Magnus Pölcher, social media and web projects, Goethe-Institut London
My first theatre memory was Schlachten! at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus Hamburg in 1999. It was a production by Tom Lanoye and Luk Perceval based on Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses. It was a 12 hour theatre marathon: quite intense and of course very bloody. But the best part came after our gruesome night of intrigues and multiple murders; we rewarded ourselves with fresh fish sandwiches at the city’s harbour and watched the sun rise. Sometimes theatre must make you suffer to enjoy reality.
Caroline Miller, director, Dance UK
My first memory of the theatre was seeing La Fille mal gardée by the Royal Ballet in the 1970s. I was six and awestruck: the huge height of the ceiling with its beautiful decoration; the luxurious red curtains; the orchestra way down in the pit; and most of all, the beautiful, exquisite dancers.
I laughed at the giant chickens and fell in love with Lise’s beautiful costume – white and pale pink with roses and long silky ribbons. I was delighted when a live pony came on stage and awestruck when – the stage engulfed in a storm – thunder struck and dim-witted Alain flew up into the air, carried away by his umbrella. The whole evening was simply the most wonderful and exciting thing I had ever seen. A year later I couldn’t wait to go back. The ballet started. I began to cry. My mum whispered: “What’s wrong?” I said: “It’s started, so it’s going to finish!”
Chris Cooper, HMS President
One particular theatre memory happened in 1958. I was a 14-year-old football youth, but when Crystal Palace was not playing at home, I had to accompany my older sister to a matinee performance of her choice. The stage doorman at the Haymarket sold raffle tickets on the day for foldaway stools that gave you a place in the queue for upper circle tickets.
Having reluctantly bought one, she was cross (and I was relieved) when it appeared that the actual tickets for the show that afternoon had run out.
Seeing our mixed reactions, the stage door keeper gave us two free stalls tickets for a preview matinee “over the road” at Her Majesty’s. We’d never sat in the stalls before (Row G, 6 and 7) and the show was a first preview of West Side Story – and a new life for me began.
Paul Kleiman, higher education consultant and visiting professor
My memory comes from the mid-1960s, at an all-boys grammar school, in which the only drama was the annual all-male school play, usually Shakespeare. Somehow a local actor, Eunice Black – a large, formidable woman – was invited into the school to start a drama club and restart the “house play” competition between the school’s six houses. The previous competition died a deserved death around the time of the Siege of Mafeking.
Ms Black introduced us to the wonderful and disturbing worlds of Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, Bond, Genet and more. I caught the theatre bug designing and managing a production of Ionesco’s The New Tenant for the competition, in which the new tenant of the title moves into an empty Parisian apartment, which is then slowly filled to overflowing with an increasingly bizarre range of objects. At the end of the play the tenant is marooned among the furniture as we hear the concierge complain that the whole of Paris is overflowing with the stuff.
My career as a professional theatre designer, director and teacher can be traced directly back to that play and Ms Black.
Holly Barradell, drama development manager, Trinity College London
I was in the first ever Courtyard Theatre Hereford youth production in 1997 and stayed there until 2004, when I left for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and trained to be a stage manager. I then worked in the industry professionally before training to become a secondary drama teacher. I now work as drama education specialist. I’ve always worked in drama and performance ever since treading the boards aged 11.
Jonathan Chiswell Jones, potter, JCJ Pottery
I was taken to see Die Fledermaus, aged 10, at the Oxford Playhouse. That was more than 60 years ago, but the thrill is still sharp. Of course, I fell in love with the leading lady and was enthralled by the students’ drinking song. How sharply a child receives these impressions; we are never so receptive again. Take your children to the theatre and give them something to treasure for life.
What are your earliest memories of the theatre? Share them below the line
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