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WORKING WITH THE BAKED BEAN THEATRE COMPANY
Gary Butler
I have wanted to be an actor for as long as I can remember. It
started at school. All my school mates were doing it and I couldn't
wait to join in. I acted in a lot of plays at school. I joined
the Baked Bean Theatre Company back in 1997. At the time I was
attending Burntwood Lane Social Education Centre. The director
of the Baked Bean Theatre Company, Jade Grosz, started work there
as a drama teacher, which is where I met her. A lot of my friends
were already in the company, so there was all the more reason
to join.
The company first started life as a six week summer project at
Hill House Social Education Centre in Tooting. I already had the
acting experience from school and college, and it was something
that interested me. As the company grew we moved out into the
community.
First we were based for two years at the Katherine Low Settlement,
a community centre in Battersea that provides for the whole community,
including Sure Start Battersea. But then we had a stroke of luck!
We found that the Colourhouse Theatre in Merton Abbey Mills was
empty - we introduced ourselves and we were asked to become the
resident theatre company.
There are now more than 60 people with intellectual disabilities
in the Baked Bean Theatre Companies. We are in four different
groups. There's the main theatre company which I'm in. We meet
twice a week; we write our own plays and perform in professionals
venues. Then there's the Baked Bean Theatre 2 and Baked Bean Theatre
Company 3 and the newest group, Merton Beans. There are about
15 staff over all, one of whom has an intellectual disability.
We've produced a number of plays, including "Standing Out",
which is based on the film "Stepping Out". The original
film featured a woman running a dance troupe, full of working
mothers and single parents. Our version added a storyline involving
a West End Musical that had invited a group of people with intellectual
disabilities to join their show with only a week and a half to
learn their lines! I played the part of a Drama Teacher whose
job it was to put on a play in a short space of time. It was so
funny. It was all I could do to keep a straight face.
I have played numerous roles in these plays including a social
worker in our version of "Romeo and Juliet". Again,
we updated the play to a modern-day setting, including occupational
therapists and social workers in the story. The original play
had a story featuring two lovers who were kept apart because their
parents didn't like it. In our version, Romeo and Juliet are both
people with intellectual disabilities who meet through my character
(the social worker). This was to show that people with intellectual
disabilities should be able to fall in love like anybody else,
even though society keeps them apart. We had the audience in tears
at the end of the first run of the play, and it got reviews in
the local papers.
Usually I try to avoid make-up (where possible) - the last time
I wore make up was in our school production of 'Dracula'! Costumes
are something of a speciality because some are hand-made or hired,
but some are bought locally at charity shops. We get some funding
from Wandsworth Arts Office to help with costumes and sets and
we have a set designer who helps us out once a year. She made
us all sorts of things, like western style swing doors that we
used in "The Good, The Bad and The Worse". Plus we send
letters to various papers like the Guardian, and other newspapers.
We always try to invite them along so there is press coverage.
They usually write a review of our plays.
When we first moved in to the Colourhouse Theatre, it looked
really bleak. We stripped the wood bare and polished the floorboards;
now it looks too good to be true. We're still in discussion with
Jade about what colour we should paint the theatre, but we'll
figure that out soon enough.
I learn my lines by practising them in the theatre and reading
my script. We have 'line runs' of the play, as well as technical
rehearsals for the whole production. As there is usually one major
show a year, there's plenty of time to learn the lines, although
we like to dive straight into a new play once one is finished.
Life can get a bit hectic, as we also get involved in conferences.
The theatre group attends conferences to talk about what people
with intellectual disabilities can do, rather than what they can't
do.
The other actors, like me, have intellectual disabilities. Acting
gives us all freedom of expression. We've got quite a few actors
who can't talk, and acting really gives them a chance to express
how they feel in mime.
We always feel a bit apprehensive before going on stage. We don't
know how the audience is going to react. Sometimes they can be
very quiet at a matinee and we don't feel they're with us. Then
in the evening, it feels like they're more relaxed. We often get
standing ovations!
We always get on well together, but like your average family
we do disagree sometimes. Jade and Nikko Grosz direct the plays
that we produce. They're good to work with, and are quite even
tempered, (but they have their fiery side as well, when the group
muck about). They both have the patience of saints.
Performances have, on the whole, gone pretty well, although things
do go wrong sometimes. There was a mistake with cues at one point
in Romeo and Juliet, and some of the cast members came on stage
at the wrong time, but this doesn't happen often. Sometimes we
have audience participation as well, but this varies depending
on the type of play that we are performing.
I like the feeling of having lots of space to express myself.
I don't feel constricted when I'm acting. Working with the Baked
Bean Theatre Company has made me more vocal in meetings, and in
the work I do generally as a Training Advisor at St. George's
Hospital Medical School. It has changed me as a person; it has
made me less nervous, especially in front of large audiences.
Recently, we were told that we are doing another week long run
of our play 'The Usual Misfits' because the Battersea Arts Centre
is impressed with how professional we are. I'm still a bit nervous;
the most time any of our plays have run for previously is three
or four days. However, if I had been told we would be performing
every day for a week before I had joined the company, I probably
would have died of shock. (Just kidding). This time around I am
a bit more prepared, because I know what is expected of me and
others like me.
There is a commentary on this article: Setting
up the theatre company
Photographs by Paul Stuart
This article was published on the site in 2005.
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