UPDATE July 2020

Although the theatre has been closed over the last few months we have been able to provide a wealth of online events and activities and it has been great to see many of our members taking part in these. First up were the monologue series organised by our Artistic Directors, Zoë and Jeff, which involved nearly 100 actors and directors and showed just how creative and innovative members could be in working with technology to provide us with pieces to enjoy, inspire or move us. Our online social events, organised by Ally, began around the same time and have included socials at the Rat and Pat, quizzes, watch parties (including our first Pride party) and talent shows. Jeff and Zoë have also organised informal weekly play readings or play discussions and members have been able to engage with plays and playwrights they might not have come across before. We have also held four online workshops on directing, acting, writing and improvisation and Susanna is planning for these to continue into the autumn. 

Our first online production ‘Truth and Dare’ a series of New Writing pieces directed and produced by Rebecca and Craig and with Tom providing the technical lead took place this month and was very well received. This should have been one of our summer shows this year and auditions had taken place before lockdown. Rehearsals took place online. Our next online production ‘The Magistrate’ is scheduled for August. Online auditions and rehearsals took place for this production. 

We are really grateful to our members who have supported us with donations or through the regular giving option over the last few months. It is really heartening to see your commitment to keeping our theatre going. Clearly we will not be able to raise the kind of income we usually do to contribute to the theatre’s sustainability but we hope that we will be able to offer some live theatre experiences before too long.

Carrie and Veronika are working through the new guidance provided for theatre venues in detail and will use these to agree with Zoë and Jeff what the best way forward is for future PTC auditions, rehearsals, set building and productions. Some of these measures will feel very alien in operating a building that many of us consider to be our second home, and we’ll aim to make these as easy as possible, but please bear with us as we navigate this uncertain time and work out reopening plans in detail. In the meantime, we’d like to hear from our members with feedback on our lockdown activities and perspectives on what we should focus on in our reopening plans; please look out for a survey to you all shortly.

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