Creative Crawley have presented Theatre Centre and Sheffield Theatres co-production Dizzy at the Hawth. In the video above, you can see speeches by Creative Crawley creative director Louise Blackwell, Theatre Centre executive director and CEO Emma Rees and Theatre Centre artistic director Rob Watt at the showcase at the Hawth plus part of the Q&A with Watt and actors Sera Mustafa and Brendan Barclay.
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00:00So, hello everybody. Welcome to the hall. My name is Louise and I am the Creative Director
00:04of Creative Crawley and we are delighted to be presenting this show by Theatre Centre here today.
00:11So, I'm going to do a little bit of an intro and then Rob and Emma from Theatre Centre are also
00:17going to speak. So, Creative Crawley is a relatively new arts charity. We've been going for about three
00:23years and we're based here in Crawley and our mission is to support creative people and to
00:28develop the infrastructure here so that more creative things can happen. We've got two kind
00:34of major projects that we run. One is called Creative Playgrounds and that is the Creative
00:39People and Places project for Crawley funded by Arts Council England mainly. There are colleagues
00:45in the room here so I'll say a big thank you in a minute. And that is a resident-led programme
00:49that's about engaging with people that don't necessarily have access to arts and culture
00:54all the time. And then the other one is the Creative Village and that is what this
00:59programme is part of. So, Creative Village is about developing the cultural infrastructure here,
01:05developing skills in creative people who want to have jobs in the industry and also presenting
01:12extraordinary new work by local, national and international people. So, the programme
01:21is, again, funded by Arts Council England. So, thank you so much for all of the support to the
01:26colleagues that are in the room. The Arts Council are making a difference in Crawley, changing the
01:31face of the town, definitely, through the support for us but also for others. And we are delighted
01:38to have Dizzy here but also in the spring we're working with a company called Retcart and Rosenberg
01:43who are bringing a wild dance show to County Mall, the shopping centre. You listen on headphones,
01:50it's a bit like it kind of just emerges and happens. So, that's going to happen in March.
01:54And then we're working with Leap Then Look who are an extraordinary visual arts-based company
01:59who are making an exhibition that is completely playable. So, you can kind of climb on the
02:04sculptures, you can put things all around the room and it's going to be really fun.
02:10The reason that I'm so happy that Theatre Centre are here is because we're in a partnership that
02:15is about developing a cultural hub in the town, in West Green, in the neighbourhood,
02:21that way, and really near the town centre. And that is to support young people to make
02:29creative work happen but also local artists. So, we're going to test a kind of hub next year
02:35of artist studios and rehearsal spaces. And we're also taking over, this is hot off the press,
02:40taking over a unit in County Mall to present loads of work as well.
02:45So, it's going to be the kind of one-stop shop for culture in the town.
02:51Thank you, Louise. I won't talk for long because you'll want to hear more from Rob than from me.
02:55But I just wanted to really say it's absolutely wonderful to see everybody.
03:00It's a year to the day that we launched the space in West Green with our podcast,
03:05our Crawley Stories podcast, which is still available at the moment. Some of our artists
03:12are in space, Sarah and Anna, and the young people who are involved. We have had the most
03:18incredible 18 months of being based in Crawley and it's the beginning. As Louise has said,
03:22there is so much more that we have planned that we want to achieve. The welcome that we've had
03:28here has been absolutely incredible. And the dreams and the plans that we're putting together
03:35for the future of our work within here, in Crawley, and the way that we want to work with
03:39young people and with artists and local teachers and colleges. It's super exciting and we'll keep
03:46you updated. Hi, I'm Rob. If Craig Crawley is three years old, then Fit Centre is the grandmother of
03:58Crawley because we are 71 years old as a company. We've been doing this for 71 years.
04:03I haven't been with the company for 71 years, but one of our ex-artistic directors is also here as
04:09well. But we are here to make work with and for young people. The with is really important. So
04:16this show that you're about to see, we've been making over the last two years with an amazing
04:20writer called Mohamed Zain Dardar. And we've been going and listening to loads of young people
04:26across the country, including in Crawley. So what you see on that stage has been made through all
04:32the conversations from young people. Zain didn't really know what he was going to write and then
04:36listen to those young people and then went, OK, this is what this is what it is. So he was listening
04:41to lots of young people and it was post-Covid and there was a lot about loss for young people,
04:47loss of identity, loss of opportunity, loss of people. And he wants to write a story that spoke
04:52to that. That sounds really heavy, right? So there is some laughs in it as well. So all good.
05:00And also where it's important to us that the work speaks to everyone. So we do take this into
05:03schools. We were in St. Wilfrid's and some local schools this week. So we take the same show that
05:09you're about to see into schools. The only thing that's different is that you don't get lighting
05:12effects. So you get some extras. And then we take it into venues as well. And it's important that
05:19we go to venues because we want the adults in young people's lives to experience that part of
05:24their lives, a slice of life that you wouldn't normally. Because, hey, after 18, we forget we
05:28were young, right? We call them young people. Rather than actually, of course, we're all human
05:33beings that just age, right? So it's part that all these stories are for everyone.
05:47But do let us know. This is what we do in schools. When we go to schools, we will always do a Q&A
05:52afterwards. It's important for us that the magic of the thing we create, we don't want to be like
05:57Wizard of Oz, and you pull back a curtain. I was a white man, generally, usually. But we're
06:02interested in the people who make the work. So I just want to point out Neil, who is our company's
06:07stage manager, who has just taken over from our other company's stage manager, Lizzie. So he's
06:13just picked up lots of things today. Brilliant. This is Herbie, who's our production manager,
06:17just back there. And Jessie was our lighting designer. All cringing, but didn't realise that.
06:22What is the main question that the children are given?
06:29It's like a set for you that they always ask.
06:32There tends to be, because they're teachers giving them questions,
06:38to write about it in one of their GCSE pieces. And so it's amazing how the wording
06:42will just be like, I've heard that one before. We always just go, great question.
06:46That's something like a 10 point answer for them. But we normally get, what's the moral of the
06:52piece? What should we take away from it? What does the set signify? What does the
06:55costume signify? How did Callum die? How did Yacine die? How did you get into acting?
07:03How much do you get paid?
07:04How much do you get paid?
07:06There's always a cheeky one on the cover that goes, shh shh shh.
07:10What's your favourite football team for Brenda?
07:14Yeah, what else?
07:18So I found the whole thing an emotional rollercoaster. So do you get extreme reactions
07:26in terms of anger or tears or people being upset whilst they're watching the show?
07:29Obviously you're focusing on your acting, but you must sense that it's happening.
07:34Yeah, a few girls who were quite moved by it. I think sometimes it's hard because
07:41we're really blessed because when we go into schools, we have a genuine conversation with
07:46the kids afterwards and we can see their reactions. But sometimes when we did it in
07:50Sheffield, we've done the show, that's it, we don't see the audience up, so we don't know what
07:53their reaction is. But yeah, there was this one school that a few girls were really impacted by
07:59which was hard because you don't want to make young kids cry. But then another school, there
08:05was this girl who came up to us afterwards, she was crying but she was like, no, she was like,
08:10these are happy tears. But yeah, people do have quite a strong reaction.
08:16This is the beginning of stuff for us. It's the first time we've been in the Horth. We've
08:20been welcomed beautifully. We're going to be back here, I'm sure. It is our home theatre space now
08:27that's big and we want to build audiences. That takes time. It is something new that's within
08:32the programme of this brilliant building. My ask of you today is the two people that you know that
08:40might have time tomorrow to come, please ask them. Tickets are £5 or £10. You pay what you want.
08:46Which is less than your monthly Netflix, right? It's on a 4.15, 4.30, 7.15 tomorrow.
08:59And we want as many audiences to come and see this as possible because
09:03we want to start building that. That's what we're about, what Creative Crawley is about.
09:07So more of that, please.