Bringing a bit of Gaiety into our lives

Honestly? We’d hit a bit of a slump in the first nine months of lockdown.

Like most arts companies, carefully worked out plans came to naught during the pandemic.

 Community productions – no chance.

Staging a play about the Irvine witch trials? Up in smoke.

Taking our Poe-themed evenings of poems and short stories on the road again? Not a ghost of a chance.

And staging a three day Edgar Allan Poe Festival in Irvine, where the writer once lived? With a  Day of the Dead walk, horror stories, spooky movies, Gothic music nights and a lavish performance of the Masque of the Read Death in the midst of a Venetian-style ball? In the midst of a pandemic?

Even if lockdown was over and we could stage it – we’d probably have been run out of town by locals wielding pitchforks on grounds of poor taste.

So when we heard about the Gaiety’s New Scottish Companies Programme, we were excited… yet just a bit creatively moribund.

For a couple of hours, at least. Then the creative juices began to flow again.

An idea for a play about Scotland’s ancient Gods dealing with lockdown. Adaptable to stage, screen and, crucially, Zoom.  That was a start. And within a few hours, our submission was winging its way to South Ayrshire.

We had no great expectations. We knew there would be a lot of applications coming into the programme.

Therefore, when we found out we had been successful, to say we were delighted would have been an understatement. And it has proved to be a lifesaver for our arts company.

First and foremost, the support, energy and help from the Gaiety team, particularly Robbie and Jack, has been superb.

Lockdown still caused us problems. All interaction between the companies was limited to online, of course.

And eight two hour Zoom masterclasses over two weekends seemed a bit daunting at first.

But the calibre of the professionals brought in to take the masterclasses was superb. And the content covered was exceptional. Each day's sessions simply flew in and we learned a lot from every one of them. Kudos to everyone involved – perhaps especially Bernard Ross, who has agreed to become our mentor and whose support has already proved invaluable.

The masterclasses were a brilliant learning experience. And it was well worth the occasional bout of 'Zoom head'.

During the course of the programme, we also got the chance to pitch for funding to develop community arts projects for the communities for North Ayr, Maybole, and Girvan.

We devised a play called Sadie's 100, set in a South Ayrshire care home during the COVID crisis, hoping to illustrate some of the local changes during the last century and demonstrate the strength and resilience of these communities. Thanks to research funding, we have already spent time visiting residents in the communities about their history, their hopes and dreams. And the writing of the play, which we hope to adapt to other parts of Ayrshire as well, is proceeding apace.

We sincerely hope the Gaiety Theatre team continue with the New Scottish Companies programme to allow other fledgling arts groups to benefit as much as Poetic Justice Productions have from the experience.

Thanks everyone.