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With the industry on its knees and audiences running scared, a handful of creatives have pushed on with planned new venues, determined to rise to the current challenges of making theatre
Is there a purer expression of hope than opening a theatre in the midst of a pandemic? Hope that the health crisis passes, that the stricken sector recovers, that theatre makers will remain and audiences will return? That’s hope, surely – or, as Georgia Leanne Harris, artistic director of the new Golden Goose theatre describes it, “a level of blind optimism”.
British theatre makers would be forgiven for having the hope pummelled out of them by this grim year. Yet optimism ripples through the gloom. Projects announced before lockdown – such as the Purple Door in Liverpool, the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot and a second venue for London’s Bridge theatre – are still on the cards. So is Reading’s new Rep theatre. “We remain on course to open next year,” says artistic director Paul Stacey. “It’ll be Reading’s first new theatre and cultural hub in a generation – we’re hoping it might bring people together after a winter of isolation.” Continue reading...