Coll’s Epic Stage Story
Meet Jane Metcalfe, Manager at An Cridhe and Coll Bunkhouse on the Isle of Coll. Read on to hear about her, her community and her #EPICSTAGESTORY.
This blog was first published in June 2018.
I live on Coll, a small Hebridean island a two hour and 40-minute ferry ride from Oban.
I’ve lived here nearly seven years. My partner and I wanted to do something a bit different. We really like Scotland, found this beautiful and very friendly island and decided to take a chance and move here. We lived in a tent for three months.
I am the Manager of An Cridhe and Coll Bunkhouse. An Cridhe ( Gaelic for the heart) is a purpose-built community centre. We have facilities for sport, parties, weddings, music, theatre, meetings, and residential workshops.
I have worked here for nearly six years and have been involved in organising, and therefore promoting events, here during that time.
Both buildings are owned and run by Development Coll, a small charitable non-profit making trust. I am employed by them, am the line manager for two other members of staff and responsible for all the maintenance and the day-to-day operations of both buildings. This includes the organising and running of a programme of events each year.
I can be speaking to a performer one minute, clearing up the floor another, doing staff rotas, booking people into the bunkhouse, trying to sort out some broken equipment or facility, helping people organise their wedding. It is a very varied job.
After having performed here, we want the performers to take away the unique experience of being in a small isolated but friendly community. Audiences are small but always enthusiastic and the experience is a very informal one.
Selection
Selecting performers is a balance between liking what a performer is doing, considering if people in the community will enjoy this/come out for it, and how much it costs. We try to provide a variety of culture for the community and are prepared to take a risk on some performances in order to do this.
Performances that can be attended by a wide range of age groups and interests work best because we are such a small community. The biggest audiences we have are when they are more family-orientated ones. It works well for example when a theatre event has involved the school, the performers going into the school to work with the children.
Challenges
Being in an isolated and small community is a challenge in itself and currently a decreasing population. If we get 25 people to a performance that is quite a high percentage of our population. This number however is not going to cover costs. The challenge is trying to decide how much of a risk we want to take. We are prepared to take small losses to give performers a chance to come here and to give the community a chance to see music and theatre that they wouldn’t otherwise experience.
Give us a local must see/do/dining tip for any visiting performer or audience?
Must always visit at least one of our beautiful beaches at any time of year. For other attractions it depends on the time of year. Our wildlife is special. In the summer months you might see a basking shark, minke whale or dolphins and the machair is a carpet of flowers. We have one hotel and one café, both provide wonderful meals and spending some time in the hotel bar chatting to locals is always good. If the sky is clear then due to our lack of light pollution the night sky is amazing.
Jane’s #EPICSTAGESTORY
Hosting Barbara Dickson here July 2017. Barbara and Nick Holland did a fund-raising concert for us. It was just an amazing experience to be liaising with someone who is so well known and to be involved in organising her visit to our wee island.
We always do the best we can for any performer in terms of facilities to support their performance. For Barbara we put more thought than usual, including rigging up a special dressing room area with rope and a curtain. People travelled long distances to see her, even coming in by yacht. Local singers Merfolk supported Barbara, volunteers manned the bar, the door, stewarded, technical staff gave their time for free, people helped set up, provided Barbara with accommodation and it was a wonderful evening.