Last month, we started Blended Service Delivery, which allowed Outside Edge service users to participate in four of our weekly recovery maintenance support sessions either on Zoom or in-person. Following the government’s announcement over the weekend, we know that many in our community have questions about how they will continue to connect with Outside Edge during the next month. At this point, we can confirm that all of our activities, including blended sessions, will go ahead as planned through Wednesday, November 4th.
During this challenging time, the physical and mental health of our service users, staff and the wider community is of utmost concern to us. The latest government guidelines make an allowance for formally organised support groups that provide mutual aid, or any other form of support, for people in drug and alcohol recovery to remain open with up to 15 participants. Therefore, we have worked with our partners in Public Health and venue delivery partners to ensure that we will be able to continue offering Covid-safe, socially distanced in-person activities throughout the upcoming period of lockdown from November 5th to December 4th.
Although we will be able to continue to offer this essential service for some service users, we strongly encourage as many people as possible to access Outside Edge activities from their homes. To that end, we will continue to make sure that all of our activities are accessible online and over the phone, as we have done over the past 8 months. If any of this information changes over the next month, then current service users will be contacted via email and SMS with updated details. New service users and friends of OETC should continue to check our website and social media for updates as the situation evolves.
As we move into the next few weeks, with increased social distancing restrictions we know that many in our community will want additional recovery and mental health support. We are pleased to be able to partner with NHS Back On Track to deliver weekly workshops throughout the lockdown period that will provide practical tools for our service users to manage anxiety, mood and sleep, stress and wellbeing, and resilience.
This year has proved to everyone at Outside Edge just how resilient our service users are. Our new mental health and wellbeing workshops, along with our ongoing drama activities and recovery maintenance support, means that we are ready to remain open and excited to get creative with you during the next lockdown. We know that whatever is thrown at us over the next few weeks our community will come together and the creativity of our participants will shine through no matter what, so keep reading below to find out all the exciting things we have planned in November!
Monthly Schedule of Activities
If you are new to OETC and would like to participate in any of these activities then please register your interest here, and someone from our team will contact you.
Mondays
6:30pm – 8:30pm – Edge Two & The Company (Christopher & Julia)
If you have been to a minimum of 3 Write Now, Drop-in Drama or Women’s Drama Group sessions, you can join this group. This module will focus on building devising skills.
Tuesdays
1:30pm – 2:30pm – Back on Track Mental Wellbeing Workshops
We are hosting NHS Back on Track workshops, which provide techniques and tools to help manage mood and anxiety during the lockdown period in November and December. Find out how to register and more below.
10th November – Anxiety
17th November – Mood and sleep
24th November – Stress and wellbeing
6:30pm-8:00pm – Theatre Club (Molly)
Join us in a conversation about our weekly Theatre Trip! Watch the play online ahead of the group then join us for a chat about the play and a Q&A with an exciting guest from the show or production team.
3rd November – Crave from Chichester Festival Theatre: In a damaged world, four characters search for the light. Angry, funny, defiant, kind and cruel, Crave is a deeply personal meditation on the meaning of love. Pulsing with loss and longing, its resonance will be doubly powerful as we begin to reconnect our lives after the loneliness and seclusion inflicted by a global pandemic.
10th November – Burn from The Old Vic: a brand new online solo performance, Burn was commissioned as a part of One Voice: Cracked, a series written in response to the changing attitudes around mental health and addiction originally curated and hosted in 2019 by Russell Brand.
17th November – Adding Machine from Finborough Theatre: Ever feel like killing your boss? After 25 long years spent adding figures in the same soul-crushing job, Mr Zero suddenly finds himself replaced by a machine. For the first time in his life, Zero takes his destiny into his own hands. The consequences set him on a path through this world and beyond, offering him one last chance for love, life and redemption.
24th November – Emilia from Shakespeare’s Globe and the West End: 400 years ago Emilia Bassano wanted her voice to be heard. It wasn’t. Could she have been the “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets? What of her own poems? Why was her story erased from history?
All November Q&A guests to be confirmed!
Wednesdays
BLENDED DELIVERY AVAILABLE for both sessions
3:30pm – 5:30pm – Write Now (Sonya & Gemma)
6:30pm – 8:30pm – West London Drop-In Drama (Tunde & Julia)
Thursdays
12:30pm – 2:30pm – Women’s Drama Group (Gemma & Charon)
6:30pm – 8:30pm – **NEW** Moving Recovery (Paul – a collaboration with Fallen Angels Dance Theatre)
7:00pm – Watch Theatre Club Show
Watch the show for next week’s Theatre Club or catch up whenever you get the chance. The plays and viewing links are listed above.
Fridays
1:00pm – 3:00pm – Peer-led Check-in (Liam & Sue)
The chat room is open for participants to support each other or just meet up to chat about how they are feeling. Open to all participants who have attended 1 other group previously.
6:30pm – 8:30pm – South London Drop-In Drama (Julia & Shiv)
Please note that all OETC groups are currently delivered on Zoom in addition to the blended sessions outlined below. All current OETC participants should have received an email and/or text message from us with information on how to join in the activities.
If you are a participant who did not yet receive this information, please email admin@edgetc.org or call us on 0207 371 8020. To keep up to date with the latest schedules check us out on Twitter (@OutsideTheatre) and Facebook (@Outsidedgetheatre) every Monday! Follow us on social media to see what Outside Edge is up to.
Fox Award Finalists Announced!
We are delighted to announce the finalists for the inaugural Phil Fox Award for Playwriting!
Boomerang by Jack Stanley
Drift by Kristian Phillips
Lessons for Diving by Silas Parry
Pushing on Open Doors by Sarah Connors
What’s Lost in the Gaps by Jack Robson
A huge congratulations to all five amazing playwrights and their incredible scripts about issues related to addiction. Want to get to know the writers and their scripts better? Watch them introduce themselves, explore their themes and discuss their motivations for applying here or check out our social channels for a synopsis of their scripts…
Watch out for an exciting announcement this Wednesday…
The Phil Fox Award for Playwriting is generously supported by:
An Anonymous Friend of OETC
NEW Outside Edge Group: Moving Recovery!
Last Thursday we had the first session of our **NEW** Moving Recovery Groupfacilitated by Paul from Fallen Angels Dance Theatre. We’re so excited for this collaboration and, if the first session is anything to go by, it’s going to be great! Thanks to everyone who came and we’d love to see even more of you there next week.
Sessions are being led by acclaimed dancer and choreographer Paul Bayes Kitcher (also in recovery) who is the Artistic Director of Fallen Angels. Paul joined us as a guest at Theatre Club last month when we watched Upon Awakening & War Within. If you missed it and want to get a flavour of the work Paul creates why not give it a watch or check out his theatre company Fallen Angels Dance Theatre.
Even if you are new to OETC you’re very welcome to join in the fun. Remember, this isn’t dance as you know it, you will learn how to unlock your own movements and it’s accessible for everyone regardless of ability. Register your interest here to join us every Thursday evening from 6.30pm-8.30pm and get moving!
Moving Recovery is supported by:
Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund.
Thanks to the Government for making this possible and Collective Voice
NHS Mental Wellbeing
Online Support Workshops
We are hosting Back on Track workshops, which will provide service users techniques and tools to help manage mood and anxiety during COVID-19 lockdown in November and December.
Sessions will last 1 hour and will be accessible via a video platform (Microsoft teams; nothing to download just need to click a link and input your name).
Registration is key for attendance so we can know how many people will be coming. Please let us know by Friday 6 November 2020.
You can self refer here and please provide the below codes when prompted to on the form.
OutsideedgeNov10 – Anxiety
OutsideedgeNov17 – Mood and sleep
OutsideedgeNov24 – Stress and wellbeing
OutsideedgeDec1 – Staying resilient
If you need support in completing this form then please email admin@edgetc.org
Annual Report and Accounts & Annual Public Meeting (AGM)
Our Annual Report and Accounts for last year (2019/20) is now available for viewing here…
Outside Edge Service Users and any of our friends (you!) are welcome to attend our Annual Public Meeting (AGM) on 12th November (5pm-6pm) to hear our CEO talk about what we achieved throughout last year. This is your opportunity to ask questions, give comments or feedback and hear us talk through the detail in our latest Annual Report and Accounts.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 861 4678 6534
Passcode: 588637
Feedback on Blended Delivery: Our journey returning to the space…
Earlier this summer we shared our Reflect, Reset, Recover plans with you. We are now firmly in the Recover phase with our Blended Service Delivery allowing us to return to in-person work last month. Four of our groups are now available to service users both on Zoom and in our new space at Baron’s Court: Edge Two, Write Now, West London Drop-in Drama and Women’s Group. It’s been amazing to run in-person sessions again, in a safe socially distanced way. We’re busy learning how best to integrate zoom into our workshop spaces so they remain accessible for everyone!
With the latest government guidelines, we are working with Public Health and our venue delivery partners to continue to offer Covid-safe, socially distanced blended work throughout November 5th – December 4th. If anything changes during this period of time, then current service users will be sent updated information via email and SMS and further details will be posted on our website and social media channels.
Here are some comments from our service users who have been participating in the blended service delivery…
Campfire-y Stories Watch Party – Congratulations Women’s Group!
Congratulations to our Women’s Drama Group for their fantastic sharing of work on Thursday 22nd October. Lots of people joined us around the virtual campfire to watch ‘Campfire-y Stories’ together over Zoom. We loved the poetry, storytelling and especially the Covid dance!
“Such a joyous evening coming together to celebrate the amazing work of Outside Edge’s Women’s Group. The writing from all the women was so moving” – Audience member
If you want to be a part of this supportive ensemble of women, please register your interest here!
Women’s Drama Group is supported by:
The Outside Edge team has expanded – Meet our new Outreach & Administration Assistant
As our charity continues to grow to meet the community’s ongoing needs throughout Covid-19, we are delighted to welcome Alessandra Davison as our new Outreach & Administration Assistant. She will be providing support to our Administration & Project Manager three days a week to ensure the continuing high standard of our programme of work and workshop delivery.
Alessandra is a director, theatre photographer and facilitator. She is on the Genesis directors programme at the Young Vic having been mentored by Roy Alexander Weise (Intro) and Sacha Wares (Springboard) and was formerly attached to the Royal Court on the Young Agitator Programme. She was previously the Assistant Director of ‘Me for the World’ (a devised show at the Young Vic about the Romani and Irish travelling communities) and Associate Director of ‘Torch Song’ at the Turbine Theatre. She directs and develops new writing including the short play ‘HATCH’ at Baron’s Court Theatre and ‘By Way of Kensal Green’ at Theatre 503. As a Director and Assistant Director she has made work for the Royal Court, Young Vic, Turbine Theatre, The Arcola, VAULT festival, Theatre 503, The Bunker, Lion and Unicorn Theatre, Baron’s Court Theatre, Latitude Festival, National Youth Theatre, The Pappy Show and Virtual collaborators.
She has also worked extensively as a facilitator for organisations such as the National Youth Theatre, previously assisting with the delivery of their 19-25 social inclusion acting course ’Stepping Up’, managing the delivery of their summer intake courses, running intake auditions and acting as a lead facilitator at Highshore SEN school (delivering accessible theatre training for students). Last year she worked with Routes theatre company to assist with the delivery of drama workshops for migrant women and led classes as a Young Company facilitator for Park Theatre.
Crowdfunding Campaign – Thank you!
Thank you, your support is hugely appreciated:
Mary Ballard, Esta Charkham, Christine David, Patricia Herbig, Olivia Munk, Poppy Reindorp, Alexandra Stringer, Rachael Tse and the many generous donors who wish to remain anonymous
Quotes of the month
OETC’s Five Ways To Wellbeing Drama Taster Sessions are ONLINE!
Outside Edge’s FREE1 hour Drama Taster Sessions have now been re-designed specifically for online delivery!
The focus of the workshop remains the Five Ways to Wellbeing, using fun, fast paced exercises that allow participants to connect in an engaging, entertaining online environment.
We only have a limited number of free sessions available for public drug and alcohol treatment services. If you would like to book an Online Drama Taster Session, please contact Alessandra for more information (admin@edgetc.org).
Taster Sessions are supported by:
Thank you to our new supporters!
During these difficult times we would like to thank our recent supporters who have made donations to Outside Edge this month:
The 29th May 1961 Charity
Support us
To continue to offer our creative activities for free we reply on the continued support of grants and donations.
If you would like to help Outside Edge through this challenging time, then please consider donating.