It's more than twenty
years since Ashley Jensen was last on the stage of the Tron Theatre
in Glasgow. Then, the Emmy nominated Annan born star of Extras and
Ugly Betty was a young drama school graduate appearing in a series of
new plays by the likes of Peter Arnott and and Anne Downie. Last
Thursday night, however, Jensen returned to the theatre where she
began her career as the figurehead of a new scheme to promote and
ensure the future of Tron Participation, the theatre's multi-faceted
outreach and education strand, which celebrates its tenth anniversary
this year.
In front of an invited
audience, Jensen explained the importance of Tron Participation in
enabling people of all ages to discover all aspects of theatre for
the first time in what can often be a life-changing experience. As
Tron Participation's new Archangel, Jensen also announced the Tron
Angel scheme, in which supporters of the initiative can pledge
donations to ensure its survival. The Tron Angels scheme aims to
raise some 35k each year, and the hope is that a key twenty Tron
Angels will pledge their support for the initiative over a three year
period.
Jensen first heard
about Tron Participation and the Tron Angels scheme via stage and
television designer Mark Leese, who is also a member of the Tron's
board of directors. Leese and Jensen were both working on The Escape
Artist, a new TV drama in which Jensen stars opposite David Tennant,
and which the first episode of which airs this week.
“As soon as Mark
mentioned it I felt quite passionate about it,” says Jensen while
sat in the Tron's Victorian Bar where she was once a regular. “Tron
Participation is giving people an opportunity from a very early age
to enter into the world of theatre, which is a world that might
sometimes seem quite inaccessible or dry. Whether you want to be an
actor or not, something like this is vitally important for young
people in terms of their well-being, confidence and communication,
all the things that make you a human being. That's what matters here.
Some people may want to be actors, but not know how to get there, and
for others it might be about meeting other people and gaining the
confidence to express themselves.”
As an actress whose
first experience of theatre came via her local amateur dramatics
group followed by a stint in the National Youth Theatre when still a
teenager, Jensen understands more than most the value of having
access to the arts. This was brought home even more when she spent a
day with Tron Participation's assorted groups earlier in the year,
getting a flavour of exactly what goes on in a scheme that rarely
makes the headlines.
“With school, there's
very much the idea of a right and wrong answer to something,”
Jensen says “whereas with theatre there isn't really a right and
wrong. It's more about exploration, acting, reacting, giving, sharing
and being part of a company. That's one of the things I loved when I
started out. I felt very much part of a family, and in a world that
seems increasingly more solitary, it's a really basic thing to be
able to look someone in the eye and communicate with them. That's
where Tron Participation is important.”
With some 47,000 young
people and adults having taken part in Tron Participation over the
last decade, Jensen's observations are clearly validated, as they
were too when she took part in a guided tour of Tron Participation's
assorted programmes led by some of its participants. These included
modules for theatre design, as well as a Tron Ambassadors scheme,
which gives access to young people all the theatre's activities.
Following this, Jensen
watched Subject To Change, a new play devised by the Tron Young
Company with professional director Martin O'Connor. If the next
generation of acting talent were to be found anywhere in Tron
Participation, it was in this complex, and funny look at
inter-personal relationships that featured a set of fantastic
performances.
In the bar afterwards,
Jensen chatted to the cast inbetween posing for photographs with a
stream of Tron participants.
“It was great to talk
to them all while everyone was still buzzing,” Jensen said later.
“It reminded me of when I was younger, and the high you get doing
something like that.”
Jensen is fulsome in
her praise for the Tron's Education Manager Lisa Keenan and Drama
Officer
Deborah McArthur, who
somewhat miraculously are the sole people in charge of Tron
Participation.
“They are remarkable
women doing a remarkable job,” Jensen says. “What I can hopefully
do for the Tron Angels scheme is to blow a bit of a trumpet on their
behalf, to make sure more people know it's happening, and to help
raise the money to make sure such brilliant work can carry on. This
is just the beginning.”
Anyone wishing to
become a Tron Angel should contact Dearbhla Murphy at the Tron
Theatre at dearbhla.murphy@tron.co.uk.
Details of Tron Participation can be found at www.tron.co.uk.
The Herald, October 28th 2013
ends
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