Hijinx will once again be bringing together participants from PAWB, its pan-Wales inclusive community programme, to express and engage online in the 12 Days of PAWB.
Cardiff based company,Hijinx, makes theatre productions with learning disabled and autistic actors. Due to the pandemic, Hijinx’s 2020 festive Odyssey performance had to be postponed. Instead a gathering took place online as part of ‘12 Days of PAWB’.
Hijinx have programmed 12 Days of PAWB as predominantly virtual events, which will feature its adult company Odyssey, its young people’s groups in Cardiff and Bangor, Drama Foundations groups and Pathways.
12 Days of PAWB started on 1 December with the fundraising launch and a dedicated day of fundraising on 22 December. As part of the 12 Days of PAWB, they ask for people to kindly donate £12. PAWB runs throughout the year across Wales.
Hijinx strives for equality by making art with learning disabled and autistic actors on stage, on screen, on the street, in the workplace, locally, nationally and internationally for Wales and for the world.
Chief Executive, Sarah Homer, stated: “Creating the opportunity for participants and audiences to engage online and in person is so important for us. We won’t stop doing both. We have seen the impact it has had and how access for both is needed. Our Social Impact Report research shows the performing arts are a vehicle for health and wellbeing, and increase happiness in people’s lives. For every £1 invested in Hijinx we turned that into £4.84 of social value. That’s a grand total of £4.5 million. We do stretch our money to deliver as much as we can, but we need your help to keep supporting what we do and in the future.”
Jon Dafydd-Kidd, Head of Participation says: “Last year’s event was so successful in bringing everyone together after the disappointment of not creating something to be performed at Christmas. This year, as well as performing in person our Hijinx Odyssey show, Pinocchio and the Northern Lights, at Wales Millennium Centre, we will continue to run our 12 Days of PAWB throughout December showcasing the many wonderful projects that our participants have been working on right across Wales. We know many of our participants and audiences still want to continue to engage with us online and we want to ensure we can connect with them at this time of year.”
Some of the activity you can expect to see includes Hijinx collaborating with illustration students from University of South Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Coleg Menai, launching on the 3rd Day of PAWB, 6 December.
Hijinx’s South based Young People’s theatre group Telemachus will be sharing a digital video on Wednesday, 8 December, of their recent project Light from the Past. Telemachus, North Youth People’s Theatre and Odyssey will be hosting an interactive online community workshop on 13 December – booking is required. Released last year as part of 12 Days of PAWB, Vaguely Artistic’s Christmas Single will be shared online again on Boxing Day. www.hijinx.org.uk.