by Clea Langton and Christine Bacon

How did Actors for Human Rights go from one script, ten lovely actors and a couple of organisations willing to host a reading into the project it is today? Loads of bloody-minded determination and the endless goodwill of thousands of people.

Although it’s now a much larger project – AFHR remains essentially the same – free events performed by professional actors of first-hand accounts from some of the most courageous and inspiring – but most misrepresented people in the UK and beyond. The scores of individuals who have shared their stories with us continue to be the driving inspiration of the project.

But, how do you sum up five years, 50,000 audience members and over 350 events? Rather than reminiscing about the glam events, we’ve decided to tell you some of our more amusing and inspiring stories from over the years.

Smallest audience

There we were, fully rehearsed, ready to go, sitting in a hall big enough for 500 – but with an audience of  …. 5 – in the middle of a Middlesbrough winter with the heating system not actually providing heat but instead providing a soundscape which was reminiscent of jet engines – not quite appropriate for a rehearsed reading about abuses in the UK asylum system. But, remembering that old mantra – if just one person is affected…. we soldiered on. And that one person was affected – and proceeded to bring us back to Middlesbrough a few weeks later to perform to an entirely new audience of 100 who had only really heard about refugees from the headlines in the Daily Mail and finished up discussing how they could start a campaign to stop people being deported back to the Congo!

Largest number of shows in a day

The first moment AFHR as a national network seemed a reality was probably the 14 shows in one day event in June 2007. It seemed a bonkers idea at first: recruiting 14 directors, 40 odd actors, 14 musos and scores of other people to stage 14 events across the UK – all on volunteer time and with almost no funding. But individual after individual committed themselves to making it happen – proving that AFHR as a national network was possible. From there interest grew for hundreds more events, the development of over 10 more scripts and for funders to support two bases – London and North of England.

Closest calls

• Scott Brooksbank racing towards the train to York, while Christine stood with one leg on the platform and one on the train as the doors were closing.
• After a long day, where we’d travelled from London to Middlesbrough for a performance, hopping on the last train, only for it to stop just after York and then proceeded to go backwards! After being informed that there would not be a train to London until the next morning, we called the person in Middlesbrough who had arranged the gig. Turned out she knew the local priest in York, who happened to have five spare bedrooms (!) and served us lemon drizzle cake and tea before tucking us into bed and waking us the next morning to take us to the station.
• Asylum Dialogues tour 2009. At St Pancras station on the way to the Leicester Curve theatre, one of the actors calls saying she can’t make the gig. On the one hour journey, we all pull out our mobile phones and quickly find a willing actress who lives in Nottingham which will have her there in 30 minutess – enough time for us to have a quick run through together. We did not bank on the traffic being the worst in the region’s recorded history … and said actress arrives five minutes before we go on. Not having read the script. All we could say was ‘Breathe deeply. Take your time reading. Oh, and please speak in a Jamaican accent.’
• Asylum Dialogues Bristol 2008. Actor pulls out on the morning of the gig. Spend the rest of the day and train journey trying to get someone over to Bristol in time for rehearsals. No joy. Christine ends up reading the part of a Congolese man while wearing a fetching purple dress and accompanied by a hacking cough. The show must go on!

Lovely moments

Broke- our script about poverty and homelessness in London contains the testimony of Laura, a single mother of two who has been driven into crippling debt. When we asked her what she thought a happy life would be like, she said’ I’d love to get to a point where I can say, you know what – I’ve paid my bills last week and this week I can go out for the day or go out with my mates and have a good night.’ After an audience member had heard her story, they got in touch with her and offered to pay off her debt. Just before Christmas too. Ah … warms the cockles of me heart!

The launch of The Illegals at the Soho Theatre in November 2008 was attended by most of the people whose stories were told in the script. Made up of first-hand accounts of undocumented migrants living and working in London, it was a rare opportunity to hear the stories of some of the capital’s most hidden voices. Standing at the side of the theatre during the performance, we watched as the individuals who had shared their stories with us responded to their own stories being re-enacted in a full theatre.

A moment to shed a tear

The inimitable Clea Langton, who has worked her lovely butt off for over three years travelling all over the north of England with this project is leaving us at the end of the month to move to Australia and have a baby boy! While we are very excited for her and wish her the very, very best – it is with  heavy hearts and multiple tears and runny noses that we bid her farewell. Clea – you’re a star and you will be sorely missed.

HAPPY FIFTH BIRTHDAY ACTORS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS! HUGE, HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS HELPED MAKE IT WHAT IT IS TODAY.