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Pupdates from the morale officers
Although they tend to both spend their time sleeping, eating, and looking for a good lap to sit on (please don’t tell Oscar he’s too big, it’ll break his heart) Fred and Oscar spend a lot of their time also encouraging positive mental attitudes. Pests Production works with artists to develop new work, but also to create an environment where this can be achieved whilst considering the challenges mental health presents. As a company, we believe that the mental well-being of those we work with is a top priority, and Oscar and Fred are here to make sure that this approach is properly managed and enforced.
This month, Oscar and Fred have decided to take a back seat however, as their human Sophia reflects upon a year of Pests.
Pests was first discussed on a walk home to a heavily discounted hostel in Budapest last summer. It was conversation of what ifs and maybes, interrupted occasionally by random snatches of conversation from the friends that walked around myself and David. It was a dream, a future idea, a conversation for me, him, and the streetlights guiding us home; it was something we'd do if we were a little bit braver.
The conversation happened again, a month later though. The living room of 35 Winterbourne road shared the same conversations that the street lights, so many miles away now, had heard through the heat of Budapest's summer. We were braver, if only by a month, but we were certainly braver. We wanted this badly, we wanted to start something, we wanted to hit the ground running after university, and we wanted to give something back to the county that had raised us both. We were Dorset kids, through and through, so of course we were headstrong about it all; it's just the way they make them here.
Every month was about getting braver. It wasn't something that we focused on or made a goal, but looking back over a whole year of Pest-ing, it's something that just happened, all on its own. It's something that's learnt through both success and failure, and it's something that I attribute to this company's success. Being brave had us putting on Bridport's first ever drag show, it's what has us contacting artists every week to convince them that Bournemouth is the touring destination for them, and it's something that comes much more easily when you have a partner to lean on. Pests Production was created because David Doust is far braver than I was ever prepared to be, and I'm not sure he's ever realised this.
I am not shy. I am not humble or quiet or nervous; a friend once described watching me enter a room as 'watching a firework go off - blinding visuals followed by deafening noise, with the ever present knowledge that you could be killed if you got too close.'
I adore this friend greatly.
But with this idea of the sort of person I am, I still wasn't brave enough to push through an actual, real, grown-up, company. That first step was terrifying to me, and it was a step I never could have taken without David. Every step since, he's been there, and I will be forever grateful that I got to start Pests Production with a business partner with such vision, courage, and determination.
This determination means that we created opportunities for 40 artists this year across a variety of platforms. It's meant we've been able to give paid jobs to artists who've never even had the chance to perform before. It's brought on drag shows and scratch nights, networking evenings, touring shows coming to Bournemouth, and one great big farewell to Theresa May with the Abba soundtrack supporting us all the way. This company means the world to me, with every new show, every extra audience member, and every social media post put up by our powerhouse media intern Emily Bone, I watch us grow and I feel a pride I've never felt before. I'm not ready to stop feeling that pride after just one year.
There are so many other people I could thank, so many people who've made Pests what it is, who've helped us get so far, but I'm afraid I'd run out of space. So for now, I'd just like to thank you for reading this. Thank you for reading messages of hope and wellbeing and peace sent out every month by someone who had a friend brave enough to start it all. Thank you for reading the words of someone who has two loving support animals that I hope help others as much as they help me. Thank you for every word you've read, every picture you've liked, every show you've seen, and every comment you've left. Thank you for starting this journey with us, whether it was from the very start, or at this very moment.
I hope we get to continue this journey with you, and that, if you're ever feeling lost, or tired, or just not quite brave enough, that you can look to the advice of a street dog and a one-eyed cat, and feel just a little bit more secure in this world.
We hope you enjoy good naps, good belly rubs, and good mental health this month.
Love,
Sophia, Oscar and Fred
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