Having nimbly adapted to the challenges presented by the Covid pandemic by adopting digital techniques to deliver sessions and live stream productions onto a digital stage, in late 2021 Blue Apple began a period of growth to reach more performers with learning disabilities. To support this goal Blue Apple appointed Rebecca Godden as Engagement Coordinator, a new role that had immediate impact, so much indeed that Rebecca has now been appointed to another new role of Associate Director, supporting our Artistic Director in Blue Apple’s valuable work.
Blue Apple’s Artistic Director Richard Conlon said: “Everybody at Blue Apple is thrilled to bring Rebecca in as an Associate Director. She brings a new approach to the company with fresh thinking and fresh blood. She is solely responsible for the Special Assignments Company and has already created what I think is one of our best pieces of public engagement, which shows the company off with all of its heart and charm and wit. We are now working together on our winter show which is the first time I've been able to share that responsibility with another person, so it's going to be a challenge but it's one that we are looking forward to.”
When Rebecca joined Blue Apple in November 2021 as Engagement Coordinator, she reached out to other communities across Hampshire, establishing partnerships with QE2 in Hedge End and Way Ahead in Southampton where we now run sessions teaching performing arts skills. She reached out to students at Alton College and also arranged a number of enrichment opportunities for Blue Apple performers, including accessible opera workshops with the Grange Festival and skills sessions at MAST Mayflower Studios. In January this year she set up the Blue Apple Young Company which teaches performing arts skills to 14–18-year-olds on Saturday mornings via an online platform. Rebecca also has a role as Director of the Blue Apple Special Assignments Company (SAC), a group of performers who do devised work suitable for outdoor and festival performances. With SAC, Rebecca devised and directed a climate emergency immersive film and walkabout performance called Forgotten People, Forgotten Planet that premiered at The Arc over the Jubilee weekend and which has since been reprised at The Hat Fair and at The Point in Eastleigh. SAC will be performing and screening Forgotten People, Forgotten Planet at MAST Mayflower Studio’s Family Day on 29 October. More recently Rebecca has worked with SAC to devise a vibrant walkabout performance called Complimentary Colours, which premiered in September at Basingstoke’s All In The Mind Festival. She is working with SAC to create content with MAST Mayflower Studios and Mayflower Engage for their Wonderland Project in Southampton during December.
Rebecca is home-grown talent, holding a First-Class BA Honours degree in Contemporary Performance from The University of Winchester, having graduated in 2013. Since then, she has worked in the arts professionally for nearly 10 years, both nationally and internationally. She is delighted to step up to her new role at Blue Apple and said: “Having thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all our participants, facilitators and volunteers within my previous role at Blue Apple, I am now very excited to be able to work more closely with them within my new role as Associate Director. Working on the shows with Richard, Blue Apple’s Artistic Director, I look forward to getting stuck in with the vision and creation process, with our performers at its heart, whilst learning lots along the way! I am also working on setting up new activity with partners in the New Forest, Rushmoor and Gosport with an Inclusion Project funded by Hampshire County Council, so watch this space for free performing arts activities in these areas!”
She added: “Over the next few months, Blue Apple is busy in the studio and on stage. Our brilliant facilitators and volunteers are delivering their new content in our weekly sessions, our cast are adapting and rehearsing Frankenstein to take on tour to Rome this month, and we look forward to welcoming our Czech and Polish friends for a cultural exchange and sector conference at the University of Winchester where Blue Apple is Artist in Residence. We are also creating and rehearsing for the winter show Lashings of Ginger Beer which will be staged at Theatre Royal Winchester from 6 to 8 January 2023.”
Below is a photo of Rebecca Godden taken by Mike Hall
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