This morning Norwich Theatre hosted the summer quarterly Business Breakfast, as an opportunity for corporate members of the community to join together and network. More than 40 people from 21 different organisations came along to share their love of theatre and to show their support.
Nigel Wilson and the staff from Smith & Pinching regard the membership as a company perk. The membership offers a range of benefits, including discounts on shows, access to events, and priority booking. Being a member “feels like were putting something back into the community,” said Helen Tavner, from SG Wealth Management.
Maria Taylor, from Rogers & Norton Solicitors said; “We’ve got a beautiful theatre in a fine city, and it should be supported so it’s very important.”
The breakfast, starting at 8am, included speakers telling our members of what amazing opportunities their support provides for the wider audience. With the opening of Julius Caesar being tonight, Miche Montague, Creative Communities Producer, explained about the recent partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In spring 2019, the theatre began the Shakespeare Nation program, an adult participation project reaching out to communities who would not usually engage with theatre or Shakespeare. Now on the fourth season of the project, Miche hopes that each project offers it participates a lifelong love of Shakespeare and theatre: “Each project of this program has proved itself to be extremely successful and has broadened our act into local communities.”
Ian Wainwright, project producer at the RSC, then spoke to the corporate members about the importance of engaging and co-creating with communities and places where they work. Ian said: “There’s nothing more bonding, more getting to know one another than to make theatre with the community.” Ian explained how “we want to find out from those audiences in those cities that we’re working with about the play to understand Shakespeare in more depth and improve the performance. “”
Next week, the work with Shakespeare Nation will be continued, in-house at Norwich Theatre. A new project, called Women in Shakespeare, will look at how society evolves and the role of women, as well as some other contemporary issues such as climate change. The project is working with women from their early 20s to their mid-70s, bringing communities together to create and share stories.
By Cameron Noble, work experience placement from UEA.