It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the passing of Alix Parker. Alix died earlier this year after a long illness.

Tribute by Mark Williams:

Alix was one of the founders of Heart n Soul and was our Theatre Director between 1986 and 2002. It is safe to say to say that there would have been no Heart n Soul if I had not met Pino and the gang at the music workshop in 1984 at the Lewisham Academy of Music. Then Alix at the Harmood Community Centre in Camden Town in 1985 where we started running a music and theatre session together for adults with a learning disability.

When the opportunity to build on the three residencies that had been happening at the Albany arose, Alix was the obvious choice to start a new regular fortnightly music and drama session with local young people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

Alix was a warm, kind, talented, creative, caring and loving human being. She had a fantastic sense of humour and a great talent for listening, supporting and developing the ideas and talents of the people who came to that fortnightly session.

The photo above was taken in 1987 and was part of the Albany Empire’s (as it was called then) marketing pack. Heart n Soul were the last of the groups who were able to access free rehearsal, performance and office space. The photo shows Alix sitting on the stage in the main performance space alongside Geoff Goodall, Pino Frumiento and Winston Green. Alix is taking notes which were forming the basis of a show called ‘The Longest’ which we would perform at the Albany later that year. It reveals the way Heart n Soul worked and have continued to work; listening and sharing ideas together. Ways of working that are now called jargony, words like ‘co-creation’, co-production’ – but Alix, Geoff, Winston and Pino were doing this back in 1987!

In those days just being allowed to be in a space like the Albany as an audience member would have felt like a ‘win’ – but here they are on the stage writing a show that would then be performed on it!

When the Albany lost its funding in the early 90’s and we had to become a charity and limited company to survive, Alix was with me all the way. She was hugely influential in how Heart n Soul grew and developed. She directed all our early shows with what became known as the ‘original company’, touring all over the UK and Europe with shows such as the Rock ‘n Roll Dance, the Longest, the Dungeon of Love the Power of Life, ROAR! and Large. She was held in high esteem by everyone she worked with.

Trustee and ex-staff member Hannah Kent remembers when she first met Alix; “I was working with children and people with disabilities in a creative project/garden in rural Luxembourg in the early 1990's. Heart n Soul were booked to do a show and it was just a joy to connect with everyone from Deptford. Winston, Geoff and Cheryl, among others, instantly engaged with whoever they came across, and you (Mark) and Alix led the whole team with warmth. Alix had her baby daughter with her; she carried her on her hip while you all went through the sound checks and the pre-show notes. The performance was a blast, and I was impressed and amazed by Alix's confident but calm direction.”

Alix had a diagnosis of cancer four years ago and we were last in touch at the end of last year when she told me she was going to face a downturn in her diagnosis ‘with rebellious hope and miraculous healing’. She was originally going to be one of the Big 30 alongside Geoff Goodall but had to pull out at the last moment.

Her husband Jon told me: “We still sing the Heart ’n Soul anthem to our grandson Leo who she absolutely adored, as a lullaby and I will continue to do so when our second grandchild arrives all being well, in November in her memory”.

Alix was an integral part of the story of Heart n Soul. We will miss her and our love and thoughts go out to her beautiful family.