Manchester based musical theatre charity hits the right note after receiving National Lottery COVID-19 grant

A charity is using the power of music and theatre to lift the mood of local residents and combat isolation and loneliness during the COVID-19 lockdown. Based in Manchester, Made by Mortals, through its project Armchair Adventures, are taking local people on a musical adventure from the comfort of their home thanks to National Lottery funding.

Prior to the nationwide lockdown, the group which primarily works with older people and people with additional needs, created musical theatre productions that explore modern day health and societal issues. Due to the restrictions brought about from the pandemic, the project was forced to adapt their usual service and decided to take the project online.

Thanks to a grant of more than £35,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, the creative classes have now been moved to Zoom. The project, which is the brainchild of theatre maker and composer duo Andy Smith and Paul Hine, can now continue to offer its vital service which has become even more important during lockdown due to the risk of their members being isolated.

Armchair Adventures participant, Linda, 66, from Hyde, Tameside said: “The step-by-step approach to each Armchair Adventure is helpful in building up confidence to explore our responses to coronavirus and how they make us feel. The opportunities to explore our personal responses through movement, words, rhythms and percussion is great. The samba style music had me cooking chilli to the rhythm in the kitchen! I feel this is a positive support resource for connecting people together at this time”.

As well as making the theatre and singing workshops accessible online, the group also had the ingenious idea of using the funding to create a free helpline allowing people who aren’t tech savvy to call in and take part. This is another example of how the charity is committed to reducing feelings of isolation and loneliness among vulnerable people in the community.

Paul Hine, Theatre Maker, Composer and Project Lead at Made by Mortals, said: “Armchair Adventures was born very early in lockdown. We identified a need for the people we work with to continue to access creativity. We understood that from talking to people on the phone it would be vital in lifting low mood, combating loneliness and continuing to improve people’s music and theatre making skills. We wanted a project that could help people to use their imaginations to set themselves free.

“Thanks to National Lottery players we have seen people overcome their fear of technology, make connections in new ways, extend their social networks, discover the joy of independent creative activity and find resilience to the challenging times we all face.”

From lyric writing, to poetry and drama workshops, the project encompasses all aspects of theatre production. Participants work together to come up with their own songs and plays with all content completely original. Before COVID-19 the group would typically put on a show for other local groups and schools, however this aspect of their work had to also change. The group are currently working on putting together a podcast series to showcase their latest performances, with the release date set to be announced soon.

Gillian Halliwell, Head of Funding for the North West at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “The National Lottery is playing a critical role in supporting people, organisations and communities during these challenging times. Projects such as Armchair Adventures are making an amazing contribution to the community-level response. We’re incredibly grateful for their dedication and the hard work of thousands of community-based organisations across the UK – we’re humbled by their efforts and delighted that our funding is able to help.”

In total, 20 charities and community groups across Greater Manchester have been awarded more than £750,000 of National Lottery funding since the beginning of June – providing crucial support to overcome challenges caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes. Last year we awarded over half a billion pounds (£588.2 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, and supported over 14,000 projects to turn their great ideas into reality and make a difference in their communities. Across all of the National Lottery distributors, £600 million has been made available to support communities throughout the UK during the coronavirus outbreak. Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for the UK’s good causes, and £41 billion has been distributed to 565,000 good causes across the UK since 1994.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk