True Colours Theatre

WHITLEY BAY ROTARY and the
TRUE COLOURS THEATRE COMPANY

True Colours Theatre Company?.....Eh….. What’s all that about then?

Well, it’s an amazing group of volunteers who meet regularly to provide inclusive theatre classes for children and young people with additional needs and disabilities that live in the North East.

On a recent visit, Sophia Ainsworth, vice chair explained to our Rotary President Liz: "We started life nearly seven years ago as a CIC,(Charities Incorporated Club), until we realised that a registered charitable organisation, delivering social benefits rather than one set up to make a profit, was a better fit for our services. So we gained help from VODA (Voluntary Organisations’ Development Agency), to make the transition and were given CIO, (Charitable Incorporated Organisation), status on 3 November 2020.
Our mission then is to celebrate diversity and build confidence through performing arts. We teach theatre skills and disciplines in a fun and nurturing way and often perform around the region. Our members are referred to us by local specialist schools, charities, speech and language therapy contacts, parents and other statutory services.
We currently have 65 members that attend class each week in North Tyneside. As part of our work in the community, we also visit hospitals and schools to provide theatre skills classes, sensory stories and palliative care to an additional 100+ children.
During the COVID lock-down, we have continued supporting our beneficiaries via zoom meetings and by hosting quiz sessions, script reading sessions, social catch ups and activities. But now all our members and volunteers are very happy to be back and working face to face and we all look forward to a much brighter future in 2021 and beyond.”

So on a visit to the Meadow Well Connected Centre in North Shields, one sunny Saturday morning in June; President Liz was invited along to one of their classes to see the young people in action and to make a presentation of sensory items to the club.
Amazing things such as stretchy fidget snakes, sensory liquid floor tiles, light up comet spheres, flashing wands, elastic snakes, rain makers and a bubble machine were presented to the group.
Afterwards, President Liz was invited to watch one of the groups in action and she commented, ‘Well, I’m delighted to be here this morning and to see so many happy faces, but after watching you all for the last fifteen minutes or so, I feel just as exhausted, as if I’d been doing all the actions myself!’
And when one of the young people asked if Liz was the Queen, presumably because of her chain of office, Liz replied; ‘No I’m not the queen, but right now you make me feel just as old!’.

Our pictures show the volunteers and young people receiving their new sensory items.
If you would like to know about the work of the True Colours Theatre Group please go to:
www.truecolourstheatre.co.uk
www.facebook.com/truecolourstheatreCIOfoundation/

Richard Hart
Whitley Bay Rotary Club – Press and Publicity