During the first UK lockdown, CAPA College students and professional artists worked together remotely to produce Pledge, a powerful film that collated creative responses to the Black Lives Matter movement. CHARGE has now received funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire’s Safer Communities Fund in order to take this important project even further. CHARGE will endeavour to deepen the conversation surrounding race and inequality by developing Pledge into a streamed performance piece with an accompanying creative workshop tour for secondary schools in order to continue open discussion and education on race and identity. Meet the team working on this important project:
Dermot Daly
Dermot is an actor, director, dramaturge, filmmaker and lecturer. He is co-creative lead of the film company ‘Chocolate Bear’ and has won and/or been nominated for several international film awards. He is a senior lecturer Leeds Conservatoire and faculty member of ALRA. He is a creative associate of the Geraldine Connor Foundation, associate artist of Freedom Studios and Arts at the Arms.
Dermot will be working with 13 of the CAPA College students in weekly Pledge script writing sessions.
Shane Durrant
Shane is an internationally renowned singer, teacher, composer and sound designer. Shane graduated from Bretton Hall in 2003 as an original member of The Paper Birds Theatre Company and continues to compose and design sound for the company today. As a sound designer and musical director, Shane has worked across all continents on some of the worlds biggest cruise ships.
As a current member of CAPA College teaching staff, Shane is very excited to be taking this next step with Pledge as the sound designer and the co-creator of the original film!
Stacey Johnstone
Stacey Johnstone has an MA in Ensemble Physical Theatre and is a Co-Director of Whitestone Arts Research Centre. She was a key collaborator and performer for Arashi no ie / Stormy House (Whitestone Arts/59 Productions) which included a research trip to Japan in 2017 funded by Arts Council England’s Artist International Development Fund.
Stacey has worked for Opera North, Leeds Playhouse, Proper Job Theatre, Six Lips Theatre (Co-Director) Trestle Theatre, and facilitated extensively across education and community outreach projects.
Stacey has worked as a drama teacher/director for CAPA College since 2015 and specialises in devised and physical theatre. Her highlights of working at the college include working with the development team to secure National Lottery Project Grants funding from Arts Council England to develop ‘If Not Now, When?’, a play written by second-year CAPA College student and emerging young writer Isabel Hague. The R&D production, also supported by The Civic, Barnsley, will tour the Yorkshire region from September 2021.
Tom Tindall
Originally from Hereford, Tom started breakdancing at the age of 13 and was a founding member of 2 Faced Youth Dance Company. After his college training he went on to study a BPA Hons degree in Contemporary Dance and a postgraduate study in Performance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance.
For the past 10 years Tom has worked as a freelance artist and toured extensively across the UK and internationally for companies such as Southpaw Dance Company, 2 Faced Dance Company and ACE Dance and Music. More recently Tom has been teaching students at CAPA College and community groups across Yorkshire including CHARGE Boys. He will work with a cast of performers to develop the physical content for Pledge.
