Making a Social Impact through Theater – A Mother / Daughter Pair (Part 2)

Rachel Swift (stage name Rachel Winters) far right in an adaptation Babette’s Feast by Karen Blixen Adapted by Glyn Maxwell. Photo ©NOBBY CLARK, [email protected]

As a diversity consultant, I feel the performing arts can be a powerful medium to address many social issues such a racism, homophobia, ageism, economic inequality and more. Sometimes people need to be transported outside themselves and their daily lives to see something on stage or hear something in music that can communicate to them much better than a written editorial or a political debate. I have written four blogs about this subject over the past year, including part 1 (link) of this blog about a mother / daughter pair. (See additional blogs at the bottom of this post.)

Last week I wrote about the mother, Cathy Swift. Do read more (link to last week’s part 1) about this fascinating woman who was an accomplished business woman, figure skater and now theatre director in the UK. And after speaking with Cathy I discussed the impact her daughter Rachel Swift (Stage name is Rachel Winters) is making on the world through the world of theatre.

STAN: Rachel, I just got done talking to your mother Cathy about her involvement in the theatre. How did you get involved in theatre yourself and was your mother an influence in that?

RACHEL: My mother has definitely had an impact on me being an actress. She took me to my first theatre show when I was about four. It was a staged version of Postman Pat and apparently I watched wide eyed in amazement. Ever since, she has enjoyed taking my sister and me to the theatre on a regular basis. When I was about seven, I joined the local amateur dramatics group and that’s where my love for theatre blossomed. I loved socialising and working with people from different backgrounds and of different ages, and that’s one of the things that I continue to love today when I’m working on a production. As well as the local group, I started to do a lot of school plays when I joined my Upper School at thirteen. I had a wonderful drama teacher and he was a huge inspiration to me. It was when I met him that I realised I wanted to act professionally.


STAN: What have been some of your biggest joys and struggles working in the theatre?

Mother and Daughter Cathy and Rachel Swift are making an impact in their community through their involvement in theater.

RACHEL: The joys of working in theatre are when you’re working! The people are wonderful and I’ve made some brilliant friends. I’ve worked at some beautiful and prestigious theatres – I’m currently in rehearsals for a production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at Shakespeare’s Globe. I’ve always been interested in people and that’s one of the things I love about acting. The process of understanding a character and working out why they behave the way they do. It can be challenging but it’s a challenge I relish. The main struggle with being an actor is the part where you’re not working. When you come to the end of a job, you often don’t know when the next job will start, and that can be scary. As well as feeling unfulfilled during these times, you can also find yourself without money, as finding flexible work that pays well is difficult. It is something actors are constantly battling with and you have to really love it and care about it to keep on going. It’s also very competitive – getting seen for parts can be difficult, even if you have an agent, and it’s not just about how good you are. A lot of it depends on looking right and fitting other criteria.


STAN: I understand that you have now started a work called Fair Play (link), which aims to use drama and role play to teach children about human rights, gender equality, anti-bullying etc. Can you tell me more about what triggered your desire to start this group?

Fairplay uses fun exercises, role play and games to help children explore a point of view outside themselves, and to feed a healthy and compassionate culture in the classroom.

RACHEL: I’ve been wanting to set up my own business for a couple of years now, partly as a way to gain some control. I love acting but I need something else that I do that (a) pays the bills and (b) I feel proud of. After a couple of business ideas that weren’t quite right, I found myself exploring Fair Play. I’ve become increasingly more aware and passionate about gender equality over the past couple of years and it’s very much at the forefront of my mind. I also work as a theatre practitioner at Shakespeare’s Globe when I’m not acting, so I have a lot of experience with leading drama-based workshops for children. Fair Play therefore made sense. As well as having the relevant experience, I really care about equality and believe that the key to change is education. After discussing the business idea with teachers, I realised that instead of just doing workshops on the niche subject of gender equality, it would be more valuable to explore equality as a whole.


STAN: What are some of the activities that Fair Play does to achieve its mission?

RACHEL: I recently did my first set of workshops at a school in Woking (a town just outside London). One exercise that the children responded brilliantly to was a game I call ‘Islands’: You’re shipwrecked on a desert island and you’re the only survivors. Create a freeze frame of you on the boat during the storm. There is plenty of food and water on the island. As a team, you have to create a whole new society. Write 6 human rights for your island. There is another storm and one person is swept away to another island (so one student from each group moves to a different group). Create a short scene where the new member of the island breaks a rule. How do the others deal with it badly? Do the scene again but change it – how do the people on the island deal with the broken rule in a more fair way?


STAN: How can my readers get involved in assisting or supporting Fair Play?

RACHEL: The full launch of my business is due to be in April. So far I’ve been in the testing phase – working closely with a school to gather experience and perfect the workshops. At launch, I’ll only be contacting private schools about my business as I am aware state schools won’t have the budget to fund it. However, as my business is centered around human rights the goal is to offer subsidised workshops to schools who can’t afford it. If you or anyone else you know can help finance this in any way, or help promote by business, that would be really valuable. Here’s a link to my Patreon page. It’s a really inexpensive way to contribute directly to human rights education in the schools that need it most.

STAN: Thank you for sharing about your life and work with me and I wish you the very best of success with your acting career and your new business.

* * * * * *

My other blogs about social issues being addressed through the performing arts:

“A great diversity experience – Theater Breaking Through Barriers” about enjoying an off-Broadway play in New York City which featured actors with a wide range of disabilities.

“Promoting Diversity and Inclusion Through Bluegrass Music,” is about an innovative annual concert called “Shout and Shine” of diverse Bluegrass musicians. This celebration came about in 2016 as a direct response to North Carolina’s oppressive HB2 “bathroom bill” discriminating against our LGBT citizens.

• I introduce the Justice Theater Project, a social justice theater company whose mission is to produce compelling theater experiences that create community dialogue and give voice to social concern,s through my blog “The Justice Theater Project – Societal Impact Through the Performing Arts.”

• A follow on blog about the Justice Theater Project’s Play “Bent,” The Justice Theater Project presents “Bent” – a drama about Germany’s Third Reich’s persecution of homosexuals.

Making a Social Impact through Theater – A Mother / Daughter Pair (Part 1)

Mother and Daughter Cathy and Rachel Swift are making an impact in their community through their involvement in theater.

As a diversity consultant, I feel the performing arts can be a powerful medium to address many social issues such a racism, homophobia, ageism, economic inequality and more. Sometimes people need to be transported outside themselves and their daily lives to see something on stage or hear something in music that can communicate to them much better than a written editorial or a political debate. I have written four blogs (see links at bottom of this blog) about this subject over the past year and now this seems to be turning into a series.

In this next two-part blog, I am going to introduce a mother and a daughter who are both involved in the performing arts and having an impact on their communities in the United Kingdom. (Link to part 2 is at the bottom after the interview.)

I actually met the mother, Cathy Swift, on a hiking vacation in southern Spain. I traveled there from the US and Cathy from the UK, each traveling alone and joining about a dozen others in the arranged hiking tour. Cathy and I quickly hit it off, having similar past professional backgrounds in project management with large companies as well as a love for figure skating. Cathy actually helped push me into transitioning from a skating fan into an active participant (see my blog about finding a new passion in figure skating) and we have since attended a few figure skating camps together.

Cathy Swift and me at Dorothy Hamill’s adult skating camp in 2015

This fascinating woman, in addition to being a skilled professional and figure skater, is active in the performing arts world. So I discussed her journey with her:

STAN: How did you get interested in the theatre?

CATHY: The first time I went to the theatre to see anything at all was at the age of 11, when my mum took me to see the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company perform The Mikado at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. I was mesmerised, especially by the Mikado’s long green fingernails, and the experience lead to a lifelong passion for Gilbert and Sullivan, and theatre generally. Twelve years later I set up a West London-based company called The Young Savoyards (named after the Savoy Theatre where the early G&S operettas were performed), for amateur performers under the age of 35 who wished to perform G&S. Since then I have set up two more amateur theatre companies. I set up Fysh 2 Fry Theatre Company in Bedford, where I used to live, and just a few months ago I set up AppEaling Theatre Company in Ealing, West London, where I now live.


STAN: What is something unique about your directing?

CATHY: This is a hard one. Having observed many people directing, I would say all directors have their own unique style. I guess one of the things I am passionate about is giving people a chance. I set up the Young Savoyards because I saw the established members of my previous group being cast all the time, regardless of ability, at the expense of talented youngsters. I would rather take risk on an actor who I think is really keen and has potential, than give a role to a ‘safe pair of hands’. I try very hard to be collaborative, and recognise the contributions made by every single team member – the set designer, the sound designer, the lighting designer and the costume designer are key, and are rightly given credit, but so are the people working behind the scenes in less glamorous roles, without whom there would literally be no show.


STAN: Are there certain issues in the theatre you are keen on addressing?

CATHY: Professional theatre in the UK is increasingly taking a ‘colour blind’ approach to casting. A good example is that my daughter, a professional British actress with very pale skin and red hair, was recently cast as the daughter of Black British actor Joseph Marcell. She will shortly be performing at Shakespeare’s Globe in a production of Much Ado About Nothing, and only four of the 12 cast members are white. But amateur theatre in the UK seems to remain the domain of the white middle class, and does not reflect the multicultural world in which we live. I would like to see this change.


The Indian cast members of “Rafta Rafta” say that that the issues raised in the play are the same as those they have experienced in their own families.

STAN: What project are you currently working on?

CATHY: I am producing and directing Rafta, Rafta by Ayub Khan-Din (author of East is East) for amateur performance in May (2018.) This will be the first production of AppEaling Theatre Company. This wonderful play premiered at the National Theatre in 2007 and received rave reviews. Like East is East, it explores the challenges experienced by people from India as they try to settle in the UK, and the additional problems experienced within families by first- and second-generation Indians. It sounds serious – and it has some serious messages – but it a wonderfully funny play. My Indian cast members say that that the issues raised in the play are the same as those they have experienced in their own families. The only white cast member is someone who has, so far, only been given the chance to work backstage at our local theatre – I want to see her tread the boards wearing something other than her stage management ‘blacks’! I would like to see amateur theatre opened up to everyone.


STAN: Cathy, thank you for engaging with me about your theatre work; it would be great for one of my blog readers here in the USA to spearhead bringing you and Rafta Rafta over here to the USA. I even have one potential possibility myself. I now look forward to speaking to your daughter next.

CATHY: That would be amazing, Stan! Rachel is also looking forward to speaking with you!
NOTE: Link For information about Rafta, Rafta at the AppEaling Theatre Company in Ealing, London, UK. Link for tickets.

Link to Part 2 about daughter Rachel.

* * * * *

My other blogs about social issues being addressed through the performing arts:

“A great diversity experience – Theater Breaking Through Barriers” about enjoying an off-Broadway play in New York City which featured actors with a wide range of disabilities.

“Promoting Diversity and Inclusion Through Bluegrass Music,” is about an innovative annual concert called “Shout and Shine” of diverse Bluegrass musicians. This celebration came about in 2016 as a direct response to North Carolina’s oppressive HB2 “bathroom bill” discriminating against our LGBT citizens.

• I introduce the Justice Theater Project, a social justice theater company whose mission is to produce compelling theater experiences that create community dialogue and give voice to social concern,s through my blog “The Justice Theater Project – Societal Impact Through the Performing Arts.”

• A follow on blog about the Justice Theater Project’s Play “Bent,” The Justice Theater Project presents “Bent” – a drama about Germany’s Third Reich’s persecution of homosexuals.