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Since our last update in September we have been keeping busy with some enjoyable projects and also advocating for our sector in these difficult times. Here’s an overview of the end of 2020.

Energy For Children

We were approached by Phoenix Natural Gas to create a video for their Energy For Children Charity which would enable them to gain some visibility and opportunity for fundraising at a time when fundraising events have become mostly virtual. The brief was to create an upbeat musical video along the lines of a comic relief style presentation to include past recipients of the charity and some of the staff at Phoenix Gas, all led by Peter. Creating the video content during C19 safety protocols and ever-changing restrictions was a challenge but we were very happy to also be able to involve Ulster Rugby who is also Phoenix Gas sponsorship recipients. It was important to all involved that this conveyed a positive and upbeat message. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and in particular, meeting all the recipients. 

The Big Night In 2020

Charity involvement has always been important to us at Peter Corry Productions and over the years we have worked with numerous local organisations to help them fundraise and profile. 

Continuing this approach, Peter performed as part of a recorded online concert involving numerous artists to raise money and awareness in aid of the NI Children’s hospice. He performed in St Anne’s Cathedral and it was great to touch base with the team there.

Committee for Communities

Peter was asked to present to the committee relating to the Department For Communities to bring his viewpoint and experience on the current challenges being faced by our sector at this stage in the pandemic. You can view the full presentation here starting at 2 hours 49 minutes.

Due to the fact that the committee was running slightly short on time, Peter was asked to summarise some of his points as in the recording. If you would like to view the full prepared statement click the link here.

In his capacity as Artistic Director for BSPA Peter was also asked to submit a paper relating to the challenges being faced by performing arts schools and teachers at this time. This has been submitted and is currently awaiting a response.

Window Wonderland

Over the course of 2020 we submitted numerous proposals with a variety of different ideas for projects to our clients and local councils. Ards & North Down Council got us in to discuss one of these suggestions and Window Wonderland was born. This idea was designed as a way to help re-animate town centres and drive footfall at a time when town centres and retail have been hit hard. Taking place throughout December at 5 different towns, by placing performers in shop windows we brought these spaces to life with magical fairytale characters through storytelling, dance, mime and music. By having performers behind glass, this allowed safe viewing for the public who were outdoors and able to distance successfully whilst enjoying bite sized performances of up to 5 minutes repeated 3 times an hour.

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Shoppers could enjoy numerous performances across the space of a couple of hours and considered placement of participating retailers meant that shoppers were encouraged up and down high streets and around corners through a good spread of the area. This also generated interest and excitement for the participating retailers and helped improve footfall into their shops. At a time when panto’s and Theatre weren’t accessible or open, this created an energy and a sense of real magic around Christmastime. It reminded people of the joy of live performance they have been missing. Ourselves and the council received incredible feedback from this enterprise from members of the public across generations who were able to experience this together safely.

The Ulster Orchestra

Elfagram

Not strictly a Peter Corry Productions enterprise but certainly due a mention. Producer Fleur Mellor created an entirely new service for Christmas called Elfagram which saw singing elves delivering the gift of a song and personalised cards to hundreds of homes across the province. This fun service was designed to spread cheer and encourage connection throughout December at a time where we were not able to mix households and see loved ones. With all Elfagrams taking place outside this was a way to distance and still enjoy live music safely.

Elfagrams were booked for residents in care homes, grandparents, nurseries, aunties, cousins, children who were also able to hand over their letters to Santa and all manner of friends and relatives. They were booked from abroad and from round the corner. Every Elfagram booked was successfully delivered and this provided employment for a number of artists at a time when most traditional routes to work for singers had been closed. It was a positive and heartwarming way to end what has been a very strange year.

What now?

We are still continuing to be optimistic and currently have some dates on hold for 2021 including Christmas At The Cathedral and are in conversation about a few other projects at present. We hope to be able to bring you another positive update in the next few months to come. 

Without any indication of outdoor or indoor re-opening dates for venues, it’s a tough time for the industry still and whilst the film industry has successfully managed to achieve a level of underwriting of insurance to allow filming to continue, this isn’t an option currently afforded to our sector. Without insurance that helps producers to recoup losses due to closures brought about by C19 that means producers are having to independently take on these risks to enable any level of production to go ahead. To our colleagues taking these brave steps at this time, we support you and take our hats off to you and hope that this year the advancements of the vaccine will allow some light into what has been a dark time for arts and culture. 

In the meantime, we continue to talk, dream and plan as far as we can about what opportunities we can realise. If anyone would like to talk and dream with us about anything they would like to consider going forward please get in touch.

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.

Peter Corry Productions is always on the lookout for new talent and exciting professionals to work with in a variety of projects from theatre to tours and corporate events.

If you are a singer, dancer, circus artist, musician or a group then we want to know about you. We are currently interested in any performers with accommodation or a base in Northern Ireland.

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