Scene and Heard

Theatre is close to my heart as I run OVO, a theatre company in St Albans.  Scene and Heard is a theatre company comprised of children from Somers Town, recently made famous in a 2008 film of the same name, who write plays which are performed by professional actors for four nights.  Emily Watson, Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen are amongst its supporters.  The company relies on charitable grants and private donations, and the organiser was told that for the money it cost for ten children to write a play, the council could run a theatre workshop for 200 children.  But for those ten children, having middle-class, and occasionally famous, adults watching their words come to life through a professional performance is a minor miracle and the most astonishing validation of their abilities.  What a fantastic idea.