Laurene Hope Glory On Local Radio Discussing Recovery No Med

This is Wickham Sound.

A flower,

A flower in blue.

She's all round,

She lights up the room.

Her colours,

Her colours are strong.

Her love inside goes on and on.

A flower,

A flower so bright.

With just one smile,

Dark turns to light.

Her heart opens like a rose.

Deep inside,

Her love is shown.

This is your day now,

Your day to shine.

Take back the gifts you have.

And make the world your shrine.

Make it the best you can.

Make it about you.

This is your day now baby.

Go out there,

Make your dreams come true.

A flower,

Who got through the storm.

She weathers every cloud that comes along.

She's strong now,

With beauty and grace.

Look at her face.

It's time now to go out and inspire the human race.

This is your day now,

Your day to be free.

Go out and claim your life.

This is your time to be.

Go out and make your dreams.

Set the world on fire.

Hold your treasures to your heart.

Small,

Small baby,

Small,

Small baby,

Smile.

Ooh,

Baby.

Go out and make it all about you.

Ooh,

Baby.

This is a song I've written for you.

It's coming from above.

This is your day.

Be the star you are.

Be the star you are.

Woo.

This is your day now,

Your day to be free.

Go out and claim your life.

This is your time to be.

Go out and make your dreams.

Set the world on fire.

Hold your treasures to your heart.

Small,

Small baby,

Small.

This is your day.

Be the star you are.

Be the star you are.

Be the star you are.

Ha ha ha ha.

Thank you.

With a lovely little giggle on the end that was called Be the Star You Are,

Sung by Lauren Hope.

More details about what that is and where it is from,

From Lauren herself,

Who's with Emily now.

Hello,

Lauren.

Welcome to the show.

Hi there,

Emily and Jonathan.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Oh,

It's lovely to have you.

And you were just explaining to me about the song.

Do you want to explain again?

OK.

Well,

The song Be the Star You Are is basically all about the celebration of being a woman or celebration of the feminine,

Tapping into your unique qualities and being a star,

Because we're all stars.

Everyone is a star.

And you were saying something about the energy that we give off and the fact that we've just had Women's Day.

You were mentioning about the song and being involved with the charity.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Yes,

It was World Women's Day on Sunday.

And I'm very,

Very lucky that a local women's charity,

I'm not going to say what yet,

Because we're in baby is in Nappies,

Is going to be using the song to promote themselves.

And it's very,

Very exciting that they're going to be selling the CD basically of this song.

And so we're expecting it,

You know,

At some point it's going to go everywhere because this charity has also got branches all over the country.

But we're starting very small and I will fill people in on that as we go along.

Wow.

And you're from the company,

Is it Moving On Theatre?

So you started that company up,

Did you?

I did.

I run Moving On Theatre.

Moving On Theatre started after I came out of the therapeutic community.

I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in 2010.

I went into therapeutic community where I was the luckiest person on the planet to recover without medication.

And with another 20 or more people,

Terrible time there was like hell on earth.

Very,

Very difficult experience.

But I came out with total inner peace and I came out with an ability to be able to work with other people,

To communicate with other people and to understand the condition really,

Really well.

That's when my husband comes in,

You'll be able to ask him how we work together.

And so I formed,

I always wanted to run theatre,

But because I was so ill,

I could not work with people.

And so after I came out of the community,

I formed Moving On Theatre and I was determined to go out there with the message about therapeutic communities,

Which probably don't know what it is.

And it's on the NHS and it's free.

And that's that is the sadness of it is that I cannot get the message out.

I went to Edinburgh,

Sold out Edinburgh,

Sold out all the fringes with Edith Piaf's life story,

Doing the breakdowns on the stage.

I could not get my message out as an individual.

So I've decided to take a musical that I wrote years ago,

Revamp it.

It's called Encounters and bring in lots of incredible talent to tell the story for me.

Wow,

That's amazing.

And so tell us a bit more about Encounters.

So,

OK,

Well,

Encounters,

The name is we encounter people,

We encounter situations and it's also a community.

It's kind of like a community space where people meet,

But it's not a therapeutic community in the first act.

So in the first act,

We get to know the characters and we watch them as they break down.

They've all got this condition called borderline personality disorder,

Which my personal feeling is that everybody's walking around with it because it's caused by shock and stress.

And I don't think it can be medicated.

I think you need creativity.

You need compassion.

You need work.

You need structure.

We had a 24 hour support system and therapeutic community.

And there's a huge difference between bipolar,

Which I do think needs to be medicated,

And borderline,

Because by polar,

Borderlines,

People with this condition have bipolar traits and we can sometimes see too much black and white and not see the bits in the middle.

But you can see the bits in the middle.

You can see the grey.

You're not all black and white.

And unfortunately,

People with bipolar,

They can be so extreme to the point that they only see black and white.

So that is the to me,

There's a huge difference.

And I feel that I cannot say very much about bipolar because I don't have it.

But those people that I know have it,

I think they need help.

They do need medication.

But my experience anyway,

So of encounters,

We even have a song,

I'm going to sing it to you,

Called the BPD song,

Which is one of the songs from the show.

And I added it in because the audience are going to sing it with us.

And it's basically called the BPD song.

And it kind of goes a bit like this.

A little bit of agoraphobia,

A little bit of OCD,

A little bit of claustrophobia.

That's BPD.

A little or a lot of depression.

Laced with it's all about me.

Narcissism.

A cup of Tourette's,

Tourette's,

Tourette's,

Tourette's.

Now what comes next?

That's BPD.

Doom,

Doom,

Doom,

Doom,

Doom,

Doom,

Doom.

A catchy song about agoraphobia.

A little bit of ID or ADHD.

You see where this is going.

A cup of paranoia.

You're looking at me.

That's BPD.

Anyway,

That's the fun.

That's where the message has to go out there.

Because every single person in the audience will say,

Oh,

I have a bit of that.

I have a bit of that.

So to me,

What we're trying to show is that what happens in the second act of encounters.

I can't give you the story lines obviously because you won't come and see it.

But something will happen in the first act to one of the characters.

And everything will come to this crisis point.

And Jim,

The guy who runs encounters,

Will say,

Right,

That's it.

We can't run encounters the same way anymore.

But I have this friend called Lauren.

She went to something called a therapeutic community.

So what we're going to have is we're going to have a 24 hour support system.

Where you can put your hand up and say,

I would need support tonight.

Can someone support me on the phone?

We're going to have therapy.

We're going to have mindfulness.

We're going to make it's going to be very funny as well.

And you're all going to come together and recover together.

And that's where the magic starts to happen.

And one of the songs that I've written is called The Hole Inside.

And it takes it's basically the void,

The void that we live with.

Because I believe that addictions,

It doesn't matter whether you drink or you smoke or you take drugs or it might be codependency or used to be an eating disorder as a child.

It's to do with this hole inside.

And the minute you get past all the addictions and can really connect to that hole.

That's when you get recovery.

And that's what happened in the therapeutic community for me.

Because I was in there for 18 months and I had to confront all my issues,

Everything.

I had a very difficult childhood.

I'm Irish and I grew up in Israel and I was in wars.

There was childhood abuse.

There was all sorts of stuff.

And in the community,

I became like a child again.

I had a lot of tough love and they tried to get rid of me loads of times.

My story is in a book called Simply Amazing as well.

I'm Chapter 8 and the book is available by Casey Armstrong.

You can purchase it.

Oh great.

There's a positivity center in Burnham,

Nashdom Lane.

They sell it.

You can buy it there or you can buy from me obviously.

I'm Chapter 8 and in there it tells my story of what I went through.

And I had a huge,

Huge awakening in there because I started to feel like that 10 year old.

And I started to get the emotions and I never realized that children carry everything.

All the guilt for everything.

But the minute I was able to understand that I wasn't guilty for what happened to me,

It was my parents.

They kept sending me back to this awful person.

It went.

And the minute that went,

That was it.

I got in a piece.

Now in the last 8 years since I've been out in the community,

I've had hell on earth.

I lost my beloved father.

I lost my parents.

My family cut me off.

I was in a wheelchair.

I had a serious accident.

And we can't find anywhere to live because we've got pets and I couldn't get any work and it's just so much going on.

And yet I'm saying,

I don't take medication.

I have breakdowns.

I have panic attacks.

But I manage them.

So is that something that you've learned at the therapeutic community,

Coping mechanisms to be able to deal with situations like you say when you have a breakdown?

I learned so much at the therapeutic community that I believe that it wasn't for me going in there.

I don't think I'd be here now because my body is too sensitive to take a lot of medication.

I'd be very,

Very sick physically as well.

But yes,

I'd say the most important thing I learned there,

Emily,

Was validation.

We have a validation bell.

So you would ring it if you needed to say,

I'm not feeling too good today.

And the whole community would come together.

So say you don't know this exists.

This is why encounters has to go out with the message of what happens.

And everyone would come together and you say,

OK,

Lauren,

What do you need?

Oh,

I need a cup of tea.

I need a hug.

And that's it.

You get it.

You get the validation that all of us as children that are suffering,

No one validated us.

So the most important thing you do with someone when they're having panic or they're going through depression is you validate them.

You you say,

Oh,

OK,

I understand you're not feeling too good today.

I'm here for you.

You validate them.

You give them that respect and that dignity to be able,

Sorry,

To be able.

Like I've been with Martin now for 26 years and we've been through hell and back,

But we learned how to manage it together.

And as I say,

I'm so grateful that I'm not bipolar because then I couldn't do it because it's too extreme to be able to do that.

You do need.

I do believe you need medication.

But for this condition.

So you have the 24 hour support system.

We actually had a 24 hour support system where before you went home,

You put your hand up and you say,

I don't have family and I don't have kids.

And it was kind of like,

I need somebody to be there on the phone and they would be and you'd ring them up and they'd hold you for 20 minutes.

And that was it.

But we had very clear rules and contracts that if you were in a bad space,

You couldn't hold anyone.

And you had to have three people supporting in the community.

But you you did the cooking,

You did the cleaning,

You kept the place together.

You had meetings and it gave you back your self-esteem.

And so.

In a way,

Encounters is going to tell the story when people will see a little bit.

I won't be giving everything of what happens in there,

But because I have tried to go out there and talk about this now since I came out and I can't seem to get the opportunities enough,

I'm bringing I want to bring on the best talent that I can find.

I have got quite a few people already.

So you're putting out a message today.

I am putting out a huge message.

Anyone that's over 18.

Right.

That can sing and act.

That they should get in touch with you and is the best the best place to get in touch at your website.

They can go on moving on theatre dot co dot UK or they can phone me in my phone number.

I'll give you the the theatre number.

Oh,

Seven four three seven five three two seven nine eight.

And I'm going to tell you,

This is very exciting because moving on theatre is a very special theatre company.

We are run by a life coach,

Myself and a hypnotherapist.

My husband's a therapist.

So if you are a person that struggles with their lines,

I mean,

I've had people break down because they had to fill in a form.

We're here.

We do.

We can do mindfulness with you.

We can do anything.

So we we support everyone who works with us,

Everyone that works with us.

We treat them like gold.

And it's it's particularly we're looking for people that feel they have the creativity and the talent,

But they're nervous or they need that extra cushion.

And then once we've done the community show,

I want to take that out.

I want to take it everywhere as a troop of the most talented people I can find.

I want to take them to Edinburgh because I have the contacts,

Because I believe this musical can sell anywhere.

It's packed full with I'll say it myself.

People have heard them.

I've written the whole thing.

I've written all the music.

But I did have someone helping me with a script and the characters are so funny and so also very,

Very strong characters.

So we're looking particularly funny enough.

We're looking for women.

We've got you're holding auditions.

Is that right?

You're holding auditions.

So when are you holding auditions?

So there are specific dates.

The auditions at the moment are March the 15th at Amherst Community Center for till seven.

We're so lucky that they support us.

And is that the twenty ninth as well?

So March the 15th and the twenty ninth at four till seven holding auditions at Amherst Community Center.

So you're auditioning for encounters and you're specifically looking for women or both?

At the moment,

We the characters,

We need to cast the lead,

Mike.

So that's the male character.

We've already cast the other men,

Which is unusual.

They're professionals and we've cast them.

They've been coming forever to do workshop.

But we need the females.

We need the three.

We've got one lead character.

She's lovely.

She's local.

Emily White.

She's incredibly talented.

She's playing the part of Amy,

Who's actually a refugee who comes to encounters.

It's fascinating story.

And because she's such a good singer,

I'm writing her another song.

So I've got that freedom because it's my musical.

But I want to join with mental health groups and we need sponsorship.

We need support in order to because,

As I say,

We have got professionals in this and they have to be paid.

You know,

So there's a lot that there are any specific dates that you're putting it on yet or is it in the making?

We're not looking.

What I'm trying to do,

Emily,

Is I'm trying to bring a strong truth together and to bring us to make us very cohesively strong.

There's loads and loads of stuff on moving on TV community on YouTube.

If you go on moving on TV community on YouTube,

There's nine documentaries that I've made from the workshops that we've done of encounters where you can meet some of the people.

You can see some of the singing.

There's loads of harmonies in it.

So if you come and work with us,

If you're a singer that wants to develop their harmonies,

You're going to get loads and loads of training.

Sounds wonderful.

But it's about commitment and responsibility and honesty.

It's so important because I'm vulnerable and all the people we work with deserve respect.

We're all vulnerable.

So everyone who comes to work with us,

The people we have got,

They're incredible.

They are so responsible and they don't let people down.

So that has to go out there.

You know,

We don't want people that are going to play games.

They have to be very honest because you're dealing with vulnerable people.

Lauren,

This has been fascinating to listen to.

It seems to me that for somebody thinking about joining you and doing it,

That feeling like you're not up to it,

That you're inadequate,

That you're not qualified to do it,

That no,

There's no way you're going to get me to do that,

Is in a bizarre way actually a qualification for joining in and doing it.

Exactly.

Because we're all unique.

And I'll tell you something,

Jonathan,

Even if this person can't sing or dance,

I'll find something to do.

They're probably a director or a producer in the making.

Everyone has got,

I've been producing since I was 13 years old.

I grew up in Israel and I couldn't speak to anyone,

But I could produce a musical.

Everyone has hidden talents and I want to find those hidden talents and bring us all together.

And people with,

Again,

I'm putting it in inverted commas,

Mental health issues are the most talented,

The most creative,

The most caring.

They have the biggest hearts on the planet.

They just don't get any of it back.

So I'm trying to give and to give.

And unfortunately,

There's a huge stigma.

We had a beautiful musical director who's gone on to doing bigger things and she doesn't mind me saying so.

Natasha's bipolar,

She tells everyone.

And she found the testimonials we got from her are incredible because we stop and we eat raspberries.

We don't have sugar.

We have raspberries.

We have water.

We have walnuts,

You know,

Healthy things to keep the brain going.

We have,

I don't like to say breaks because I broke my legs.

I don't like using that word.

We have rests in between and it's all done according to how we can work.

There's no pressure because we've got no dates to put the show on,

But we need sponsorship.

We need support.

More than anything,

We need talent.

I want to build.

In 2000,

I did the Sound of Music and I had two sets of kids on there.

I sold the whole thing out.

We had more nuns than anyone ever saw on the stage.

And that was at the Compass Theatre in Ikeno.

Yeah,

We had a very good looking musical director.

A male and he brought in everyone.

So I want a huge chorus because I will create characters for them,

But I need for the leads,

They have to be brilliant singers.

They have to be able to put across the songs.

The songs are powerful.

You know,

You need good voices,

Powerful singers and dancers as well.

But that's the leads,

You know,

And people that really just want to taste a bit of it.

Come and be in the chorus.

Come and do tech.

You know,

They might want to learn how to.

The thing is that we've done everything.

We've been to Edinburgh,

All over the country.

And I took Jacob Kreswick with me.

He was our tech guy.

And he was I think he was 15 when we started working together.

And he was incredible.

And he went he did all the tech work,

All the shows.

And he was the one who started moving on TV,

The community channel.

And now he's running.

He's 22.

I think he's running a really good business now.

So he started thanks to us.

And he's from he was from Hatties Lane down the road.

So we give people that's what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for people to cut their teeth.

You know,

We all have DBS's.

I work with the elderly and I do music and activities and all sorts of stuff.

I'm doing a TV show with them,

One of the residential homes.

But so we have DBS's.

We all have DBS's.

If you're younger than 18 and you want to be in the chorus or cut your teeth and directing,

Producing,

That's what we're looking for.

But for the characters,

I'd rather have more mature people in the characters.

They're strong.

It's a strong show.

It's not a children's show.

So developing the show is telling a story.

But it seems to me that the show,

As it is eventually going to happen,

Is telling the story of the people who are in the show.

Yes.

It's not just a fixed thing.

And this is what we have to put across.

You're going to develop it according to who joins to do it.

Exactly.

Well,

This is the beauty of it.

I realized that a couple of weeks ago when Emily got the part of Amy and she said,

Have I got enough to sing,

Lauren?

And I heard her incredible voice and I thought,

No,

I'll write another song.

I'll write another song.

And I can do that.

But I do.

You know,

I've taught myself how to play piano because I play the accordion.

And so I could,

You know,

It's easier for me to M.

D.

But I do need people coming on board.

We're going to need a backing track.

We're going to need musicians.

And an encounter is,

As I say,

Is one part of this huge thing that I'm doing.

But there is another massive big thing that I want to do in this area.

And that's a commune to bring us all together with our talents.

That's a whole different story,

Isn't it?

There's a whole different interview waiting to happen.

Let's give those contacts again for anybody who's pen didn't work or couldn't find a piece of paper.

Of course.

Yeah.

Well,

You can find me on Facebook,

Moving on theatre on Facebook,

Or you can contact me through moving on theatre dot co dot UK.

The phone number is 07437532798.

And as I said,

We're looking for everyone to join us.

Musicians.

We have you know,

We have got a hypnotherapist with Martin Cubs.

He's a trained hypnotherapist.

He's still parking the car.

He's been parking the car for a long time.

Yeah.

But we're very unique.

And yes,

Jonathan,

I've been going to the lottery.

I haven't got the grants.

But I'm saying that we want moving on theatre to be a specialised theatre company where we take care of our artists.

And that's why I don't like the way I'm working at the moment,

Because I'm bringing on professional talents.

Actually,

One of the guys that's in our show,

Vlad,

Is actually going to be in The Crown season four.

Yeah.

He's got a small part and he's playing Nick,

One of the young guy that goes in the army.

And he's so committed.

He's determined to stay,

You know,

With us as well.

But I I pay these people their expenses.

That's all I can do.

And it's not right.

They deserve to get paid properly.

So we need sponsorship.

And as I say,

I've been going to the lottery.

I haven't got anything.

But my local red kites started this off.

We were very lucky.

They gave us a couple of thousand and Amherst Community Centre and Micklefield Community Centre have been very,

Very supportive.

So that's where we work.

And so we have spaces to work.

We just need the talent.

And we have to get rid of the stigma.

As you're saying,

Jonathan,

People we get people with mental health issues get a very bad run in life.

They're not allowed to adopt.

They're not allowed to work a lot of the time.

It's terrible.

It's terrible.

And I in the therapeutic community,

My what I learnt is they are they are the people with the answers.

So this is the people that can actually heal others.

It's amazing.

And you said it's available on the NHS.

It's on the NHS.

I didn't realize that.

And there's other charities on the mind,

The local,

Local charity and Samaritans and things.

The Samaritans.

Sorry to stop you there.

The Samaritans are my lifeline a lot of the time because I go through a lot of grief.

I've had a lot of grief in my life.

And grief is a very it's the first trigger for this condition because it's very difficult to deal with.

And there isn't anything in this country to deal with grief.

So I use my music,

Mainly my music and meditation.

But yes,

The Samaritans are amazing because they just listen and you can ring them up when you're lonely.

And I've just very recently gone through another thing,

A huge rejection with a friend and the Samaritans,

You just ring them up.

It's like free canceling in a way,

Because you don't have to be if I say that word,

I don't know if I can say that word.

But it's even if you do feel like that,

What the beauty of it is,

You're allowed to feel like that.

If you want to leave the planet,

I mean,

Look at it.

Who wouldn't?

You know,

The way we are at the moment.

You're entitled to have those feelings.

And you said music really helps music.

But the creativity of this is that we have got a storyline of she is going to go.

I can't tell you.

You've got another song,

Haven't you?

Did you want to spoil it?

We have another piece of just just before we introduce that to sort of round it up a little bit.

If Lauren has been talking to you,

If you've got something that that you can bring to encounters and to moving on theatre,

Then don't let it slide.

Make that contact moving on theatre dot co dot UK or as I habitually say,

When we're giving out a web address or a phone number,

If the pen didn't work or if you couldn't find a piece of paper,

Just give us a call here at Wickham Sander.

We'll read it down the phone to you.

So,

Lauren,

The tune is called How Far Can I Go?

Is this from the show then?

No.

How Far Can I Go isn't from the show and neither is Be The Star You Are.

But it's sung by a young lady called Bella Menonik Glanville.

She's becoming a model.

She is a model and she's all about self-love.

She's adorable.

Absolutely adorable young woman.

This song is the angst of feeling of what we feel as women and how far can you push it.

And it's all the different facets and it's very raw.

But no,

It isn't in the show.

So you say it's very raw.

I think it's a very cracking tune.

Thank you very much.

It's very raw.

And those are the thing is a lot of the music and encounters is very melodic,

Like the old musicals that I'm trying to bring back.

But we also have some serious stuff in there.

But no,

It's not in the encounters.

But it's part of this woman thing.

The fact that we have lots of sides to us.

And this side is how far can you push a human being as a woman,

You know,

And how much have you got in you.

All the different sides.

You listen to the words.

The words are very,

Very important in this song.

And she does it just as beautifully.

Let's hear it now.

This is Bella and how far can I go?

Oh,

How far can I go?

I'm a sore head,

I'm a lost love friend,

I'm a pain in between,

All the sadness that could end.

How my heart hitting wind,

Splitting trees wide apart,

If I push you too hard,

Would you break up my heart?

Oh,

How far can I go?

I'm a beacon of light,

I'm a candle burning bright,

I'm a golden Thursday as I push your love away.

I'm a freezing lamp,

If I break up your heart,

Would you still understand?

Oh,

How far can I go?

I'm a serpent,

A snake,

Leading innocents to war,

A mother,

A saint,

With a love you can't ignore.

I'm a one-man and a star,

Full of passion and fear,

If I give you my heart,

Will I last out the year?

Oh,

How far can I go?

I'm a weird-sized videotape,

Looking for a better life,

A sister,

A friend,

A teacher and a wife.

I'm a one-man and a star,

Full of passion and fear,

If you only tonight will I last out the year?

Oh,

How far can I go?

How far can I go?

How far can I go?