The Stage Awards winners 2021: Theatr Clwyd, regional theatre of the year
"It’s been a deeply challenging year across the sector. At a time when we’ve not been able to sell tickets or tell stories on our stages, we have tried to use our skills to help people in our local community and our wider artistic community. We’ve always known that our team was pretty amazing but this year have proved it beyond any imagining, and this is all about them."
When the theatre shutdown came in March, artistic director Tamara Harvey and her team had to do a great deal of ‘unproducing’, like many others, but that did not mean Theatr Clwyd was unproductive in 2020. On the contrary, it worked with vision and generosity and warmth to create art, serve its community and support its workforce.
In recent years, Theatr Clwyd has been on an artistic roll. But it has always recognised that while West End transfers such as Home, I’m Darling or co-productions with the Donmar (the revival of Steve Waters’ climate-change play The Contingency Plan, which was due to play both Mold and Covent Garden in 2020), are welcome, the theatre, perched on a hill in rural Flintshire, has a significant role to play for the community it serves.
Last year, it was supposed to stage another large-scale community play, Hush, co-produced with Papertrail, and co-created with freelance artists and local residents, after 2019’s Mold Riots brilliantly demonstrated that theatre brings people together and provides the social glue to keep them together. The pandemic postponed Hush, but it could not stop Theatr Clwyd engaging with its many different communities, including its freelancers.
Theatr Clwyd Together is the name of a lively, far-reaching and much appreciated audience engagement programme that, since the theatre shut, has been connecting the venue with audiences and providing them with weekly activities including writing stories, directing plays and choreographing dances, all from their own homes.
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Since March, Theatr Clwyd has worked with local agencies including social services to distribute food parcels and provide support and services, including becoming a hub for vulnerable children and families and the children of key workers. It has developed and delivered creative packs to those in need, and has continued to deliver workshop projects, including those for people with dementia and Parkinson’s, as well as for its local refugee community. It has recently adopted the council-run Flintshire Music Service, protecting the future of youth music in the community and securing work for teachers and artists.
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The building may not have been able to produce theatre inside its walls, but instead it became a major blood-donation centre for Wales. The stage may not have hosted shows, but it could and did provide a safe practice place for a local boy who won a place at the Royal Ballet School but had no place to train. It may have been unable to open its doors to audiences but it has streamed shows, brought audiences together with practitioners in an online conversations series and, in late summer, it piloted an outdoor season of performance. Almost 2,000 people attended Covid-secure events on the hillside, including the reading of a new play by Tim Price.
The theatre’s exceptional support of freelance artists during the pandemic has included the creation of 50 micro-bursaries of £560 each that have not only provided urgent financial support but also access to its resources, time and expertise. In 2020, Theatr Clwyd has been more than a theatre: it has been a beacon, one that won the hearts and trust of the many communities it serves.
Liam Evans-Ford and Tamara Harvey’s speech accepting The Stage Award for regional theatre of the year
Highly commended
Derby Theatre
Few theatres are as sure of their civic purpose as Derby Theatre. Under the leadership of Sarah Brigham, it has signposted the way for others in creating a theatre that is genuinely connected, local and networked. That means it has the trust of the local community, a role to play as a learning theatre – training the theatre workers of the future in partnership with Derby University – and a close and supportive relationship with freelancers.
During 2020, it built on the trust established over many years, and delivered a programme of support, audience engagement and artist development that has been much needed and much appreciated. Derby’s not just a theatre – it’s a marvel.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Under its dynamic artistic director Elizabeth Newman, Pitlochry has proved how essential a local theatre can be to its community. Few venues have been as artistically confident or prolific during the shutdown as Pitlochry, which has been producing its Shades of Tay strand of work online and in the process employing many writers and freelance artists.
It has maintained consistently close contact with its community. The theatre’s telephone club has provided work for artists and a connection for the lonely and isolated. In 2020, Pitlochry has proved itself a model of what a great local theatre should be. (Photo by Andrew Curtis)
The Stage Awards winners 2021: Regional theatre of the year
The Stage Awards winners 2021: London theatre of the year
The Stage Awards winners 2021: Producer of the year
The Stage Awards winners 2021: Fringe theatre of the year
The Stage Awards winners 2021: International award
The Stage Awards winners 2021: Innovation award
The Stage Awards winners 2021: Achievement in technical theatre
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