Welsh theatre brings music and autumn magic to care home residents

Nation.Cymru staff

Care home residents were treated to autumn magic as a theatre team brought music, movement and memories to a special workshop.

Residents of Pendine Park’s Bryn Bella care home in Wrexham waved colourful scarves, shook maracas and tambourines with the  creative staff from Theatr Clwyd in Mold as part of a seasonal celebration.

The lively session was a first for theatre’s business membership programme with its creative engagement team, Sam Copp and Angharad Jones, along with senior community producer Charlotte Chinn, delivering the bespoke workshop for residents.

Theatr Clwyd’s development manager Sarah Jones was delighted with its success and the new link with Pendine Park.

She said: “As part of our income stream, Theatr Clwyd has a business membership offer to businesses of all sizes across our community.

“By becoming a Theatr Clwyd Business Member, companies directly support our community engagement programmes while enjoying valuable benefits, including increased brand visibility, exclusive events, and staff incentives.”

“Pendine Park is a business member of Theatr Clwyd and as part of that agreement, we offered this bespoke session with our creative engagement team.

“We are  using our in-house creative associates who work with our communities to come and deliver a bespoke session here at Bryn Bella.

“That is quite a departure for us, and it is a really interesting new development in how we might be able to work with similar organisations and businesses in our communities going forward.

“It is really special for Theatr Clwyd to have this partnership with Pendine because it is the first of its kind for us and to be in a position where we are working with an incredibly locally well-known organisation who are known for their quality of care is really important to us.

“The session today was based around music, touch, the senses and it has been particularly designed for the clients here at Pendine.

“A workshop like this enables us to be really part of the community and I think that is incredibly important to Theatr Clwyd.

“Theatr Clwyd also manages William Aston Hall in Wrexham and so for us to be able to engage with a company like Pendine in Wrexham is important because we are not just in Mold, we extend our reach in North East Wales.”

The theatre reopened in June last year after a £50 million refurbishment and Sarah said the redesign had helped boost its work with the community.

She said: ” Theatr Clwyd’s creative engagement team delivers a whole range of community support groups and wellbeing groups, ranging from toddlers who take part in our Stori Fach small stories programme to services which support adults with dementia.

“The community groups are predominantly held at the theatre and we have dedicated, fully accessible spaces within our redeveloped building which allow all members of our community to take part.

“We also offer support in the communities, particularly working with young people in our communities, so there is a massive range of programmes that Theatr Clwyd delivers as part of its intention to be a theatre for everybody.”

Charlotte Chinn said: “They were super engaging and absolutely lovely, really amazing.

“I think they were so engaged because of the care they receive here at Pendine, everyone looks healthy and happy and are supported to give things a go.

“What you want to do when you bring in entertainment is you want it to lift people, and hopefully that stimulation makes people feel relaxed and happy.”

Pendine Park’s consultant artist-in-residence Sarah Edwards said: “I have always wanted to link up with the theatre and we saw this as the ideal opportunity to try to do something.

“It is lovely to have a link with Theatr Clwyd because we are an arts-loving organisation and the theatre is such a prestigious organisation, we are thrilled.

“The session has been really energetic and I can see how much our residents enjoyed it, interacting with the theatre team and having fun.

“It has been unbridled joy really, and it is a really positive experience.

“We particularly feel strongly about engaging with the arts in all their forms because it is really beneficial not only to our residents’ wellbeing but to our staff’s wellbeing as well.

Bryn Bella resident Carole Ball said she thoroughly enjoyed the session laid on by the theatre team.

She said: “I just think it has been amazing, brilliant.

“It has been really entertaining and you can tell how much work the theatre team has put into preparing the session.

“I enjoyed it all and it was great that it was so interactive, they had really good ideas, they must have put a great deal of thought into what they would do today.”

Fellow resident Mark Cartwright said: “It was really lovely and wonderful to see.

“I love music and the people from the theatre are all very talented.”

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