Last year, 53two teamed up with TripleC to create a Christmas advert on a minimal budget in the hope of delivering some Christmas joy whilst highlighting the lack of disabled artists seen on our screens. The response far exceeded their expectations. By Christmas Day it had received over 75k views. Following this success, the team are back this December to create another festive advert full of love, kindness and inclusivity.
53two is a charity offering support for creatives in all disciplines through workshops, placements, opportunity and more, as well as supporting countless charities across the UK with mentoring, venue, equipment, tech support and other resources. Although 53two’s plan of moving into their new fully accessible theatre venue has been delayed until 2021, they have remained active with their online workshops as well as offering a COVID safe environment for creatives to work within their studios based in the centre of Manchester. 53two’s Manager Alexandra Maxwell said “At the heart of 53two is working on projects that offer opportunities to all with a focus on diversity and accessibility. Working with TripleC on this Christmas project enables us to engage further with artists from the disabled community here in Manchester & offer opportunities working on creative projects.”
TripleC is a non-profit, community interest company that creates projects that break down the barriers faced by disabled people of all ages accessing the arts. TripleC created DANC (Disabled Artists Networking Community) which is a solution focussed initiative that works with the creative industry and disabled artists to up representation and employment of disabled talent. TripleC’s co creative Directors – Cherylee Houston (Coronation Street) & Melissa Johns (BBC’s LIFE) said “2020 has been a tough year for many of us and extremely so for the disabled community. We wanted to ensure that disabled artists could still access a space that brings everyone together even though we can’t be in the same room. We have been running weekly masterclasses, webinars, 1-1’s, challenges, and mailouts to make sure that the voices of the disabled community are heard and don’t fall off the radar. It felt right to conclude the year with a Christmas advert as last year’s advert brought so much joy. It has been an absolute delight to work with 53TWO on this project again. It’s the perfect example of how this industry can work in an accessible and inclusive way. TripleC’s ethos is ‘Never Leave Anyone Behind’ and we hope that message comes across in this year’s advert”.
This year’s advert, written by Vicky Wild was chosen from over 50 pitches submitted. Following on from last year, the advert does not promote a product or organisation, but instead focuses on the theme of togetherness. It’s originality and heart-warming message was a perfect fit for this year’s piece & enables the production team to deliver a quality advert while following Covid-19 guidelines. Casting has now begun and playing the lead role is 10yr old Amelia Eldred. Amelia was diagnosed with osteosarcoma tumour in her left femur on her 7th birthday after her leg ‘swelled’ during a sports club activity. After two rounds of chemotherapy, the tumour had not shrunk, so she was given rotationplasty surgery. Amelia uses a prosthetic and is determined to achieve her dreams. She is very passionate about proving that with hard work you can do anything. She is so excited about working on this project, she said: “This is amazing, I’m so excited about performing and showing people what I can do. I’m feeling like Christmas has come early and I can’t wait to film the advert.”
After a difficult year 53two & TripleC hope to deliver some much-needed joy into people’s homes this Christmas and bring some unity and positivity to a potentially difficult holiday time. Their advert will be released online early December.