Apollo and Aspen

Participants on Lowry youth programmes

Apollo and Aspen came to speak to us with their mum, Michelle. All three have participated in Lowry’s community programmes.

Michelle: My connection to Lowry started when I got a knock on the door from a lady called Sarah, and she was doing some community outreach. And at that moment in time I was agoraphobic, I'd not left house for about a year at that point. So she encouraged me to join a group called Show Selectors, a group of people from the community learning how to put a show on and all the workings behind it. I really enjoyed it and made a lot of bonds with people from that.

Then the children got involved. They started coming to the learning and engagement unit. This was about four years ago. Ever since then, we've been involved with loads of community work. I've been in a play, so I've gone from being agoraphobic to being in the Lyric theatre. It's all thanks to the Lowry and what they've done, because it just picked me up when I was at my lowest and built me up to where I am now. Now I run my own group called The Quiet Space. It's for children with autism, ADHD, other neurodiversities and we meet every Friday at the Great Northern in Manchester.

Outwardly, I was very sad and very down and not involved with things and the Lowry helped me get out of that mindset. The girls have blossomed so, so much. Before we started coming to the Lowry, both girls wouldn’t speak to anybody. Aspen used to carry around a pack of communication cards because she couldn't speak. But now there's no stopping them. They've both been on stage as well. Apollo has been in Gods of Salford, which was one of the big shows of spring-summer. They wouldn't have done that a few years ago. And now they're just blossoming into fantastic people.

Apollo: There was a summer workshop. It was an acting and art workshop. I was 12, maybe 13 at the time. But I remember we had to get up at 7 o’clock in the morning. I didn't want to do that. I got forced to go, and then I stayed.

Aspen was in the younger group, we got separated, which was great. So I did a show with superheroes. We had to make the characters and outfits. We did some weird technique, and then we made planets and stuff. On the third day, I decided, it’s actually not too bad, I just don't want to be up this hour.

After that, we did Stage Directions. There was another show going on, and I painted a banner for it and it was hung all over the side of auditorium. And then recently I did Gods of Salford for the 25th anniversary.

We rehearsed it so many times. The tech rehearsal was seven hours long, and we had two breaks, so that was tiring. So after doing that, the shows are fine. I thought, I've gone through seven hours of this. I'll be fine.

I was the comedic relief, but I started the show and ended the show as well. At the beginning, there's a prologue, and there's a banner that says, Cross the gods and your lives will never be the same, because that's the prophecy in the play, and I have to pull this banner up and down. I did that, and then we're pulling it down but I got stuck in the string somehow. I'm pulling it down that quick to get ready for the next scene, but because my foot's in it, I went up as well with the banner, and I went backwards and I fell off of the set.

I was like, okay, brush it off. Whatever. I look down, my shoe’s gone! The director's also in the show, playing Hermes. I went up to him, and I was like, my shoe’s gone. And he started crying with laughter until he had to go on stage. One of the stage managers had to army crawl behind the stage in the middle of the show to get my shoe back.

Aspen: It has definitely changed my view on acting. Because for some people, it might seem like the easiest thing in the world. Obviously, for others, it might seem like the hardest thing in the world. It definitely change my view on that, because I just thought, oh, they're just doing it so normally, they're not doing any cuts or making any mistakes.

Apollo: You notice there is actually a lot more mistakes in live theatre than you think, they just play it off.

Aspen: It’s creative, it’s a good way to get your emotions out, putting it all into a part and then acting out those emotions. The Lowry is the reason why I want to pursue acting, I want to do acting as a job. I like the stage, rather than having a camera there, I don't know how to word it, but with a camera there you can't actually get your emotions out properly. But when you're on the stage, then you can just show the whole world your emotions, if that makes any sense.

Apollo: I’m going to college in September. I like acting, and theatre in general. After that, I'm going do art and design, then I'm going to do fashion, because I like every aspect of theatre. I want to do costumes, set design, everything really. I’m always making props and outfits and stuff. Making sets would be cool. And fashion, I make costumes and I like designing them.

Aspen: We, well mainly me, started a group called Dynamic Perspectives. Basically, it’s a bunch of people that have disabilities or life challenges, and it’s about making them feel like they're more normal, more treated like adults, or treated, just treated normally.

Apollo: I set up a music group for Greater Manchester Youth Network called Noise Lab. I’m learning music theory. I’m on drums. We do a podcast as well with The Quiet Space. We've already recorded one episode, we're learning how to make them, how to use the equipment. We're doing the next episode tomorrow, but we're not going to put them all up till they've all been recorded. The Manchester Building Society heard about our group and really liked us and gave us funding, some of which we spend on the podcast.

Michelle: It’s just nice, it’s community, and it's all connected and coming together and that’s what I love. They’ve just blossomed.

In regards to art, I think it's very important for neurodivergent people. A lot of people like us express ourselves through art, whether it's music or drawing or drama. You can just drop in and pick up and learn, because you get scooped up and then carried along on the art wave.