Underground Lights

THEATRE HAS THE POWER TO CHANGE LIVES. We know this from our own personal experiences and observations, but also from research that shows how participation in drama and performing arts activities can improve mental health and wellbeing. Underground Lights is a former Belgrade Springboard Company, running workshops in association with the Belgrade Theatre. We are run for and by adults experiencing social disadvantage, homelessness and/or mental health issues in Coventry, Warwickshire and the surrounding area. Established in March 2018, the founders of Underground Lights both have their own experiences of mental ill health, and one co-founder has experienced homelessness. In January 2019 we started to run our relaxed but vibrant drama workshops in a safe and supportive environment, where people could increase their confidence, learn new skills and make decisions for themselves about what they wanted to work on and perform. We have also run ‘Creative Café’ sessions. These are more informal drop ins for people to try new performing arts activities and meet others in a low pressure and friendly setting. Our member-led ethos is also important to us and we want people with personal experience of homelessness and/or mental health issues to be genuinely involved in the development and delivery of our activity at every stage and level of our organisation.