Tour Dates

After three weeks of mini-tour, myself and the rest of Roughshod were excited to get back, and get stuck into the life and work of a local community. And we couldn’t have been happier than to partner with the one and only Charles Merritt (former two times shoddie from Roughshod 2015 and 2016) and the team at St Mary’s Reigate.  Here he is recreating the Sisteen Chapel with Jared. (No, we’ve no idea why either.)

Upon arrival, it was brilliant to meet the wonderful community at St Mary’s. We had the pleasure of delivering our workshop ‘Peace in Our Time’ to a number of their youth groups, and we were hugely challenged by the passion the young people had for justice in their communities, and were encouraged by the words of one recently baptised teenager, who said that the workshop gave her an insight into what her faith could look like in day to day life.

This encouragement from the St Mary’s Youth groups was only built up further, by the audience’s of Year 7’s and Year 8’s in two of the local schools. Their interaction with the Q&As after our performances was hugely insightful, and particularly how moved they were by ‘Trafficked’ – our verbatim piece exploring the lives of survivors of human trafficking – was particularly touching.

Finally, we had the chance to enjoy the incredible sunshine (not something you often get to say in the UK), perform ‘Deliver’ at two packed churches on the Friday and Saturday, before rounding our week off with a Sunday morning service (featuring ‘The Dan Rap’).

Andrew

One of the joys of Roughshod is being able to visit so many new places, discovering hidden gems all around England. Our Mini tour has certainly allowed us to do that, zipping up and down the country, from Poole to Newcastle-Under-Lyme to London! Mini tour has been something we have all looked forward to, the chance to do the full show every night and get a glimpse of what God is doing in communities across the country.

One highlight for me was being able to take the team to my home in East London. Being able to show my family and friends what I’ve been getting up to, whilst also being able to communicate the heart of the show to the community I love, meant a lot. Plus getting to see my dog and introduce the team to her was an extra bonus!

Another highlight for me lay in our stop at the village of Great Bedwyn. My inner historian got very excited about discovering the tomb of Sir John Seymour, father of Lord Protector John Seymour and of Jane Seymour, who had lain in the church since 1590! As I said earlier in the blog, it’s the hidden gems of England we get to spot that make this tour just that little bit more exciting. (Well I was excited… I’m not about the rest of the shoddies though.)

Outside of travelling in the van and performing, we have been able to make the most of the gorgeous weather as the UK has finally decided to give us a proper summer. An early purchase of an American Football has not gone to waste and we hope to be able to make even more use of the ball and the weather in Reigate this week!

Beth

The last three weeks we’ve been on mini tour, driving all around the country doing a show at a different church each night. It’s been exhausting but a lot of fun!

One of the highlights for me was to be able to take all the shoddies home with me to Thirsk for the first show. To have my family and friends there to watch made it a special but nerve-racking experience, and I felt extremely blessed to have the support of the rest of the team that night (they in turn got fed a lot of cake by my fantastic parents!)

Another highlight was finding so many Riding Lights Members in the audiences when we’ve been performing, some of whom we last saw at members day back in March. Without our incredibly generous Members Roughshod’s work would not possible, so it was wonderful for us to be able thank some of them face to face for their support.

Next, we’ve got a few days off now to recover our energy before we set off again, this time to Reigate!

Esther

This week I went home… and took the rest of Roughshod with me.

One of the privileges of working as a Shoddie is the chance to share life with so many different communities, but there was something special (at least for me) about taking the vital Roughshod work to Northern Ireland.

After a brilliant week in Scotland, we found ourselves in the North West of Ireland and immediately experienced the hospitality of the people (a selection of four desserts at one dinner time is how you do it). We had the opportunity to work in one of the local schools, providing workshops and performances to young people throughout the whole school. The responses were overwhelming, with one student commenting that our modern-day adaptations of bible stories helped them truly ‘get it’ for the first time.

Afterwards, we moved across country to Holywood – a little town on the outskirts of Belfast – and found ourselves doing work in all manner of venues. Whether performing in churches, prisons, schools, and for the first time in this tour – on the street, we had the chance to see the vastness of the work we do, and were warmly received by all!

Although, I hasten to add that this week wasn’t all work. I had the chance to take the rest of the Shoddies to see the sites (Giants Causeway anyone?) and even introduced them to the delights of an Ulster Fry.

In all this – whether performing hard-hitting drama to young offenders, or witnessing primary school children spontaneously clapping along to ‘Amazing Grace’ – I felt truly blessed, and privileged, to perform theatre full of ‘faith, hope and everything inbetween’ in the places, and to the people, close to my heart.

Andrew