Grants and Feedback.

A very good morning. Level 1 Applied Theatre Drama St Mary's students, spent last week in rehearsals for The Orange Tree's schools version of The Tempest, which will go on the road later this month, and came back buzzing from the experience. Later in the day Henry, who's directing the show, dropped me a line to say how great it'd been to have them about. It's invaluable to be able to get into rehearsal rooms and see what goes on, especially when the opportunity extends itself. By all accounts they became the initial audience shaping some of the work with their responses and participation. After Christmas they'll start their own schools based project - I hope the work on The Tempest will get them thinking ahead.

By lunchtime we'd heard that our grant bid to SHOCC, the University's fundraising charity, had been successful. It's another £2,500 towards the Community Theatre Centre in Lilongwe. We're also sending a letter out to our colleagues to ask them to donate a small percentage of their monthly salary to the cause. This might bring us another £2,500 over the next twelve months. There is still a big possibility that a further large grant may come from the Freddie Mercury Foundation. So things are moving forward and we might make the £40,000 that we need to secure the building in time for our visit next May.

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