‘Theatre Royal Plymouth changed my life’ (Originally published by WhatsOnStage)

This was originally published by WhatsOnStage, as one of a number of tributes to Theatre Royal Plymouth following the announcement of their difficulties due to Covid-19. These tributes were collated by Laura Horton.

Theatre Royal Plymouth was the making of me, both personally and professionally. It has always been a venue where the people matter, so to be going through a redundancy procedure must be unfathomably difficult for all involved.

I remember being a kid and going to see the panto, starring Les Dawson. My dad worked for Royal Mail and they’d arrange a trip for all the families to go for cheap, and it was such a joyous thing; that shared experience was something special even at a young age, and underlined just how much the theatre matters to the people of this city.

When I was getting ready to do my GCSEs I didn’t know what my long-term ambitions were. My drama teacher at school suggested I consider auditioning for a part in Theatre Royal’s production of Union Street – a large-scale community project specifically about the city. I thought I might as well; I didn’t have any other plans for the summer, and reasoned there’d also be girls there (going to an all-boys school meant this was always appealing!). So I auditioned, and I was successful – marking the beginning of a 20 year relationship with a theatre which means so much to me.

Being in the Young Company made me realise just how much I wanted theatre to be my career. I loved being a part of that community, being on those stages and being a part of that world. And it felt like that theatre cared about me. When I had to delay going to uni for a year because I couldn’t afford to go straight after sixth form, TRP offered me my first paid work as a trainee practitioner. And they have kept offer me opportunities over the years.

It would almost be easier for me to tell you what I haven’t done at TRP than what I have: I spent a good chunk of time working on Box Office, both before I went to London to pursue my dreams and when I came back from London because I was broke; I’ve assisted on and led workshops for pretty much every age group imaginable, ranging from pre-schoolers to over 70s; I worked in the Development department talking to individual givers who were, almost to a person, lovely elderly people who wanted to give the theatre money because they loved coming to shows; I even gave the first public tours of TR2 when it opened. I know their spaces inside and out, because the company knows its staff are part of its family.

Many venues would find it easy to make redundancies at a time like this; the age-old ‘upstairs/downstairs’ dynamic which exists in a number of venues would mean many senior jobs would be safe whilst those at the bottom of the food chain would be gone (trust me – I’ve seen it in action). But how can you make easy cuts at a place like TRP? The people are the foundations upon which it succeeds. The artistic team are seemingly already gone, at one of the biggest regional producing theatres in the country. A building which sees hundreds of thousands of people pass through its doors every year may have to lose some of the people who are key to those relationships with audiences – Box Office, Front of House, marketing, housekeeping and others. Their Talent Development department deliver a wide-ranging programme of work across the city, the region and beyond – but some of them may be at risk. With a successful capital programme still fresh in our memories, the Development department who were key to this may be facing losses. The Production and Technical teams work at an insane level to not just make high-quality work happen on TRP’s stages, but also in building shows which tour nationally and internationally.

It’s impossible to outline just how important everyone is at TRP, and how no-one there deserves to be going through this. This are unparalleled times, but our sector has still been let down by a government not taking any action to support it – and it’s not the buildings who suffer, but the people who make it what it is. My heart goes out to all those people who currently call TRP home, as I once did.