We run weekly sessions for our members we have a junior group (8 – 13yrs) which meets on a Saturday and a youth group (13 yrs plus) which meets on a Tuesday. Our numbers are still recovering from a covid 19 loss of members and an age-related loss (university or out of town sixth form.We have a slow but steady increase in junior members but a much slower growth in youth members. All our cast members can participate in all aspects of our theatre company, back stage, on stage, front of house, media, and general ambassadors. This offers them the opportunity to experience aspects of creativity and arts in a way that is not available in school. We have held extra sessions for workshops to give intensive learning of new routines not connected with our current shows. This allows a taste of different styles of dance, for example, from different choreographers. We have opportunities to liaise with former ohanians who return to lead workshops. An additional benefit of this is that people they know, or at least know of, can give valuable insight into working in professional acting/musical theatre whether in television, static theatre, theatre on tour or cruise ship entertainment. We continue to have an annual summer school, directed and choreographed by ex ohanians who have moved onto an arts based course at university. There is no precasting of the show, only show director and CEO know what the show is until day one, when auditions are held! CEO has to buy the licence for the show. Cast members create their own summer school tee shirts (teaching them design and often how to dye material) they help design set and costume. They will have helped to design programme and promotional material. At the end of this two week summer school they perform two or three shows in front of an audience, thereby getting the complete show experience. All helpers have current DBS. We have extra sessions for costume work to allow cast members to design and make costumes for upcoming shows. This gives them valuable skills and experience in realising a design and adapting their original plans into a physical item for the stage or display. As a company we encourage ideas about what we need for each show, taking, developing and refining member ideas for set, props and front of house decoration for the current show. If it is on our stage, we as a company have designed it. December 2023 christmas tree festival. We displayed our tree showing as many aspects of ohana as possible. Cast members took part in making the tree and in supporting the event. January 2024 quiz night to socialise and enjoy ohana company. Questions are set by previous winning team. In March we had a free two day workshop. 20 cast members took part and learnt a routine that could be used for future revue shows. In April volunteers attended a Canva course. We held a fabric and vintage sale. We loaned costume to another company, part of our belief is that we should be a community resource. The juniors performed a joyful piece called “an enchanted book”, this is written by our theatrical director Lizi White with input as always from the cast. June allowed us the opportunity to get all ohanians together and celebrate the life of our original CEO. In August we performed Bugsy Malone as our summer school. In November we continued our support of Foodie Friday and St Georges Christmas tree festival. We had a successful fabric and vintage sale and a quiz night at ohana theatre. We have supported the Vintage market in Stockport which is held every two months and in December we performed a host of Christmas songs and provided song books so the other stall holders could sing along.

As last year we held a series of informal meetings online (whatsapp) to get members used to having their ideas shared, commented and acted upon if all agreed it was good idea. We continued our support for Macmillan, running the annual coffee morning. In response to members requests we have continued with quiz nights, which have continued to be successful in allowing parents to mingle with other parents and all quite a strong competitive element to arise. The food for this event is supplied by Ohana parents who runs a local cafe and they also promote our group via posters and allow us to have face to face meeting in their cafe. We are planning a series of nights showing rehearsal footage previous shows. These will help pass on the Ohana culture to new members, allow current members to cringe and past members to bask and reflect. Many of our members are craftily creative. They are eager to share and learn new ideas to augment their current knowledge and expand their horizons. We have identified a need for more training in business promotion and organisation. The back stage crew have undertaken courses this year, we use our Sector3 connection and they have provided courses on bid writing and finding your funding. We have agreed that a focus for next year is to be more visible and to grow our brand by supporting or initiating new events. We have an increased presence in the social media world and continue to network with other groups that support our views in promoting young people. We look forward to renewing our close links with Teenage Market in the new year.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration