2010 to 2011

Along with running the Making Theatre training course for aspiring actors with learning disabilities.  We also offered one day a week training courses in acting and dance skills.

Almost 10,000 people saw our award-winning adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice & Men which was performed 50 times at theatres and arts centres across the UK – making it our most successful tour to date.

We launched Create, a series of weekly arts, media and theatre activities for young people with learning disabilities.

Chicken Coup! Mind the Gap’s newest street theatre piece, entertained festivalgoers at Bradford Mela, Culture Shock, Unity Festival, Halifax Festival, Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, Positive Bradford Day and Saltaire Festival.

2009 to 2010

13 actors with learning disabilities completed the Making Theatre training course.

Mind the Gap’s IF Group project managed and delivered a year long programme of activities for young people from across West Yorkshire to ‘Have a Go…’ at drama, dance and creative arts activities. 

We completed a UK wide tour of Boo, a completely new work inspired by the character of Boo Radley from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, written for the company by Mike Kenny.

Numerous voluntary, public and corporate organisations benefited from the exemplary access facilities in Mind the Gap Studios by hiring space for training, meetings and events.

We were winners of a Yorkshire Forward Creating Better Futures Award for our partnership with Urban Splash.

 

2008 to 2009

6 more aspiring actors with learning disabilities trained alongside their non-disabled peers at top drama schools on the national Staging Change course

Our accredited training course Making Theatre increased in size to allow 9 people to train with us, learning design, workshop and performance skills

I’m With Stupid residency at Leeds Met University saw artists with learning disabilities interact with around 30,000 students, to challenge notions of stupidity in contemporary society… and see how stupid a giant chicken can be…

On the Verge toured internationally to Canada and Hong Kong. We also produced a full length film and a trailer of the production

We launched a specialist Actors’ Agency for actors with learning disabilities, to provide a knowledgeable point of contact for an industry that’s keen to work with authentic actors for the parts that are being written

Learning disabled actors gained over 18 professional contracts through Mind the Gap’s Actors’ Agency, including contracts with the BBC, ITV, Radio 4, Theatre Workshop, Benchmarks, English National Opera and many more

Development began for our Spring 2009 National Tour of Boo, written by Mike Kenny. We held 2 development weeks involving the writer and 5 professional learning disabled actors

The Mind the Gap website was redesigned and relaunched

And if all of this wasn't enough for us... we moved! It took 7 years from the idea to the delivery, but Mind the Gap are delighted to have finally moved into our beautiful new purpose built home at the Silk Warehouse in the iconic Lister Mills

The move to Lister Mills was marked by an event where the building was officially launched by Baroness Lockwood. This was followed up by our first ever Moth Ball, which will be replicated in Hong Kong in 2009

 

2007 to 2008

In 2007-8 we worked with 416 people with learning disabilities, helping them develop confidence alongside acting skills

6 aspiring actors with learning disabilities trained alongside their non-disabled peers at top drama schools on our Staging Change course

59 young people with learning disabilities took part in our theatre workshops in schools

12 people with learning disabilities trained on our Up Front course, gaining the necessary skills to work Front of House in venues, galleries and museums

7 people trained on accredited training course Making Theatre, learning design, workshop and performance skills

We had a bumper year of applications for our Staging Change and Making Theatre courses: 27 people applied to join Making Theatre, 22 people across the UK wanted to train on Staging Change

30 people took part in a collaborative project with Leeds University MA students, where non-disabled and disabled people were involved in a creative process as equals