Susan Jamson recaps a busy year and looks forward to what’s to come at the Southgate theatre in 2023

Collecting a Variety Club 'Silver Heart Award' on behalf of Chickenshed are the theatre’s creative producer Michael Bossisse and youth theatre member Laura Brady — *Collecting a Variety Club ‘Silver Heart Award’ on behalf of Chickenshed are the theatre’s creative producer Michael Bossisse and youth theatre member Laura Brady*

The Christmas and new year period is always very special, exciting and busy for Chickenshed. Our theatre has been packed full of sounds, lights and emotions as we perform our big winter show, Jack!, and our early years children shows, Christmas Tales and Christmas Planet Play.

If 86 performances weren’t enough, we’ve also seen our touring teams piling into our minibus to take shows to those who are not able to visit our theatre in person.

Jack! (which runs until 7^th January) has received some amazing four-star reviews in the national press, with The Guardian writing “it would take a heart of stone not to be drawn in by this inclusive marvel of a show” and The Times describing it as a “giant Christmas show” which “takes fairytale to another level”.

We also celebrated being presented with a Variety Club ‘Silver Heart Award’ for our “outstanding contribution to diversity and inclusion in the performing arts”. A cast of 20 performed at Hilton Hotel on 21^st November and Chickenshed’s creative producer Michael Bossisse and youth theatre member Laura Brady were delighted to accept the award on Chickenshed’s behalf.

Laura explained in her speech how it feels to be part of Chickenshed, and how Chickenshed feels to be part of the world. She said: “I joined Chickenshed when I was seven and I was nervous about making new friends. But now I have been there for so many years – I have made lots of friends, as well as being part of awesome theatre.

“At Chickenshed I get a chance to have a voice and express my emotions. I would love for more people to be able to share this with us. Because everyone deserves to feel comfortable about who they are. And everyone deserves to feel valued for what they can give.

“Performing arts is a place where the imagination can make a change for the world – so, for that reason, the world needs to be able to be part of it.

“I hope that all of you can find a way to have a bit of Chickenshed in your world too.”

Chickenshed’s outreach and touring programmes have been thriving throughout 2022. Two of our projects – ‘Crime of the Century’ and ‘Day 1 Big School’ – have performed or led workshops in more than 40 venues. We have visited schools up and down the country, performed and shared experiences at several conferences, and led workshops in most of Enfield’s pupil referral units.

One student offered this feedback: “It was really good and one of the best workshops we’ve ever done. We talked about all the positive new things that would happen to us, like being more independent and making new friends. And we talked about some things that might worry us like having more homework, peer pressure, getting lost or having new teachers.”

As we celebrate 2022, we look forward to all the new productions and adventures that are around the corner in 2023, including two new shows; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Theatre being performed in our studio theatre in February and Rush, our main house production opening at the beginning of March.

We look forward to welcoming you to Chickenshed in the coming months.

For more information about Chickenshed and to book tickets:
Visit chickenshed.org.uk

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