Although it was a wet and drizzly Friday morning, it was a relief to me to be heading to Derby Theatre to deliver this training session. It was so much easier for a few reasons:
Firstly, I was in my home town, going to my local theatre – so I did not have to travel anywhere outside of Derby city.
Secondly, I did not have to get up quite as early to ensure I was on time to deliver the training.
And finally, I did not have to take a train or a taxi to get to the theatre venue.
When I say easier, it was not that easy… as before I went to Derby Theatre, I did have to attend the Florence Nightingale Community Hospital for blood tests earlier that morning. This made me worried about getting there on time.
It also meant that I had to take my laptop and training delivery materials bag into the hospital with me. However, the nursing team were incredibly efficient and managed to do my bloods even though it is usually quite a challenge to get blood out of me, due to my deep-set veins. Once that was over and I was back on the bus heading towards Derby bus station, I felt a lot happier and calmer.
However, I was sad to find that the accessible entrance lift to the Derbion Shopping Centre was not working, so I had to walk a little bit further around to the shopping centre car park where the second lift is.
Also, in this picture, for those of us who take things literally, I may well have tried to walk straight into the glass there, had I not known that the entrance was a little further on. Clear Communication is key, folks!
Anyway, once I walked through the car park area and got up into the lift, I found myself outside the Derby Theatre main entrance.
Sam Rushton, the Community Producer, met me in the cafe area and she was going to take me up to the space.
Alex rang me so I directed him to the main entrance. He had parked his car in the nearby NCP car park which was entirely my fault because Sam had very kindly reserved a parking space for him in the shopping centre car park but I had forgotten to relay that information to him. He found the venue anyway and Sam took us up to the space.
What was lovely about Derby theatre was that they turned the music levels In the cafe area down because they knew Alex and I were both Autistic and they adjusted the lighting in the meeting room space so that it was dimmed for us.
They also provided us with fidget spinners and sensory toys to aid concentration of the learners. Downstairs in the cafe area, it was nice to see Tanvir Akram, Derby Theatre’s new Community Projects Co-ordinator. I had worked with him last summer when I did a talk at Derby’s first ever neurodiversity event ‘Neurodiversity and me.’ We have remained in contact since. It was also nice to meet Zoe Davies in person as she was on my business course with Andrew Bishop last year and she asked for advice about the Developing Your Creative practice grant, so it was nice to see them both in person before their meeting.
The theatre was very noisy as there were many children present for a workshop on beatboxing and it sounded as if they were having a fabulous time. Whilst it was great to see this activity, it was very demanding for my energy levels and sound sensitivity, so Alex and I stayed in the meeting room before the training started.
Sam got the tech crew in to help us set up and she got me a hot chocolate which was lovely of her. We set up the space and had lunch and Lilly arrived. This was the first time I had ever delivered training without Liz being there as she had to manage some personal circumstances. This made me feel incredibly nervous without her there, but Lilly was a superhero and picked up the role that Liz would have played. She helped me keep to time and helped me give out the clipboards for the learners.
We started this session a bit earlier than our other session one slots and soon it was midday and time to meet the learners outside Sainsburys supermarket. We did this because many customers would come through the shopping centre to begin with and we wanted our learners to understand what might impact their audiences sensory wise before they even get into the theatre building.Luckily it wasn’t too noisy for me to cope with but noisy enough to give the learners an idea. We took a group photo outside the theatre. Sadly, many learners were away either with sickness or having to manage the show season, so we had a small but intimate group for Session 1.
As we carried on the tour of the building, it became clear to me that Derby Theatre has a team of individuals who are very passionate about access and inclusion.
We discussed organized queuing systems and how many different methods had been tried to support people when the theatre is at capacity. It’s interesting to know that sometimes by just tweaking one small thing, such as: having a staff member tell audiences not to crowd the spaces; or asking them to sit down whilst they are waiting to go in; or having a quiet space that visitors, who are touch and sound sensitive, can be directed to – could change the entire experience, in an extremely positive way for those who need the reasonable adjustments.
I shared with the learners some of my lived experience and why access matters to me so much. When in a new environment I ask myself ‘Would my aunty Phill, (a wheelchair user with only one arm), have been able to enjoy this theatre space when she was alive?’ My goal is that she would be able to access and enjoy any venue that she should have wanted to be in.
Once the tour was concluded, we had a break for tea, coffee and hot chocolate and then Alex delivered his talk on his experiences living with Autism.
This time we had a fabulous discussion about the ethics of programmes such as the Undatables. I learnt from Alex that it was called that because it was a title that would get people talking and that in the opening credits the Un drops away from the screen. Alex told us that he knew that he probably wouldn’t get a date off the back of the show because everyone just lived too far apart from each other. But he wanted to experience a first date, and he felt that it was good television exposure for his career, so he did not feel that the show had abused or mistreated him during his time there.
For many of us, we discussed not wanting to watch a show like that because the title suggests that Autistic individuals cannot get dates or romantic partners, which we know is not true. Alex explained that the show highlighted some of the challenges that individuals could have with communication and romance, and he did not feel the show was discriminatory or poking fun at Autistic individuals at all. I was not planning at all to have this discussion as it was not in our training plan and for me as an autistic individual impromptu change can be quite difficult for me. I did allow the conversation because I felt that it was important and organic and that we all learnt something we did not know from one another that day. It was something about harmful stereotypes and making assumptions based on little evidence and it was a really valuable and valid discussion.
After Alex’s talk, I introduced that comfort box activity for session 5 and we discussed our key learnings and take aways from the day. The learners then designed what they wanted their next session to be about and just like that it was 3pm and the end of the day.
We thanked Sam for providing such a fantastic space and bringing such enthusiastic learners to meet with us.
We stayed in the cafe area for a meeting. Alex had never tried Blue Bells dairy Ice cream before which is Derby’s home ice cream makers so I brought him a Mango sorbet as he asked for the weirdest flavour I could find and they didn’t have his first choices of Christmas pudding or liquorish.
Alex enjoyed the ice cream but ate it a bit too fast and got throat burn, bless him. Lilly and I discussed the website and how it was developing, and I am really pleased with it. We only have the online workshops page and the training delivery photos to put up and then we are done with the website development now, which is fantastic. I had a fruit cider to celebrate the success of the training so far and then we all went back to our respective homes, for a well-deserved rest.
As always there are a few ‘thank yous’ to say. Firstly, Derby Theatre and particularly Sam Rushton, Stuart Allen and Sarah Brigham, without whom we would not be doing the training. Also, a massive thank you to Andrew Tinley, who helped us to organize the trial training session back in Summer 2024 as proof of concept for Arts Council England.
I would like to thank Lilly and Alex for being part of the dream team and my creative enabler, Liz who although she couldn’t be there on this occasion, helps me so much in ways I do not have words for. I would also like to thank Open Theatre Company for supporting me throughout this project and my career in the arts. Finally, Arts Council England for allowing us the opportunity to connect with and support such wonderful creative people. We look forward to coming back for session 2 on March 23rd 2026.