charity trustees

"Young people who might have been overlooked, suddenly engage more and find that opportunities open up in front of them - we have made a difference to their lives."   

Hello - I'm Roger Martin; In addition to my role of chairing the board of Eastside I am an actor and theatre director, and it is from this perspective that I view the exciting activities of Eastside. I am proud and delighted to chair an organisation so much at the cutting edge of traditional, contemporary and ground-breaking creativity across all the areas in which we offer workshops. It is a proud boast that we are able to offer young people either a fantastic opportunity to take part in a wide range of artistic disciplines, or introduce them to their first experience in the creative arts; sometimes both. As a theatre and television practitioner myself, I believe this dimension to our lives to be of inordinate importance.

However, what I am most proud of are the social, language and character developments that we constantly see whenever our extraordinary facilitators get in amongst the young people and stimulate magic with their enthusiasm for their particular discipline. I have observed over the years that two wonderful by-products constantly emerge from this artistic involvement; they are what I refer to as “Giving a Voice” and “Creating Champions” (which are the flip sides of the same coin). Simply put, children and young people who have not found it easy to contribute in a classroom environment are often, wonderfully, able to grow, blossom and develop in a creative workshop. They find a voice. From there, many go on to discover a new or hidden talent for dance or acting; some find the joy of reading after many years of struggle. The beauty of some of the creative writing we see (especially poetry) is outstanding. These are our new “champions”. We can all identify the academic and /or sporting champions with whom we were at school; they all had a recognisable profile. Our new champions, however, are not just those who might feature in a school production, but those who gradually appear out of the shadows and gain the admiration of their classmates by revealing skills in a new arena. Even more significant is the accompanying personal development and the emergence of the character, which both bring the young person or student to the positive notice of teachers, friends and family alike. Young people who might have been overlooked suddenly engage more and find that opportunities open up in front of them - we have made a difference to their lives.

Email Roger