This is one out of three Q&A's from the creative minds behind Sanctuary. 

Sanctuary is Cheryl Martin’s first full production since taking over in January  this year. Here, Red Ladder’s artistic director talks about the issues tackled in  the musical, the impact theatre can have and the importance of supporting  local arts organisations. 

Sanctuary is your first Red Ladder show as director. How did it come about? 

Work started on it last year before I arrived, but in a previous role I worked for about  eight years with mostly women asylum seekers and refugees creating big community  shows in Manchester. So while I didn’t choose this play, if I could have chosen a  topic this is one I would have gone for because it’s something I think is very  important. 

What are the key issues explored in Sanctuary and why are they important? 

I think what’s important is the distance between who the asylum seekers and  refugees actually are and who people think they are, based on what they read about  them. A lot of the people I worked with were doctors, teachers, or chemists, all very  highly skilled. Most of them were forced to flee because they stood up for someone  in their country of origin, or they’d stuck their neck out for free speech, or women’s  rights. People are running from places like Iran and Syria for these reasons which  makes them heroes in my eyes. They go through so much and they come to  countries like ours because they think it’s a safe haven. So this production is about  sanctuary and what sort of country we want to be. 

Asylum seekers and refugees are unlikely topics for a musical to tackle don’t  you think? 

It’s a different kind of musical. It’s not like Mary Poppins! It’s set in a C of E church  but that doesn’t mean it’s church music. The music is from the heart so it’s very  emotional, and we hope people leave feeling moved by it because though it’s a story  it’s also a reflection of real lives. 

This is your first production since you became Red Ladder’s artistic director.  What are you most looking forward to? 

I’m really looking forward to taking it from page to stage and having real voices and  real characters. We’re working with CAPA College in Wakefield whose students  make up our chorus. The students are only 16 or 17 and I’ve been blown away  seeing how good they are in the workshops. I was nowhere near this good when I  was their age. So I’m really excited to be working with them. I’m also looking forward  to working with the cast. As a director I never tell actors what to do. I start by asking  them what they see in the character and build on that. I can’t wait to see what they  bring. The biggest buzz is when the actors go beyond you as a director and their  performance just takes off. I’m also excited to see how audiences respond to the  story and the characters. 

You’re working with Boff Whalley and Sarah Woods who have written  Sanctuary. What’s it like collaborating on a project like this? 

I love collaborating on productions. I think the songs will have a really big impact and  I feel very lucky to be working with Boff and Sarah. I’m very pleased to have  inherited this play.

What made you want to join Red Ladder and why do you believe you’re a good  fit for one another? 

When I saw the advert I was like ‘oh my God. I can’t believe this job even exists.’ I’ve  done a lot of community work and I was at Contact Theatre in Manchester when  John McGrath was running it and bringing in a lot of people who hadn’t been to the  theatre before. We were a non-traditional theatre, we had DJs, poets and novelists  and encouraged this idea of doing any kind of performance anywhere and that kind  of freedom is hard to come by. I also co-founded Black Gold Arts, a black, queer,  performance-positive arts company, and that was about platforming people who  don’t normally get that opportunity. Our role was to find new talent and give them the  platform to start their careers. So when the job with Red Ladder came up I couldn’t  believe my luck because there aren’t many places like this. 

You’ve mentioned that students from CAPA College are providing the chorus  for the show. What difference do these collaborations with local arts  organisations and colleges make? 

The beating heart of our theatre company is Red Ladder Local, which is all about  working in non-traditional theatre spaces and reaching people who don’t normally go  to a traditional theatre. I’ve been to a few of these performances and the connection  you get with the audiences for the shows is so intense and so different from what  you normally get. Our shows wouldn’t be the same without the collaborations we do  with the likes of CAPA. And for these young people it’s such a priceless experience  because they come out on the road with us. We’re helping them by giving them a  real world experience and they’re helping us by enabling us to expand what we’re  able to do with this play. We’ve all read a lot lately about arts funding cuts so being  able to help a group of young people get theatre experience like this is crucial.  Collaborations like this are at the heart of what we do and I’m delighted we’re able to  do that with this show. 

Why is it important that stories like Sanctuary are told? 

We’ve all seen the headlines about immigration and asylum seekers and in an  election year it really does become a political football. And this year we’ve see the  horror of what happens when people lose sight of our common humanity. This show  I clouded a attack o a asylum-seeker for all the18 months of its development, and  now sadly we've see it across the country.  

Theatre is an antidote to that, it’s about what it’s like to be human and that’s what  this story is talking about – it’s more than just a newspaper headline or a video on  YouTube.   There’s also more than one point of view. I want this show to reach as many people as possible. After the far-right violence, our story feels more urgent. There are  characters in the play who are very anti-immigration and some whose parents travelled to the UK but who feel this new wave of immigrants are breaking the rules.  So it’s not a simple, one-dimensional way of looking at things, it’s much more  rounded that. Good drama makes human stories feel very real a d highlights our  shared humanity. That’s what I’m hoping Sanctuary can do.

You can see Sanctuary on Wednesday 9 October.

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