Theatre Workshop

Katie Bignell, SMR's Youth Community Worker, writes about the Community Theatre activities held over the Christmas holidays:


As part of our Winter Holiday activity and food programme we offered a valuable opportunity to our local community to participate in a two-day Theatre experience. The local children were immersed in a heart-warming adventure when we facilitated a trip to the Bristol old Vic to watch The Little Mermaid.


It was many of our children's first Theatre experience and it was so heartwarming to see them light up as they were swept away into a magical story of dance, music and unique characters touching on some very important themes relevant to our current world. 


These themes such as environmental impacts on our oceans, cultural expression and how we build a better world through reaching out, caring and integrating fully with those around us, were further explored when we facilitated a Theatre workshop the following day.


The children had the opportunity to set the scene through set design, developing their own characters and recreating their own version of the story, relevant to them, their cultures and their experience of the world.


They thrived and really flourished in developing new skills and confidence whilst having the opportunity to be creative with Visual arts and Expressive Arts alongside Music and games.


This is the second year we have facilitated a Theatre experience incorporating a trip to the Bristol Old Vic with an interactive Theatre workshop the following day. Each time it happens it is pure magic witnessing the positive growth and the creative capabilities these amazing young people possess.


It is comparable to a Caterpillar turning into a Butterfly. The transformation from this opportunity is beautiful. 

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We've seen lots of amazing work in the visitor services department so far this year. SMR stewards have generated over £4,500 donations between January and April 2026 and welcomed over 5000 visitors to the Church. We are welcoming new tour guides to the front of house team with the eventual goal to expand the number of tours we are able to offer to the public. Janet and Reuben have both done their first tours and have received wonderful reviews from visitors. If you are interested in volunteering on the front of house team please contact me on lucy.marshall@stmaryredcliffe.co.uk . We have had some amazing feedback from our outreach events as we aim to welcome not only those familiar with SMR but also those that have never been before. These have included film screenings, talks and most recently the Redcliffe Sessions which raised just under £150 for our Lent charity partner, CALM. Thank you to all those who have supported these. The next Redcliffe Session will be in support of SMR and will feature Bristol band Dogsbody on guitar, cello and violin, and songwriter, Alex Pester on 13th June. I am very excited looking into the rest of 2026 for our future events run both in house and by external hirers, more information of which can be found on our website. If you are interested in volunteering at any future SMR events please let me know! Lucy Marshall Visitor Services Coordinator 06.05.2026