh positivity absolutely
12:10it's it's it's always difficult when when you have a situation like this we've got this lovely
12:17building we just got it to the point where we think great we start to really utilize it and
12:23make it as good as we possibly can and all of a sudden you have a sort of semi-disaster
12:30and uh but it's out of that has come the fact that the digital media class
12:36through our use of film and because that's something that we are developing and we've been
12:42developing over the last few years that's enabled us to say to the groups that have been working so
12:49hard to put on a christmas show they we do this every year and it's something that they aim for
12:55they work really hard for put a lot of hard work and effort into um to have that snatched away
13:02is you know that's such a shame for everybody involved however what we have been able to do
13:09is say right let's go for it let's make a film and we that has enabled our group
13:17to sort of start looking at things like um working and graham we're looking at a piece
13:23of work that the students have done animation yes a little bit about what you do here too
13:29well we like to experiment around with different kinds of sort of digital media one of which is
13:36stop motion photography making little films and we look at different ways of doing it we have in
13:42the past used like toys and things to make the film and moving them around but this time we
13:48decided to experiment with drawings so the students have been making the drawings and then
13:55tom and luke beardsmore decided that they wanted to do a film about making a biscuit
14:02how we started so we started off by doing a bit of milling and
14:12we've planted the seeds and all sorts of things and then the poor old miller gets caught on the
14:17middle and then we have the cooking scene and we've got the butter and the sugar and the flour
14:23and here comes the cook and you can you can see the cook getting the rolling pin and flatten it
14:32and then it goes and he starts to cook the biscuits and the cook fetches them out the
14:37cooker you could say it takes the biscuit it takes the biscuit and then of course the final
14:42touch is eat it and uh up comes a big hand and uh they quickly disappear that's the bit i like
14:48that's the bit i like yeah yeah so he eats two biscuits and uh and chucks half of one
14:56backwards is that too much and how long has it taken to make this um film well probably about
15:02three weeks but we what we do we spend two weeks doing the drawings and then we spent uh about
15:09half half of our lesson about an hour or so last week and then we'll have a couple of hours to
15:15shoot it but the hard bit is doing all the drawings rather than the animation is relatively
15:21straightforward once you've created all the drawings but the idea was to involve all the students
15:27in making and doing the drawings so