Tuesday 17th January, 2012

PEEBLES PLAYERS ARE WINNERS!

There was much jubilation at the Eastgate when Peebles Players, our local group of enthusiastic disabled musicians, heard that they had won the RBS Community Force Award. On Monday January 16^th Karen Lawrie, RBS Community Officer, came down to Peebles to present a cheque for £6,275 to the enthusiastic Players.

To get an award, each project needed to get their community to vote for them - Voting on Facebook, via the RBS web-site or through a phone line.Vote, vote, vote! At one stage we had 4 laptops on the go, more than 50 times the computer power of the first moon landing, gathering voters from all over the community - every day - early mornings, late nights, Sundays too – we kept at it. And it worked!

Like everyone else, this group has felt the impact of cut backs – staffing and transport difficulties in particular, as all the members need support to attend sessions. But they continue to look forward, working on a new project ‘I WISH I HAD WINGS’, creating original music inspired by birds. Peebles Players received a grant to buy instruments in 1995, many of which are now well past their sell-by date. With this award it will be possible to upgrade the stock of instruments so there are not only better ones but also more, giving every member more opportunities. The basic work uses song and percussion but Claire Garnett, Leader of the group, says that they are keen to introduce a variety of art forms. “Now we are able to recruit practitioners to lead workshops in dance, puppetry, theatre technique including costume and set design and can plan outreach work. Our project will eventually lead to performance in the Theatre, where we hope to see all our supporters – now, with the help of this award, we can not only afford the Theatre with its excellent technical staff, but also fabric for costumes and scenery and can develop back projection techniques.”

Claire explained, “Performing on stage is something that our members might never have aspired to and is an experience that thrills them. They just love to share their music and fun with an audience! It is really wonderful that we will not have to do our next production ‘cut price’ but can make sure that they are no longer the ‘disadvantaged’. Becoming involved in the world of music and associated arts opens new doors for those with poor communication skills or limited movement – the RBS award goes far beyond ‘buying things’ – it will make a huge difference to the life of many very special people in our community. Thankyou to everyone, who supported us and thankyou RBS!”