‘In so many individuals we have seen how working with Streetwise Opera can alleviate emotional distress, and people find a self-belief which can carry them on to changing their situation. It has already been proved that this can be life-changing for our clients.’
Sister Ellen Flynn, Director, The Passage

(Above) A Promotional Film about Streetwise Opera’s workshop programme

The most important area of our work is our Workshop Programme, a constant, dependable weekly programme of activity in homeless centres around the country. This programme involves the following services:

• Weekly music workshops in homeless centres
• The Streetwise Choir
• Concert presentations
• Theatre trips
• Open Mic Nights
• Work Placement Scheme
• Capacity Building

Although the annual productions receive the media attention and public awareness, it is our weekly sessions which provide participants with regular activity. The workshops provide many services – a safe environment, a place where participants can experiment and be creative; a constant programme in a chaotic life; a way of engaging more with community life for participants who feel isolate. The programme is also designed to progress participants gradually into more independence from workshops to theatre trips and performances to work placements.

Weekly Workshops

A programme of 500 workshops per year – one per week in homeless centres around England (see links on the left for times and places of the workshops).These one-and-a-half or two-hour singing and acting sessions are open to anyone who wants to come with no auditions and involve a variety of music from classical to pop, jazz, folk, rap and world – we often work on material written by the participants themselves. The workshops are heavily supported by staff from the homeless centres who often work alongside participants long-term and perform in concerts and our annual productions. The sessions are facilitated by professional musicians who are trained by the Streetwise Opera Head of Workshops through a rigorous three-part training scheme. Many participants get involved singing straight away but others take more time – for them, we encourage them to stay in the sessions and be our audience members or help the workshop leaders direct the other performers, thus including everyone at all levels.

Workshop at Crisis London

The Streetwise Choir
Hon Patron, Jonathan Welch
The UK’s first choir made up of people who have experienced homelessness is based at Crisis Skylight Centre in Newcastle and has been designed with the help of our Hon Patron, Jonathan Welch who has started two very successful choirs in Australia.

Concert Presentations
Throughout the year, our weekly workshops work towards the performance of informal concerts and Open Workshops. We perform around 30 of these events annually and with a wide variety of stars from the music world – e.g. the folk singer and fiddle player Eliza Carthy, the rapper Pace, the pop-star Darius and the baritone Ashley Holland. We perform at a variety of events such as the Labour Party Conference, homeless agency AGMs and in 2009 The Lord Mayor’s Show.

Theatre Trips
Around once a month we take groups of participants to the theatre and concerts. These events are very popular and have included trips to see Madame Butterfly at ENO, Chitty-Chitty Bang, Bang, The Importance of Being Earnest at Oxford Playhouse, Billy Elliot and Tosca at the Royal Opera House.