Holiday Reviews: Lockdown “Worst Holiday Ever!”

“The service was terrible (I’m not the best cook and all the takeaways were closed!) and there was very little to do. I mean one walk a day!? There are only so many times you can watch every episode of Hey Duggee, before your head starts to melt! And don’t get me started on social distancing, mask wearing and hand washing…”

Vicky Spencer - Arts Practitioner

Coronavirus disrupted so much for me as it did for the whole world. One of my enduring memories is when Zac called the arts practitioner team into a meeting room during a workshop and told us that the whole country was going into lockdown. No more workshops. I remember thinking that hopefully it would only be for a few months. I couldn’t and still can’t imagine my life without TramShed and that’s how I know that this organisation is special. Everyone who comes into contact with it is touched and somehow altered by it, usually for the better.

On top of no weekly workshops, I had a very bored toddler and had found out I was pregnant again, about a week before lockdown was announced. It was a hard time to be so isolated and it made me miss my TramShed family more than ever before. As the lockdown rolled on, the arts team began to explore a new version of TramShed. There were some scary moments early on. The thought of TramShed not surviving COVID spurred us all on to do whatever it took to keep our inclusive theatre alive. Mobile phones became cameras for our lip-syncing adventures!

The possibility for a new way of doing things inspired our creativity and suddenly, thanks to Zac, we had funding for new equipment and saw our wonderful members again. It was all very new; we all had to adapt very quickly and learn skills we never thought we would have to learn. Cameras, lights, headphones, zoom, how on earth were we going to play jockeys up online! Online delivery challenged our ability to be inclusive and gave us so much to think about but as always, the practitioners, volunteers and members rose to the challenge. Creativity, adaptability, exploration, teamwork, inclusion, positivity, the skills at the heart of TramShed shone through and where other organisations fell silent, we produced our first original inclusive online play.

I am so proud of our little inclusive theatre company. Proud of what we have achieved and what we continue to achieve. From the wreckage of COVID-19 we are emerging stronger and with new skills, knowledge and experience to offer than ever before, but still with the same mission, providing opportunity for anyone and everyone to come and experience the transformative power and joy of theatre, community and inclusivity.

#apartofbeingapart

Vicky Spencer

Arts Practitioner