Oral Histories

I went to a production produced by Richard Gill in the church hall, which was the building before Polka. He had not yet build the theatre. I saw this amazing production with, firstly, Indonesian puppets, shadow puppets, and then it was the story of The Little Mermaid, with beautiful, beautiful puppets. That's' where Polka grew from, so I was there at the very beginning, as a 9 year old child. I was dyslexic and at the time I couldn't read, so going to the theatre, and going to the cinema, but particularly the theatre, was really wonderful, because it really brough all the stories to life for me, and I love being read to. It was my first experience of theatre and we went as a birthday party and I've never been in a minivan before, and it was just wonderful. And then we sat on his really uncomfortable Church, benches in the hall and saw this amazing production and years later in 1981, I moved to Wimbledon as an adults, and saw Polka, but It didn't really think about it. And then, of course, when you have children, and I have three children, I started taking them there with my husband and just loved it. From a very young age I can remember my son, just jumping up and down with excitement as to what was going on the stage, as a little infant really. And then my daughter, and in fact, both my daughters. It was just lovely. And then became involved when I saw an ad for the Chair of Polka, and I thought this would be a wonderful thing to do. As I wanted to ensure that future generations of children, had the enjoyment of encouragement theater provides. I think it's no question that the theater was one of the things that really encouraged me to overcome my problem with reading. What's special about Polka is that it's using theater in for the different ways that theatre can provide for children. It's not just the excitement and education value, but its also the educational value. I've met kids whose lives of literally been turned around by some of the courses that Polka offers for children were in danger of exclusion from school because of social problems of one kind or another. Kids are so much more aware of the problems facing society. They're much more aware of the difficulties in life. And I think that;s one thing Polka has to be very aware of, to present the positive aspects. I think it's very, very hard for kids today. Our whole focus is on ensuring that as many children as possible get to see our theatre and get to go on the workshop. And sometimes that means making sure that there are bursaries and grants for free tickets for kids who wouldn't otherwise go to the theatre as part of our commitment to the community. We have to balance our desire to produce really glorious work with my desire to be of benefit to the local community, so it's a constant balancing act. When I apply to be Chair, they knew that they would have to replace some of the theatre buildings, because, you know, they were getting old. What I didn't realize at the time, was quite the scale of the job. One of the things I felt very strongly about was that we should use the opportunity to also redevelop this business model. So what we are looking at, Is a more Sustainable Building but also more secure future for Polka. It is our great hope that it will open towards the end of 2020 with a fantastic new building with amazing new facilities, that it will be appropriate for today's children and tomorrow's children, that's the first thing and then I'm hopeful that we will be working with more companies, theatre and artists to spread commitment to children's theatre more widely. The thought that a number of talented artists, writers, musicians, actors, and also people like producers started their careers at Polka which is terrific and that's something that through our Polka LAB, we're determined to continue. So we are helping people with PolkaLAB, helping new people in the sector to develop. It really helps to keep our thinking, and our awareness of some very important issues. We need the arts, it's very, very important to feed social awareness, our creative and emotional wellbeing, I suppose. As a board, our role is to protect the long-term future of the organization and monitor performance. The board is fantastic. We have some really accomplished people on The Board with a lot of very valuable experience which in terms of the artistic content, it's really important that the artistic director hes's the expert, so we need to allow him full rein, really. As Chair, I have the privilege of working very closely with two very talented CEOs. There's Pete on the artistic side, and Lynette on the operational side. It's a very exciting role really and to see these two people listening, taking on board the comments of the trustees and then responding, saying "well, what about this?" and "what about that?" and so its very collaborative, and I guess that is something I really value in the role as Chair because what is particularly enjoyable for me is how collaborative it is. You know I'm not kept in a little box, and just focusing on governance. They're keen to get the trustees very involved. One of the really exciting things that I get to do as Chair is to see the end product. I buy my ticket, like everybody else, but I get to see the shows whenever I want. It is just wonderful, seeing the little kids in the Adventure Theatre and who they respond to, for example classical music, or ballet. I think possibly the most moving thing I've ever seen is when we go to the relaxed performance that we offer for children with learning difficulties, which are exactly as the name says, more relaxed. The children move around much more, they have a chance to touch and ask questions and so on. Quite a lot of them are prepared. if a school brings them, there are sessions in advance that prepare them so they know what to expect, so its not too daunting for them. It's just wonderful to see them respond to the production in whatever way is appropriate to them. And I remember one show there was a little boy with wonderful Ginger hair. Who would only watch, could only watch the show if his mom turned him upside down. So, she was literally spending the whole show with this little chap watching the show, and he was chortling away. Upside down watching the show. Literally, there was no such as deep chortle as he engaged with the show, and it was just lovely. And then there's another chap who was much older in fact he was an adult, but he had been brought by his carer who afterwards I was chatting to her and she said, she brought him literally every two weeks from across from Bromley on the train in this very heavy specialized wheelchair because he enjoyed coming to Poker so much and he was rocking backwards and forwards when he got excited with production or when he enjoyed something and again that that's lovely. That's magic to be able to see that and feel that I am in some way contributing to that is pure joy. Pure joy