Workshop at Alliston House.

On Friday we went over to Alliston House which is a residential care unit for the elderly and people with dementia. We had a fantastic time. Nick Cassenbaum and Olly Hawes lead the workshop with the help of Joe Fleming on Banjo.

Nick lived out one of his dreams by singing a Chas ‘n’ Dave song to a group of people who actually wanted to hear it.

In the workshop we looked at moments their favourite films like Dambusters and Blues Brothers and together we recreated them. We then created our own film together with all the participants making the sound effects. We made a war film called Help set in Portsmouth. It involved planes, navy ships and men with guns. The final line of the film was given by Hannah it was, “They are all dead”. We would like to think that if there still were film studios in Walthamstow they would be making movies of that calibre.

We then talked about making moments of our lives films set in Walthamstow. We had all sorts of ideas like throwing nuts on people’s heads in the Walthamstow palace, drinking at all three pubs on Wood Street but staying out of trouble and a film about a diehard Elvis fan. One grouped named their film The Amazing Blue Blob of Music.

The ideas were great and we will be arranging a special performance of our show for the residents.

A huge thank you goes out to Loretta Martin who organised service users from the centres in Chingford and Leytonstone to join us for the workshop, and for the fish and chips.