Celebrating Creativity

You are more than your labels.

You are more than the worst things that have happened to you. Our lived experiences shape us and make us who we are today, but they don’t need to limit us. We believe that everyone at Underground Lights is a creative individual in their own right and has a great deal to contribute – we have the assets to understand ourselves and help each other as members of a group with a shared goal.

 

We work in a way that begins to cultivate and nurture some of the things that may have been lost or ignored by the person and/or others around them (including services).

These things include…

Joy, fun and a
sense of play

We’re not saying everything is OK
or will be OK, but we seek to help our
members to identify where the ‘lights’ lie;
in themselves and in their lives.

Hope

...to choose what you work on. You can
leave your troubles outside the door,
or you can bring your experiences and
work with us to think about how to
express those things creatively.

Freedom

Many of our members have received the
message that theatre isn’t ‘for them’.
We seek to challenge that and
move to a place that defies expectations –
our own and those of our audiences.

We seek to be ambitious, proud of our work
and tell stories of joy and laughter
as well as ones of pain.

Creativity

We take the time to get to know
our members. In sessions this
then means that we can think
together about what might feel new
or different for us.

Working with
people over a
period of time

As a member-led group we are
increasingly moving towards
a model where our members
lead exercises, games
and activities.

Ownership and leadership
of sessions

Sometimes members want to find ways of sharing their personal experiences in a creative way. When this happens we seek to emphasise the possibilities of creative transformation rather than simply replaying the past. For example, our recent film, The Shed, demonstrates the possibility of sharing personal experiences through movement and dance.

 

When we touch on issue-based theatre we do so in a way that helps people to feel safe. We also know that friends and family of members are likely to have had their own traumatic experiences, so the ‘holding’ of an audience is also important.