ABOUT FLIP THEATRE

Flip Theatre was founded by Cheryl Hallett in 2007.

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Having completed a contemporary theatre degree at the community and issue based East 15 Acting School, Cheryl was particularly inspired by one of her teachers, Brian Astbury, who had worked in Cape Town during apartheid, using theatre to make positive change within the community. In addition to her youth club work in deprived areas, Cheryl went on to run part of Barnet Council Events Team, with a focus on introducing local youngsters to the creative and expressive freedom available through the arts.

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Following a diverse range of acting roles including that of the mother in Missing Dan Nolan at Queens Theatre, Hornchurch, and a variety of experiences in educational theatre including touring with Shakespeare Works around the country's schools and teaching afterschool and Saturday clubs, Cheryl realised her mission to set up a theatrical workshop company which was going to make a positive change to young people's mental health, and created Flip Theatre.

Flip Theatre's first big break came in the form of Hertsmere Annual Youth Conference where a chance phone call led to a five-year recall of their democracy workshop, designed to empower young people to have a voice. The program was subsequently shortlisted and taken to the Westminster Youth Conference.

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Flip Theatre have since been asked to run workshops for the NCS (National Citizenship Service) teaching young people how to use theatre as a vehicle to better the community and has been invited to return to East 15 as a guest lecturer on community and youth theatre.

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With a Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health, as well as training in suicide prevention and safeguarding, Cheryl has a personal passion to help young people understand the importance of social wellbeing, to recognise what is healthy and not healthy and the need to look after their mental health now, in order to benefit them moving forward into adult life. 

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Today, Flip Theatre works across South East England, offering a wide variety of workshops and programs, with the shared aim of bettering our children's mental health and social wellbeing. The company comprises a large team of trained actors, each DBS checked and having received child protection training.

Funding

Working with external organisations including local councils and the Big Local (The National Lottery Community Fund), Flip Theatre has successfully been awarded funding to support projects in some of the most deprived areas of the country. Elsewhere, the workshops are funded through a combination of allocated wellbeing budgets and Pupil Premium funds received from the government.

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How does it work?

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If you'd like to work with Flip Theatre, please get in touch to identify or discuss the workshop or program which is best suited to your needs. We run anything from a half-day session to six-week programs and are entirely flexible it terms of the space and time we work in. 

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An integral part and benefit value of any workshop or program with Flip Theatre is that of working alongside the teachers. We encourage tutors and staff with responsibility for pastoral care, to be involved in the initial conversations to identify the key areas which need to be addressed. We recommend that teachers should observe and use the teacher packs we provide to continue the work moving forward and encourage ongoing better mental wellbeing for both staff and students. 

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