NEWS FLASH - WE WON - PHOTOS TO FOLLOW ON MONDAY 13 JUNE!

We are delighted to announce that Blue Apple Theatre has been shortlisted for the Winchester Business Excellence Awards 2022, celebrating 20 years of the Winchester Business Excellence Awards which recognise the achievements of local businesses and reward them for their commitment to excellence.

Organised by partners Winchester Business Improvement District, Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and The Hampshire Chronicle, the competition attracts high profile industry support and offers Winchester businesses the opportunity to promote major achievements and celebrate success within the Winchester District.

Nominations for this year’s awards have now closed, the finalists have been shortlisted, and winners will be announced at an awards evening on 9 June at the University of Winchester.

Blue Apple Theatre is shortlisted in the category for Digital Innovation for the use of hybrid live and digital performance techniques in the production of Pinocchia during Covid lockdown. Also shortlisted in this category are Experience Hampshire and The Perfect Assistant.

Looking back at the Pinocchia production, Blue Apple’s Artistic Director Richard Conlon said: “We have to remember that when the pandemic lockdown hit, one person could meet only one person outside so performing arts companies like ourselves at Blue Apple, used to running face-to-face in-person sessions and delivering performances in theatres, had the rug pulled from under us. But we reflected and realised that at heart we are storytellers and just needed to find a way to get the story to the audience in another way.  So, we worked with digital geniuses and tech gurus Django Pinter and Samuel Morley who made it possible for us to livestream a performance that was made up of three different performers in three different flats, each in front of a green screen. This was then video-mixed into one image in a digital set and livestreamed out to an audience in December of 2020.” 

Below Left: Actors in their homes in three separate locations Below Right: The merged digital set

Richard continued: “That now seems like a long time ago, but it was so professionally and slickly done that I'm sure lots of the audience didn't realise that those three people were miles away from each other and they could only see each other on a screen. The result was a charming heart-warming story about an old man who had been widowed who was sort of brought back to life by a care assist robot, so it was an inversion of the Pinocchio story. This reminded the old man that to be human is to be connected and that maybe he should get out into the world. The audience loved it. There will be ways of getting back to that kind of sense of performance and delivering performance into peoples’ homes through choice if not through necessity this time.”

Blue Apple’s Pinocchia is available to watch here: https://blueappletheatre.com/pinocchia