Merrily, we roll along …

We recently announced our summer season - and we have been a hive of activity ever since. Take a look at our upcoming shows here. 

It’s all hands on deck whenever a new season is launched, as our marketing department, assisted by staff from other departments and a team of volunteers, packs and posts thousands of brochures to our mailing list members. Thousands more brochures are delivered to theatres, libraries and other public places for their leaflet racks.

And right now our box office phones are busy fielding calls; our website is being browsed and tickets deposited into virtual shopping baskets as theatregoers select what they want to see. 

As ever, we are committed to a top quality season and making sure tickets are affordable. We have never charged a booking fee and hopefully we never will.

This season we’ve done away with ‘standby’ tickets and instead introduced £10 preview and press night tickets, which means queuing in Oldham’s generally inclement weather is no longer required.

I believe a £10 ticket takes much of the risk factor out of a new drama experience. You might not risk £40 on not enjoying something in the city centre, but a tenner at the Coliseum to try out a work you have never seen before is a good deal, relatively speaking.

And if you are under 26, we can fit you in for even less with our Theatre for A Fiver scheme. Hikes in fees, and the scarcity of summer jobs (my memory of a summer on the night shift in a dog meat factory remains with me) means more belt-tightening for students, so Theatre for A Fiver means they can get in for a rock-bottom price.

We all know it is important to encourage new people in a theatregoing habit.  Offers like these make good business sense for the Coliseum. They help us to grow our audience, developing the theatregoing habit among the young and respond positively to the challenging economic climate.

We are fortunate in having an immensely loyal and generous core audience in Oldham, which has the long-term health of the Coliseum at heart and is fiercely protective of its friendly homeliness.

So they will be as pleased as we are at the prospect of new faces and young people at the theatre, enjoying both what is on stage and the unique camaraderie that genuinely makes the Coliseum so special.

We enjoy welcoming new faces, and to hearing everyone’s views. Why not come and say hello soon!

See you at the theatre,

Kevin Shaw

Artistic Director 

                                                        

Theatricality

Are you struck by the general theatricality of special events – even everyday life? The thought occurred to me watching the recent Grand National at Aintree on TV. The action off the racecourse was just as telling as what was going on over the jumps.

Ladies Day at Aintree was characterised by some sharp dressing and several fabulous hats. We saw the great tradition of the Northern girls’ night out – or day and night out in this case.

An army of women was dolled up to the nines, champagnes flutes in hand, clutch bags at the ready. How much more costumed could the event be? How much more theatrical the occasion?

I mention this because our old friend Amanda Whittington was struck by the same thought – and wrote about it in her play Ladies’ Day, which we are doing here in early May.

In the play we see the transformation of Jan, Pearl, Linda and Shelly - girls from a Hull fish factory - into society girls, when Royal Ascot was relocated to York racecourse in 2005. 

The play is a fascinating culture-clash comedy of working class girls trading hairnets for fascinators and hobnobbing with the toffs. Clothes maketh the woman! 

But it’s not just special events: all this dressing up and parading is reminiscent of the early - evening strolling about you see in any Mediterranean town; that too is about the desire to see and be seen, and it’s an everyday occurrence. Of course the generally nice weather might have something to do with it too…

And think back to 19^th century novels: they often feature a scene about a night out at the theatre, though writers are usually less concerned with the action on stage that they are with the gathering of local society in its finery mainly to watch each other, admire a dress, flirt with admirers, have assignations with lovers or snare a husband or wife – and not necessarily in that order!

Whether that hectic social mingling goes on or not at the Coliseum, I am sure all the seeing and being seen has led to several romances and marriages.

Finery isn’t generally much in evidence these days, of course: people wear to the theatre clothes in which they feel comfortable. The days of wearing evening dress are thankfully long gone: you would look pretty silly turning up to one of our pantos in a tuxedo!

In a theatre like the Coliseum, it’s more about the play than it is the event. Which is perhaps the nicest compliment of all: people come comfortably dressed because they feel comfortable being there.

When the lights goes down and the curtain goes up, the theatricality is restricted to the stage – which is where many of us like it!

Scooping up the awards...

Last week members of the Coliseum team attended the Manchester Theatre Awards at the Opera House in Manchester. It was a fantastic afternoon – made even more so by the fact that the Coliseum won two awards!

Snookered – written by the hugely talented Ishy Din – won best new play. We premiered the production at University Campus Oldham back in January 2012 before it transferred to the Bush Theatre in London and went on to tour. The play received a very positive critical response and was a standout production of our 2012 season. When I say stand out – it was very different from the productions that we usually programme and I’m extremely glad we took a risk and made it part of the season. It’s absolutely imperative that theatres and arts organisations support new writing without new plays the whole industry would become a museum piece.

Ishy’s career as a playwright has been meteoric, he’s gone from being a Middlesbrough taxi driver to becoming Pearson Playwright in Residence at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre. Ishy was still a taxi driver when he submitted a play as part of a new writing competition at the Coliseum and he’s gone from strength to strength. He’ll be returning to Oldham in May as part of the Coliseum First Break festival. This is a celebration is new writing and emerging talent. Ishy will be giving a master class on writing for the stage on Saturday 18 May. Tickets are £4 and the event is at Oldham Central Library – make sure you come along (he is an award winner after all).

The other Coliseum winner was Star-Cross’d in the Special Entertainment category. That production was a real first for the Coliseum and every single member of the organisation spent time in Alexandra Park during what was one of the wettest summers in years. It was a huge undertaking and it’s brilliant to have that work recognised. 

Dick Whittington was nominated in this category last year and Cinderella went up against Star-Cross’d this year. I’m absolutely delighted that Star-Cross’d won (but would have been pretty chuffed if Cinderella had won too). This category is titled as such simply because the judges said they found they couldn’t shoehorn the particular productions in other categories but “were absolutely convinced that they deserved honouring.”

See you at the theatre.

Kevin Shaw
Artisitc Director