Geese Annual Review 2011/12

Theatre and Drama withinthe Criminal Justice System:

n Performances

n Workshops

n Residencies

n Long-term programmes

n Staff training

n Consultancy

moving forward

annual review 2011/12

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GEESE THEATRE COMPANY

3 Welcome

4-5 Prisons and Secure Settings

6-7 Community Settings

8-9 25 Years of Geese

10-11 Mental Health Settings

12-13 Conferences and Training

14 Financial Summary

15 Members of the ExecutiveCommittee and Company

16 Contacts

contents

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2011/12

The company began on a less-than-shoestring budget in Lozells, Birminghamin 1987, relying on a small, sociallycommitted group of volunteer actors. The company is now widely recognised as a leader in the use of applied theatre in criminal justice settings. 25 years ofresearch tells us that the approach has areal impact. We see clear and increasingevidence of the power of theatre-basedpractice to engage, to encourage, topromote change, and to offer people thechance to ‘try it a different way’ with the hope of a better future.

The Board of Trustees thank andacknowledge the many organisations andindividuals who have sustained thecompany’s work over two and a halfdecades. We thank...

n The Arts Council, England, manycharitable trusts and charities,individual contributors and agenciesand organisations that havecommissioned work from the company.

n Countless thousands of participantsand audience members, who havemade it all worthwhile.

n The academic researchers who haveconducted rigorous studiesdemonstrating the positive effects ofthe company’s work.

n The 55 current and former memberswho have performed, facilitated,administered, raised funds for,promoted and directed thousands of inspirational performances and workshops.

n Andy Watson, the Artistic Director, whocontinues to direct the company withgreat dedication and expertise. WithAndy at the helm, the company hascontinued to innovate and producework of great variety, creativeexcellence and proven effectiveness.

I am particularly glad to see in this annualreview reminiscences from past DirectorsSaul Hewish, Simon Ruding and SallyBrookes, and also from John Bergman, thefounder of the original Geese USA in 1980,which gave rise to the UK company as asister organisation way back when.

We thank you all.

If you would like to learn more about thework of Geese Theatre Company thenplease contact us. If you would like tomake a donation to support our work then please:

Visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com and search for Geese, or

Text GEES25 £5 to 70070.

And please be aware that until May 2014every donation we receive will be doubledby Arts Council, England.

To use drama and theatre

practice to enable choice,

responsibility and change

amongst offenders and

people at risk of offending

in order to reduce crime and

re-offending and create

safer communities.

Geese Theatre Company Mission Statement

Geese Theatre Company celebrates its 25th anniversary this year -an important achievement and a significant milestone.

Welcome

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Clark BaimChair of the Executive Committee

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Prisons andSecure Settings

We have maintained genuinepartnerships with key prisonsin the UK, providing inputs intoa range of programmes andexploring issues such assubstance misuse, resettlementand violent offending.

This was also the second of threeyears funding from BBC Children inNeed for Geese to develop InsideTheatre, a series of creative artsprojects for young people in custodial settings.

In 2011/12, Geese delivered 64performances or projects andworked with 1,230 offendersin custodial settings

In 2011/12, we continued to deliver a range ofinteractive performances and projects withadults and young people in custodial settings.

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“Fabulous show…you

clearly succeeded in

finding a wonderful

and innovative way of

delivering a very

powerful message!”

David King, The ManchesterCollege at HMP Hewell

Commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, ourperformance for adult offenders, V.O., addressesthe issue of prison visits and how prisonersmaintain essential contact with family members,whilst serving a sentence. In January 2012 thisperformance toured Midlands prisons to a totalaudience of 417 offenders.

V.O.

“V.O. is a true picture of what really happensin prison for convictsand their familiesand a great help toshow people how toavoid problems.”

Audience member,V.O., HMP Stafford

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CommunitySettings

This work consists of Geesepractitioners co-facilitatingsessions alongside probationstaff, primarily with domesticviolence perpetrators and menwho commit sexual offences,and increasingly with womenoffender groups.

In 2011/12, Geese worked with565 offenders on probation group-work programmes.

In 2011/12, we continued to work in close partnershipwith a number of Probation Trusts, providing regulartheatre-based inputs into their programmes.

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In January, Staffordshire and West Midlands Probationcommissioned us to deliver a series of group-work inputswith female offenders and since then we have been workingregularly with women in Wolverhampton and Walsall.

Along with supporting their development towards a more positive future, the sessions are working towards integrating the women back into the community in the hope of sustaining a lifestyle that reduces offending behaviour.

Women Offender Groups

Participant, WolverhamptonProbation Women Offender Group

“I’m much calmer in

myself now - it has helped

me stay out of trouble - I’m

not getting worked up and

am more positive in my

thinking. And I’m proud of

myself, which I have never

been before.”

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One of my early memories of Geese UK is arriving from theUSA with a giant suitcase filled with masks and toys andpaper work and jeans. Arriving at the train station inBirmingham, I remember being met by Saul, Patrick andClark, and the craziness beginning - and though I was putin the front seat, quickly barrelling over the front seat intothe back to make mayhem and physical wildness! And ohwe shouted and shouted and laughed!

The early days were full of discovery and whilst we mademistakes, we tried to learn from them, just as we hopedthose in prison could learn from theirs. There were manypeople in that time who took a risk in supporting whatwas an excitable and driven group of young actors, but Iam glad they did. It is not an exaggeration that being afounder member, and a subsequent director of Geese,had a profound and lasting impact on my life. It helpedme discover my place in the world and for that I willalways be grateful.

Geese taught me some valuable lessons: that a goodpiece of theatre knows what makes its audience tick;that making them laugh is never enough and whilstmaking them think is harder, it’s more rewarding.That playfulness is at the core of a good workshop andthat the best improvised performances have a life oftheir own that no amount of planning or preparationcan prepare you for. Since leaving Geese theseprinciples have guided my work and they form thebackdrop to my University teaching at TiPP.

The arts in the criminal justice sector have come an awful long way in the twenty five years of Geese’s UK existence and the company’s influenceis immeasurable.

Artistic Consultant for Geese Theatre Company UK 1987-1996

Founder member of Geese Theatre Company UK(1987) and Director 1989-1994

Saul Hewish, Co-Director of Rideout.

John Bergman, Director of Geese Theatre Co.USA

Geese Theatre Company UK (1991) and Artistic Director 1993-1997

Simon Ruding, Director of TiPP (The Theatre in Prisons andProbation Centre), based in the University of Manchester


25 years of GeeseTheatre Company

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Geese host thenational ‘Arts andCrime’ Conference -the first of its kindin the UK.

BBC TVDocumentary‘Behind the Mask’airs as part of the 40Minutes series.Made by SimonHeaven of CompassFilms, it focusses ona residency at HMP Risley.

Geese win theInteractiveEntertainmentCategory forLearning BAFTA fortheir CD ROM‘Lifting the Weight’.

Geese win a ButlerTrust CertificateAward for work atHMP Maidstone andWest Kent YOT.

The Geese TheatreHandbook is firstpublished, byWaterside Press,now a core text onmany universitycourses.

Geese are therecipients of theRoyal Society forPublic Health, Artsand Health Awardfor Innovative andOutstandingContributions to thefield of Arts andMental HealthPractice.

The other day a colleague said that he imagined being in Geese musthave been a bit like running away to the circus – a sort of romantic,carefree, and slightly wild existence. I felt irritated. My head went tositting in the office in the late 1990’s. The accreditation of Probationprogrammes was looming and I had just returned from a meetingwith someone in the Home Office who had told me Geese’s dayswere effectively numbered. Of course all the other companymembers were out working, as they always were. And I have nodoubt they were working that day with the kind of resourcefulness,commitment and skill which ensured Geese’s survival then and doesso now. Geese was, for me, about a belief in the work and a sense ofbelonging. I have never laughed so much, nor learnt so much aboutmyself and others. The experience feels unique and complex. So, Ismiled at my colleague and did what I so often prompted others todo when I worked in Geese - I walked away.

When I joined Geese in 1997, I was inexperienced and naïve but fullof energy and excited about the challenge of creating meaningfultheatre work within the Criminal Justice System. Fifteen years later Ican no longer claim to be inexperienced but would like to believethat the spirit of naivety is one of the key ingredients that hasenabled Geese to continue to thrive. We do not pretend to be expertsin people’s lives or teach people how to make better choices. We do,however, attempt to ask challenging questions, to provideopportunities for people to play, to create safe spaces for people torehearse new roles, and to use theatre as a mirror allowing people toreflect and comment on their own lives. And at all times we hold to afundamental belief that they themselves have the power and abilityto continually change as they move forward in their lives.

I feel privileged to be one of over 50 practitioners who havecontributed to the development of Geese’s work over the past 25years and I am excited about moving forward with the organisationinto the next 25.

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1989 1994 1998 2001 20092002

Andy Watson, Geese Theatre Company UK(1997) and Artistic Director 2003 - Present

Geese Theatre Company UK (1993) and Artistic Programme Director 1997-2003

Sally Brookes, Team Therapist, Personality Disorder Service, Oxford


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Mental HealthSettings

Working in forensic mental health settings is a keyarea of development for Geese Theatre Company.

We have developedrelationships with a number of secure hospitals workingclosely with staff to createperformances and projects with patients, exploring themessuch as identity, self-efficacy,choice, living together andmoving on.

2011/12 was also the second year of athree year project, Thrive, generouslyfunded by the LankellyChaseFoundation and delivered at StAndrews Medium Secure Hospital in Birmingham.

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Thanks to support from Arts Council, England’s Grants forthe Arts Programme, we have been developing a newperformance, specifically created for patients in forensicmental health settings. We piloted this interactiveperformance, Moving On, and an accompanying group-workprogramme for patients at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield.

The performance explores the issues that patients may face upon releasefrom a secure hospital and invites the audience to challenge, questionand advise two characters as they settle in to their new lives.

Moving On

Ruth Goodman , Chase Farm Hospital

“The patients’ feedback was

very positive, praising the

professionalism of the

facilitators as well as their

sensitivity to, and

understanding of, mental

health issues. We look forward

to them coming back again!”

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Conferences and Training Every year, we deliver approximately 40 performances atconferences for staff working in the Criminal Justice and socialwelfare arenas. These are bespoke performances, devised inconsultation with the commissioning agency, that provide adynamic and engaging alternative to the traditionalPowerPoint presentation.

In 2011/12, we delivered a wide variety of performances exploring areassuch as desistance from offending, safeguarding in sport, professionalresponses to child sexual exploitation, and the correlation betweendomestic abuse and substance misuse. In addition, we provided one, two and three day training courses exploring, amongst other things, group-work skills, role play, teambuilding and effective co-working.

In 2011/12, 5443 people watched a conference performanceby Geese and 1214 participated in a Geese training course.

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“A unique learning

experience that, through the

use of drama linked to

theoretical presentation,

made a complex subject

clear and accessible to a

wide range of professionals.

Overall 99% positive

feedback from delegates.”

Nigel Wake, Team Leader,Telford and Wrekin CouncilWorkforce Development

This is a one-day training conferencefocussing on how attachment-based practicecan lead to more effective and meaningfulsupervision and to better outcomes forservice users.

Jointly devised and delivered by Geese TheatreCompany and Clark Baim, Getting Connectedcombines theory-based lectures and interactivetheatre performance to vividly illustrate theory,involve the audience in discussion and invitedelegates to apply their learning to day-to-daypractice. In 2011/12, it was delivered regularly toprofessionals from social work, education, health,youth services, housing, criminal justice and thevoluntary sector, including practice educators,supervisors and managers.

Getting Connected

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Financial summary

Unrestricted Restricted Total funds Total fundsfunds funds 2012 2011£ £ £ £

INCOMING RESOURCESIncoming resources from generated funds:

Voluntary income 29,685 - 29,685 37,276Activities for generating funds - 77,505 77,505 70,616 Investment income 67 - 67 70

Incoming resources from charitable activities 254,321 - 254,321 256,874TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES 284,073 77,505 361,578 364,836

RESOURCES EXPENDEDCosts of generating funds:Fundraising:

Cost of goods sold and other costs 4,360 - 4,360 2,798Charitable activities 281,286 77,505 358,791 357,512Governance costs 3,840 - 3,840 3,600TOTAL RESOURCES EXPENDED 289,486 77,505 366,991 363,910

NET MOVEMENT ON FUNDS BEING NET (DEFICIT) INCOME FOR THE YEAR (5,413) - (5,413) 926TOTAL FUNDS AT 1 APRIL 2011 132,261 - 132,261 131,335 TOTAL FUNDS AT 31 MARCH 2012 126,848 - 126,848 132,261

Arts Council England

Ministry of Justice

BBC Children in Need

The LankellyChaseFoundation

Michael Varah Memorial Fund

William A. Cadbury Trust

The Fitton Trust

Donations in memory ofJai Lewis

Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 March 2012

Thank you to our funders forgenerous support in 2011/12:

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In 2011/12 Grants and Donations accounted for 29% of our income.

This information is an extract from the full Statement of Financial Activitiesfor the year ended 31 March 2012. A copy of the full audited accounts isavailable upon request.

Thanks, also, to ourindividual supporters.

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Clark Baim - ChairIain Lownes - SecretarySelwyn BlythChris CrockerLee FisherTim MansonJim RobinsonRose RuddickMelanie Whitehead

Andrew Watson - Artistic DirectorLouise Heywood - Deputy Artistic DirectorIrene BrownAdrian DakersKerry EllorYvonne GregoryRyan HamiltonRhiannon SawyerEmma SmallmanDavid SnookJonathan Watson

Members of the Company

Members ofthe ExecutiveCommittee

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Woodbridge House, 9 Woodbridge Road, Birmingham, B13 8EHTel: 0121 449 6222 Fax: 0121 449 1333 Email: [email protected] Website: www.geese.co.uk

Twitter: @geesetheatreFacebook: /Geesetheatre

To support Geese, please text ‘GEES25 £5 to 70070

Main images by Gina Print Photography

Albatross Arts Project trading asGeese Theatre Company registered inEngland. Company number: 2182104.

Charity number: 327563

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Contents

Geese Annual Review 2011/12

Documents

uk company

power of theatre

n andy watson

use of applied theatre

company withgreat dedication

thecompanys work

original geese usa

criminal justice settings