It’s hard to believe we’re into our 8th year of running Faith, hope & gaffertape as a independent entity which we’re responsible for. I remember making the decision to try and run Theatre Week by ourselves after the United Reformed Church closed its national youth centre in 2003. Caroline and I were determined not to let the event finish. We’d had such amazing experiences and met the most special people, people who had become our closest and longest-serving friends, and we wanted that opportunity to be open to the generation of young people that would follow us.
Theatre week is Faith, hope & gaffertape’s flagship event and involves creating, learning and performing a musical in a week. It was started in 1993, the brainchild of Martin Nicholls as part of a year’s programme of events he ran, with a team of willing event leaders, at the United Reformed Church’s National Youth Resource Centre in Yardley Hastings, Northamptonshire. The event fast became the most popular event at the centre and was always sold out and a main attraction for young people throughout the UK.
The final Theatre Week as part of the URC’s events was The Sound of Music in the summer of 2003. By the end of the year, we had secured funding to run the event in 2004 independently and set up Faith, hope & gaffertape as a company. The 4 of us were appointed as directors and we found 6 people who were willing to act as trustees.
Since founding Faith, hope & gaffertape, we have put on 5 Theatre Weeks, taken 2 productions to the Greenbelt Festival, run numerous workshops, made a lot of videos and introduced some new best friends to one another. Its been a busy few years, but weve gone from strength to strength and are really excited about what the next few years will bring.
For both participants and leaders alike, a Faith, hope & gaffertape event is a unique, compelling experience. The feeling of going home at the end of a Theatre Week was originally known as post-Yardley blues and that feeling has since been felt by anyone and everyone whos ever attended a Theatre Week. The week is so intense and the friendships made so strong so quickly that you cant help but be touched by the experience offered by Faith, hope & gaffertape. Its emotional, an amazing achievement and will change your life literally forever.