CLICK (Confidence, Learning, Integration, Creativity, Knowledge)

I started CLICK in 1995 after being inspired by the mantra “This looks like a good barn, lets do the show here!” It wasn’t quite a barn, but one of the first shows I produced, “A Slice of Saturday Night” by the Heather Brothers was on a stage my dad built out of toilet doors and bricks he found at a tip which the cast and I coated with lemonade to stop us slipping...and my mum made the costumes! The cast was a group of my friends who weren’t even based in the same location, but just wanted to get together and have fun – and do something positive with our Uni holidays. We sold out, got a couple of great local reviews and gave our proceeds to the local charity we had also run some workshops for – The Hastings Gateway Club, and a couple of years of this later we had won Two Mayoral Awards and The Gateway Award for services to our community.

CLICK is formed on the basis of 3 key premises:
1. The arts as a confidence building and self expressive pursuit should be ACCESSIBLE TO ALL, therefore, unlike most groups we do not charge a playing nor audition fee. We fund our productions out of ticket sales. We don't ask for previous experience, just commitment, a positive attitude and the willingness to learn and "give it a go".

2. As long as we retain the integrity of the author we will CAST ON TALENT NOT "TYPE". Being of Chinese ethnicity myself, I know how hard it is to be considered for anything other than "Princess Jasmin" (who I once played 3 times in one year!!), a rice picker or a prostitute (who knows martial arts)... However the stories that we tell are inclusive and their themes common to everyone. Why can't there be a mixed race middle class family for "That Face", why should "Horse" be the only ethnic minority in "Full Monty", and why should Annie in "Calendar Girls" be 50...don't 30 year olds also lose their partners to cancer? We have addressed all of these, and pledge to continue...timely, perhaps in the light of the current Equity realisation that South East Asians are still under-represented on stage and screen.

3. The wellbeing and enjoyment of the Production Team and Cast is of foremost importance and a happy company will in turn result in a happy audience. I put my company first. This philosophy has been derived from almost 20 years of hoping that a team and a cast will work for me...for free, and something I believe can be influential within any managerial approach.

My PhD (awarded December 2012) was on the training of frontline service workers who engage in "emotional labour" - the regulation of one's emotions as part of the job (Teachers,Nurses, Counsellors etc) - a similar direction to actors. My recommendations were based around acting - ie. if I expect my actors to perform I need to support and nurture them emotionally. It is not possible to expect staff to perform if the only focus is on how happy the client is. Like audiences, you cannot please all clients - but if you have an emotionally sound staff - you are likely to please more than average! (If you would like to read my thesis "Love's Labours Redressed: Reconstructing Emotional Labour as an interactive process within Service Work, you will find it by clicking here)

To date we have had the opportunity to work with some fantastic creative personnel on projects such as the BBC on their Shakespeare festival (for which we are part of a Guinness World Record); the Young Performers Group enabling a local school group to perform at London’s “Haymarket Theatre”; the Romero Trust, producing the London Premiere of "Romero The Musical" (commemorating the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero) which featured on Vatican Radio; and with amateur and semi-professional performers on highly celebrated productions including "The Full Monty" (attended by Alan Duncan MP, and the Mayor of Hillingdon); "Disney's Beauty and the Beast" (attended by the Deputy Mayor of Milton Keynes); and "Calendar Girls" (attended by the Mayor of Milton Keynes, as well as being part of a(nother) Guinness World Record for the largest number of productions of a single play in an 18 month period).

Internationally we have also worked with “Malaysiana Muda” (Malaysian Youth) in a Youth Cultural Exchange project to raise the profile of young people in Hastings and in Kuala Lumpur, and most recently with Little Penang Street Market and the Penang Players on an Arts Exchange in support of their local charities - raising over 2000RM, and look forward to more such projects.

Our teaching team also offer LAMDA examination classes, as well as bespoke workshops on Confidence Building and Self Presentation Skills (notable clients include Brunel University Business School).

For more information about our productions, classes or workshops, please email info@clickproductions.co.uk

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