Romeo and Joseph all rolled into one!
In the last year, we’ve seen an increase in disability representation, from Zac Gottsagen in the Peanut Butter Falcon to Madeline Stuart gracing the runways at fashion week. We believe in and champion this representation. It’s fantastic that within our own services we have incredible people we support pursuing their dreams to work within the arts.
Jacob, 25, a person we support with Down Syndrome in Gorsley has been chosen to play the lead part in the musical Joseph and his Technicolour Coat, a ticketed play being presented by a local church in Gorsley. It is clear speaking to Jacob, that he’s extremely proud of his achievements. Jacob’s love for acting began whilst at secondary school where he learnt signing and Makaton. During this time Jacob also had his debut on stage as Jack’s mother in Jack and the Beanstalk, he also starred in pantomimes, playing the Dame in one.
The team at Pound Farm are also extremely excited for Jacob’s performance, “We’ve bought 9 tickets, we’re really looking forward to seeing him on stage”, his support worker says proudly. Jacob is interested in acting on stage and on screen with dreams of one day being in EastEnders or Coronation Street. Alike anyone, learning lines is a task and for Jacob as an individual with learning disabilities, it can be even more difficult. “It was hard learning lines at first but I got into them. As it’s such a big part, I have a lot of lines, at school, we did Macbeth and learning those lines helped me prepare this role.”, Jacob explains. This has also prepared him for his second lead role as Romeo in the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which he will perform in as a part of his theatre group, the Living Book Theatre Company.
Jacob’s love and passion for acting won him the Shirley Blake, Star of the Season award from his theatre group. An incredible recognition for Jacob for simply doing what he loves and enjoys. As an organisation, we work to increase the quality of life and happiness of the people we support, working to ensure they live their lives to the full.
Jacob was due to begin rehearsals early April however due to the current global pandemic, this has been postponed to a later date.
We look forward to seeing Jacob in the plays hopefully soon!
** This story has been amended on 28 April 2020 to reflect the fact that Jacob lives in Gorsley not Ledbury and the team he works with is the team at Pound Farm.