AN INSPIRATIONAL theatre group is doing far more than Bridging a Gap.
Guide Bridge in Audenshaw is home to the society that allows dedicated actors, many of whom live with with additional needs, to take to the stage.
And when The Correspondent attended rehearsals for Bridging the Gap’s forthcoming production, Welcome To Little Toplea Bottom, a message was rammed home.
It does not matter whether you are able bodied or disabled, your needs do not matter – talent does not discriminate.
If you have the drive, you can succeed.
Even before a line is read, director Jane Martin delivers the key message after she appeared in Overlooked, which features a character with mobility issues.
She said: “We changed the world, just a little bit.
“A lot of people rethought homelessness and maybe disability, that’s huge.
“To make them see others slightly differently increases the buzz of appearing. This show has the potential to do that.
“If one person leaves with a different thought after seeing it, we’ve changed the world. That’s why theatre and the arts are so important.”
Just seeing the warm-up the cast, mainly made up of teenagers, went through showed how serious this is.
Not just limbering up and stretching, the vocal exercises were just as tiring.
Messages included: “I want you to feel your moustache area tingling,” and “Feel your mouth go outwards and upwards.”
The rendition of Poppy’s Got A Head Like A Ping Pong Ball, which gets faster and comes with actions, was seriously energetic.
Once the reading of lines – including renditions of musical numbers – starts, the frustrations any actor has come out.
One line, however, hits home. “I have cerebral palsy. We’re not meant to have feelings.”
Bridging the Gap aims to give young adults, aged over 16, the opportunity to perform major roles and/or take responsibility for other elements of a production, be that directing, set design, lighting design or stage management etc.
It gives them the training, experience and confidence to enjoy a lifetime’s involvement with live performance.
There is no experience needed. All it takes is an interest in developing new skills and the willingness to have a go.
And the result will be seen on the Audenshaw Road stage twice on Saturday, August 31 – with a matinee at 2pm and an evening showing at 7.30pm.
Workshops are held at Guide Bridge Theatre on Sundays from 5pm until 7pm and they trach things like circus skills, stage combat, singing, dancing and physical theatre – using your body to convey character or emotion.
If this sight of what its members can do is anything to go by, expect something special.
*TICKETS for Welcome To Little Toplea Bottom are priced £9 and can be bought by clicking www.ticketsource.co.uk/gbt/e-eqkrmk.
- Youth groups or theatre groups (young people aged 10 years and above) are eligible for free tickets. Contact m_lockwood1@sky.com for details.