Photograph Credit: Catherine Kingston
Despite Covid restrictions, a Salford theatre company plans to perform at a Christmas Charity event for disadvantaged children.
Colour the Clouds, a theatre company in Salford, are still managing to provide entertainment for children and their families, despite the pandemic. They have had a long-standing Christmas connection with children’s charity, The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT). CAFT charity provides once in a lifetime opportunities for terminally ill, disabled and disadvantaged children all over the North West.
Every year at Christmas, Colour the Clouds, work with CAFT to provide a Christmas party day where a half an hour show is performed in front of the children. The children are always encouraged to participate as an audience.
The day is a special event for disadvantaged children and families who can enjoy an indoor play area, inflatables, and a hot Christmas dinner. The children are also given the opportunity to meet Father Christmas and feed his reindeer! Each child leaves the event with a big bag full of presents that have been specially targeted towards that child and their family.
Catherine Kingston, Co-founder of Colour the Clouds said: “CAFT are an amazing charity and Christmas is always a really big time of year for them. The work they do for the Christmas party is so important because for some children, this is the only hot Christmas dinner they will get.”
This year, however, they have not been able to do any of that due to the large impact of Covid. In its place, they’ve created an outdoor trail event. Colour the Clouds will perform a reduced 10-minute slot with smaller audience sizes.
Catherine said: “To be able to bring them a little bit of live entertainment and interact with them and still make them feel like there’s still some Christmas spirit there, I think is really important.”
“I guess for them having just a small group watching a little bit of entertainment is almost more magical in a way because they feel like it’s just for them.”
“Shows have always been our main focus and we obviously haven’t been able to do that this year because of COVID which has been really hard.”
“Out of the five of us in the company, four are parents and I think as parents, you can understand that it’s not always easy to take your kids to the theatre. If the show is for your three year old then what do you do with your baby and can they come or not?”
“We’ve always just focused on that really and what our audience would need- that’s our USP really”
Theatre is a popular Christmas tradition for many so Colour the Clouds are excited to be able to bring some live entertainment, interact with the children safely and bring them some Christmas spirit.
Below is an audio excerpt from Colour the Clouds as they rehearse the end of their production, The Extraordinary Tale of Holly Christmas.
Credit to : The team at Colour the Clouds and cast members Hollie Steel, Richard de Winter, Althea Buree and Jack Alexander.
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