{"id":1373,"date":"2021-01-26T11:49:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T11:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/?p=1373"},"modified":"2021-02-01T13:33:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T13:33:30","slug":"kent-theatre-company-left-in-limbo-since-first-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/2021\/01\/26\/kent-theatre-company-left-in-limbo-since-first-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent theatre company left in limbo since first lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The pandemic has left a theatre company in Kent in limbo and without support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subgrey Productions is a Kent based newly-created local theatre company that was just about to go on its first tour before the lockdown hit last March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their tour and activities have been put on hold since then since they haven\u2019t been able to use the local theatres in Kent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Slaughter is the director and founder of Subgrey Productions. SubGrey was created to support performing arts students (currently at college\/University), as well as unknown local actors. He intended for the production company to be able to form a network for up and coming actors and crew members going into the theatre world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He felt that this group wasn\u2019t supported after their training in order to build their careers. Hence, Subgrey Productions intended to bridge the gap between amateur and professional theatre. Paul said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel for my actors and my crew who are absolutely fantastic. Highly talented young people who really deserve an opportunity to experience commercial and professional theatre which is what I tried to create.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the pandemic, Subgrey productions was left in a voluntary status which meant that Paul was not able to apply for support from the government. While he has already invested a large part of his pension to create Subgrey, he has had to use more of that in order to pay the storage charges for the company\u2019s equipment for the last 10 months so that they will be able to perform when it is safe to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Silhouettes- Photo by Kyle Head<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Despite falling in cracks of government support, Paul is determined to get his show \u201cAll-Clear\u201d into theatres and show off the hard work of his team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will happen. One way or another. Even if I have to wait till 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last October, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport gave a total of \u00a3257 million to over 1,300 theatres and other cultural venues. However, Paul fears this money is not supporting local theatres and community centres which have been hit hard by not being able to open. He has lobbied the government since last summer<\/a> but hasn\u2019t been successful so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such community hub is the Mersea Island Community Centre in Colchester, Essex. It is currently fundraising<\/a> to cover the time it has been shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claire Thomas is the principal of an amateur dramatics group, Mersea Island Young Players and she highlights the importance of the centre. She said: \u201cThe MICA as it\u2019s known on Mersea, is a real hub for our community, holding classes, groups and events for all ages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“We will be back” – Photo by PA Wire\/PA Images<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While she is in complete support of the arts, she believes it should not be prioritised right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added: \u201cI personally feel that theatre is an amazing extra, but an extra none the less. Our government should be supporting the NHS, those who are unable to work at the moment (including those within the arts) and other essential services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will be back, and when we are we’ll be better and stronger than before. But for the moment, we have to do what we can to keep everyone as safe as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pandemic has left a theatre company in Kent in limbo and without support. Subgrey Productions is a Kent based newly-created local theatre company that was just about to go on its first tour before the lockdown hit last March….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[]},"categories":[9,13,7],"tags":[69,40,20,196],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}