Since the start of lockdown, with many events unfortunately having to be postponed for the time being, here at Peter Corry Productions we (like many) have had a bit of time on our hands so here’s an update on what’s been keeping us busy.
BSPA
Peter has been concentrating on his mentoring role as Artistic Director with BSPA. Like many schools, teaching has been brought online and many students have been zooming along with the rest of the World, keeping their skills up and continuing to enjoy the contact with their teachers. In addition to lessons, BSPA students have been afforded lots of other great opportunities over this period, one of which was bringing together over 100 pupils in a video of ‘Sing’ by Gary Barlow to help raise funds for Cancer Fund For Children. In addition to this, the Juniors were given their own video project of ‘Tomorrow’ from the musical ‘Annie’ for the same charity.
While online has been where it’s at, BSPA also hosted a quiz on Facebook live which involved 35 number of staff from management through to teachers, assistants and production. A recent talent competition was also hosted on Facebook live giving pupils the chance to show off some of their skills and choose what they wanted to showcase in singing, dancing, acting and in a specialist skills category.
Whilst all the online projects were well received, fortunately with things starting to be relaxed BSPA have been able to run ’The Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ week’s summer course which allowed 80 pupils to come together (in small and socially distanced groups of course) and finally perform with their classmates and learn from their teachers in the flesh!
BSPA plans to re-open adhering to all current guidelines at the start of September.
The Red Velvet Cabaret
The Red Velvet Cabaret went online with a night at The Candlelight Club. Our first online venture, we learned a lot from the experience in terms of re-framing a theatrical production for the new online audience. We also experimented with a donation option for the first time and happily, all the performers were paid a fee as a result of the generosity of the audience.
We toyed with the idea of doing a second version but ultimately feel these productions work best in the cabaret setting they are designed for so we look forward to a time when our performers can get up close and personal with you again sometime.
The performance is available to view here, just skip ahead to 6:40.
Theatre Search
Fleur was involved as the project producer for Northern Ireland & Scotland on a project funded by the Arts Council England called Theatre Search. This was created as a response to COVID-19 on our sector and the particular challenges it has been facing.
Theatre Search is a free to access database of theatres, festivals, and performance spaces across the UK with regularly updated programming windows and the current open/closed statuses of all the above. For more details click here.
Theatre & Dance NI
Fleur has been a board member of Dance Resource Base for the last couple of years who have successfully merged with Theatre NI to form the powerhouse that is Theatre & Dance NI, the main resource organisation for Northern Ireland. Fleur has continued across onto this new board and continues to be an advocate for freelancers and the theatre & dance industry. The merger completed successfully at the start of lockdown and throughout the last months has been an invaluable support to our sector. If you aren’t a member it’s inexpensive to join and gets you all kinds of benefits from a friendly voice at the end of the phone, to mental health support and free access to counselling from Spectrum, guidance on funding applications, training and a wealth of industry experience.
Through this association, Fleur has been part of lobbying MLA’s to campaign and put the case forward for extensions to both JRS & SEISS for the sector alongside immediate rescue support for organisations and individuals who to date have received nothing at all. She has also been a part of the consultation process for the recently published Venue re-opening guidelines for NI which you can view here.
To learn more about Theatre & Dance NI click here.
Enquiries
It has been a quiet time but some enquiries are starting to come in now that we have seen the guidelines from The Executive allowing for some elements of planning. Whilst the dates for the re-opening of venues keep changing and may continue to change it’s important to still make plans with flexibility built into them.
We have a project on the go at present for a charity and will share more news of that when we are allowed.
If you would like to consider any level of entertainment we have access to brilliant performers with soloists, duets, and small groups who can entertain you safely either at your private event, work morale booster, or home celebration. Please feel free to get in touch about what we can offer as it’s not just all about big shows. For more details on our production provision visit here.
We hope to be able to bring you some exciting performance later in the year but are still in consultation with venues and our audiences as to what is possible so we’ll update with that news as we have it.
In the meantime, thanks to all our clients and partners for checking in and for all your support and encouragement over the last months, whether that’s been with advice or just a friendly chat.
