South Coast Business Awards 2022

On 3 November, Blue Apple was delighted to receive the award for Best Use Of Technology in the South Coast Business Awards 2022 at St Mary’s Stadium, the inspirational home of Southampton Football Club, and in the company of the best of businesses across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. This award acknowledged the success of Blue Apple in sustaining activities and delivering performances in the face of extraordinary challenges during the pandemic.

Blue Apple thanks the organisers LOCALiQ, Daily Echo and Newsquest and also the award sponsors Starling Bank, Hampshire Chamber Of Commerce, Utilita, the University Of Southampton and GetSet Solent.

Blue Apple provides equal access to performing arts for people with learning disabilities who wish, like all of us, to follow their dreams. Recognition of Blue Apple matters greatly to the performers and also helps to elevate the status of their contribution to the community.

The reality is that many people with learning disabilities are isolated and excluded from opportunities and never more so than during the pandemic when they could no longer go out and connect with others to do the things they love. With digital tools Blue Apple was able to keep that contact going during very lonely and challenging times. Performers quickly adapted and mastered the technical skills they needed. But Blue Apple’s performers are used to working towards big stage shows and Blue Apple was faced with the real prospect of cancelling those due to the distancing rules. Undeterred, the team looked at new ways of staging using green screen filming to livestream a digital stage and merging it with footage previously recorded outside, all broadcast live on YouTube in December 2020. As things opened up, in the summer of 2021 Blue Apple was able to return to the Theatre Royal Winchester with a mix of small socially distanced cast on stage and a projection of pre-recorded footage, this time livestreamed from the theatre.

Post pandemic Blue Apple has kept going some online learning as it enables long distance participation and remote access by those who sometimes cannot attend in person.

It takes many people to make theatre performances work; performers, trustees, many volunteers, arts professionals all work very hard to deliver outstanding experiences for performers and audiences. It also relies on support. Blue Apple is very fortunate to be Artist in Residence at the University of Winchester who provide office and rehearsal space and who have also recently helped Blue Apple host an international festival with guest theatres from the Czech Republic and Poland, culminating in an international symposium which they helped to livestream to delegates from the USA, Australia, Greece, Norway and across the British Isles.

Prior to that some Blue Apple performers were in Rome touring our production of Frankenstein for the #KeatsShelley200 centenary in collaboration with the Keats Shelley Memorial Association and St Stephens International School in Rome.

Trustee Lucy McKenna said “I'm very proud of this award. It reflects the resilience and adaptability of our participants, staff and volunteers, in a very challenging period. Blue Apple has embraced change and used digital technology to our advantage to make our delivery agile, more inclusive and ever more creative.”

If you have never seen a Blue Apple performance, then you have a chance to enjoy ‘Lashings of Ginger Beer’ at Theatre Royal Winchester from 6-8 January which will take a light-hearted look at the British obsession with nostalgia.

Blue Apple was founded in 2005 by Jane Jessop with and for her son Tommy who could not find anywhere to pursue his love of acting.  He has now gone on to perform in films and television, most notably in Line of Duty and he still performs with our Blue Apple Singers.  One of his favourite catchphrases is #YesYouCan, encouraging other performers with learning disabilities to follow their dreams, as he has.