The Godstone based Orpheus Centre, an independent performing arts college for young disabled adults has been shortlisted in this year’s M&S Community Energy Fund and now needs votes to win the competition. The prize up for grabs, if they win is a share of a £300,000 fund set up to support renewable energy projects and technologies.

You can help by voting for the Orpheus Centre online at www.mandsenergyfund.com.

If successful the Orpheus Centre has plans to install new LED lights in their barn theatre. The theatre is mainly used for teaching drama, dance, audio recording and music but is also the place where Orpheus mounts its termly productions and weekly “Funky Fridays” where students share what they have been working on that week.

They want to remove the existing old lights and replace them with a new LED lighting system reducing power consumption, greatly reducing heat generation, reducing the need to work at height and meaning students can operate colour changes remotely.

The existing lights are in poor condition-many are broken beyond repair. Some of the lights are no longer produced making spares difficult to source. In order to change the colours, you have to climb a ladder, which makes them inaccessible for many Orpheus students who are disabled.

Student Tyler, a wheelchair user, described why the Orpheus Centre needs new lighting in their theatre: “It would be an awful lot easier when it comes to learning how to set up the lights for a show…because at the moment we have to let the sound engineering tutor set up the lights for us which isn’t very helpful when it comes to needing to develop our skills.”

Voting opens on 4 September 2017 and closes on 20 October 2017. Winners will be announced by 10 November 2017.