Who are we?
Brothers and Sisters everywhere are a community theatre company, based in Gateshead, UK, specialising in touring educational theatre and film to the whole of Tyneside.
We have both successfully graduated from college and university with BA honours degree’s in performance and have gained in depth knowledge within community theatre, young people’s theatre and issue based performance. We have professionally worked within the performance industry in both theatre and film and have been part of many successful issue based projects. Through our own independent interests and studies we are trained at a NVQ level 2 in Youth and Community Learning giving us youth workers status. We are both Arts Award trained in Bronze and Silver and can offer national accreditations to the young people we work with.
Guy Richardson
Guy has always had a passion for performance. He studied performing arts at Newcastle College for five years where his interest in ‘Community Theatre’ began. In 2005 Guy moved down south to complete his studies at Northbrook College, West Sussex, achieving a B.A (Hons) Theatre Arts. As a passionate Geordie he has always wanted to use his skills within the North East Region, to share his knowledge and skills with the communities where he grew up is what makes him so eager to succeed.
Guy’s Vision:
“I strongly believe that theatre can be used as an alternative education tool within many communities. Past experiences within my community life have given me valuable lessons; I now believe that alongside my theatre skills I can help aid communities in tackling social issues in a creative format. I have long term plans and large ambitions for B.A.S.E which has leaded me to believe thattheatre in education can also be used in school syllabuses.”
Bernard McLaughlin
After school I went on to study at Newcastle College for four years completing my Higher National Diploma in performing arts. In this time I began to form a strong interest in the work of community theatre and theatre education. By using theatre as an educational tool I began to work voluntarily with young people forming issue based performances to tour in and writing small plays in my spare time. After graduating from Newcastle I went to Sunderland University to complete my BA Honours Degree in performing arts. My interests in theatre as an educational tool grew and I continued my work by taking my theatre skills to different youth groups and schools within the area and began to complete successful projects with issue based theatre. I was using theatre and constantly discovering new ways of encouraging young people to improvise and learn by sharing an issue and putting them into performance. Through demonstrating my skills I was picked, alongside peers, by Sunderland University to go Lesotho in South Africa to create a piece of issue based theatre focused on the role of gossip and silence in the spread of HIV, a play which was taken into the rural communities. The project was called the Winter/Summer Institute in Theatre for Development. The Institute included students and faculty from the National University of Lesotho (host); the State University of New York, Empire State College, New York City; the University Of Sunderland, United Kingdom; and the University of the Witswatersrand, Republic of South Africa. This was an amazing experience that allowed me to use my theatre skills to help others, to educate, inform, and make a visible differences to people’s lives. This demonstrated how powerful the use of Forum Theatre can be and was a huge inspiration towards my work. I will continue to utilise this practice within communities with the purpose of making a difference.
Base theatre aims to have its work used and practiced by people of all ages within the wider community