Live Theatre
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Live Theatre, formerly Live Theatre Company, is a new writing theatre and company based in
Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
, England. As well as producing and presenting new plays many of which go on to tour nationally and internationally, it seeks out and nurtures creative talent and runs a large education programme for young people.


History

Originally founded in
Tyneside Tyneside is a List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne in Northern England. The population of Tyneside as published in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 774,891 ...
in 1973 by
Val McLane Val McLane (born Valerie Bradford 25 February 1943, in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland) is an English actress, scriptwriter, director and teacher. Early life She grew up in Walker and Benton. Her younger brother is actor and musician Jimm ...
, Geoff Gillham and Dave Clark, the company originally toured its work regionally to non-traditional theatre settings, such as community halls and
working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland, Northern Ireland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education ...
s. The company was creating plays and stories that were relevant to the
North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...
community and sought to break down barriers by presenting this work to ordinary working-class people within their own communities. The company has been based in
Newcastle Quayside The Quayside is an area along the banks (quay) of the River Tyne in Newcastle upon Tyne (the north bank) and Gateshead (south bank) in Tyne and Wear, North East England, United Kingdom. History The area was once an industrial area and busy c ...
since 1982, expanding over the years to occupy the current premises which combine converted
warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...
s and
Almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...
s to create a building which houses a theatre auditorium, café bar, rehearsal spaces and administrative offices. Live Theatre also took over the lease of a new warehouse building on Broad Chare, immediately adjacent to the previous theatre. In 2007 Live Theatre underwent a further capital development. It now has a cabaret style theatre, a studio theatre, renovated rehearsal rooms, a series of dedicated writer's rooms as well as a café, bar and gastro pub, The Broad Chare, all in a restored and refurbished complex of five Grade II listed buildings.


Productions

Live Theatre develops new writing talent in the region. The company has enjoyed significant relationships with many writers such as CP Taylor,
Tom Hadaway Tom Hadaway (18 March 1923 – 3 March 2005) was a writer for stage and television, born in North Shields in North East England. Early life Hadaway was born on Howdon Road, North Shields on 18 March 1923. After leaving school, aged 14, he worke ...
,
Alan Plater Alan Frederick Plater (15 April 1935 – 25 June 2010) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s. He is best known for the sitcom ''Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt'' and th ...
and, more recently,
Peter Flannery Peter Flannery (born 12 October 1951) is an English playwright and screenwriter. He was born in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear and educated at the University of Manchester. He is best known for his work while a resident playwright at the Royal Shakespear ...
, Michael Chaplin,
Peter Straughan Peter Straughan (born 1968) is a British playwright, screenwriter and author. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for ''Conclave'' (2024), and was previously nominated in the category for '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (2011). ...
, Julia Darling, Lee Hall, Sean O'Brien and
Karen Laws Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang) Karen is a pejorative slang term typically used to refer to a middle class woman who is perceived as entitled or excessively demanding. The term is often portraye ...
. Many plays have been commissioned and produced over the years which are now known nationally and internationally, such as ''Close The Coalhouse Door'', ''
Cooking with Elvis ''Cooking with Elvis'' is a dark comedy by playwright Lee Hall which was performed in 1999 in Edinburgh. The farce was adapted from a play written for the award-winning BBC Radio ''God's Country'' series and premiered in 1999 in Edinburgh. It wa ...
'', ''
Operation Elvis ''Operation Elvis'' by C.P. Taylor is a play for children, first produced by the Live Theatre Company in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1978. Taylor worked as a drama teacher at Morpeth’s Northgate Hospital, and used it as the main setting for the pla ...
'' and ''
And a Nightingale Sang ''And a Nightingale Sang'' is a play by British playwright C.P. Taylor (1977) and commissioned by Newcastle upon Tyne's Live Theatre Company. Described as a bitter-sweet comedy, the play is set in Newcastle during World War II and portrays Hele ...
''. In 2013 Live Theatre celebrated 40 years of creating plays on Tyneside with a programme that included a new national tour of Lee Hall's ''The Pitmen Painters'' by Bill Kenwright Limited, and sell out runs at Live Theatre of ''Tyne'' by Michael Chaplin, ''Wet House'' by new talent Paddy Campbell and a revival of Lee Hall's ''
Cooking with Elvis ''Cooking with Elvis'' is a dark comedy by playwright Lee Hall which was performed in 1999 in Edinburgh. The farce was adapted from a play written for the award-winning BBC Radio ''God's Country'' series and premiered in 1999 in Edinburgh. It wa ...
''. ''Wet House'' successfully transferred to the
Soho Theatre Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, and Soho Theatre Walthamstow in north-east London. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three pe ...
in 2014. Between January and June 2014 Live Theatre presented a series screenplays in development by writer Lee Hall, which includes scrips in development about English cricketer
Harold Larwood Harold Larwood (14 November 1904 – 22 July 1995) was a professional cricketer for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team between 1924 and 1938. A right-arm fast bowler who combined extreme speeds with great a ...
, a film adaptation of
Down and out in paris and london ''Down and Out in Paris and London'' is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell, published in 1933. It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. Its target audience was the middle- and upper-cla ...
based on the book by
George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...
, ''Rocket Man'' about the life of pop star
Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...
and ''Victoria and Abdul'' based on the life of
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
and her manservant and ''For The End of Time'' based on the life and works of French composer
Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...
. All were read as script-in-hand readings in Live Theatre's main theatre. ''Incognito'' by
Nick Payne Nick Payne (born 1984) is a British playwright and screenwriter. Known for his work on the West End and Broadway stage as well as for his film and television work, he has received nominations for a Laurence Olivier Award and a Tony Award. P ...
was a co-production between Live Theatre, nabokov, HighTide Festival Theatre and in association with The North Wall, Oxford in spring 2014, which previewed at Live Theatre in April 2014, before going to HighTide Festival and The North Wall. It returned to Live Theatre in May 2014 and then had a sell-out run at The Bush Theatre, London. Live Theatre's 2013 show ''Captain Amazing'' written by Bruntwood Prize winning author Alistair McDowall, directed by Clive Judd and starring Mark Weinman returned to Live Theatre in May 2014 and was performed at Northern Stage's Kings Hall Edinburgh venue for a week as part of the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...
. In November 2014 Live Theatre premiered ''Flying into Daylight'', a new play by
Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...
-award-winning screenwriter Ron Hutchinson. Drawn from a true story, the play features live
Tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...
music created and performed by Tango musician Julian Rowlands and dance choreographed by Amir Giles.


Awards

In 2017 Live Theatre productions ''Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour'', written by Lee Hall and co-produced with National Theatre of Scotland, was nominated for two Olivier Awards, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, whilst all the all female cast of Melissa Allan, Caroline Deyga, Kirsty Findlay, Karen Fishwick, Kirsty Maclaren,
Frances Mayli McCann Frances Mayli McCann is a Scottish actress. Known for her work in theatre, she is the recipient of Laurence Olivier and WhatsOnStage Award nominations. Her roles include Bonnie Parker in '' Bonnie & Clyde'' and Daisy Buchanan in ''The Great Gats ...
, Joanne McGuiness and Dawn Sievewright were jointly nominated for the Olivier Award of Best Actress in a Supporting role. The show then went on to complete a West End run at the
Duke of York's Theatre The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster, London. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre until her death in 1935. Designed by ...
, London. ''The Red Lion'' by Patrick Marber, starring Stephen Tompkinson, had successful runs at Live Theatre and on a West End transfer, and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.


Live Tales

The theatre also hosts a free creative writing programme for KS2 and KS3 students called Live Tales in studios behind the theatre in Newcastle and at The Fire Station, Sunderland.


Live Youth Theatre

Live Theatre runs the largest free youth theatre group in the North East of England, which runs weekly sessions for young people of mixed ability ages 11–25. Live Youth Theatre was founded in 1998 by Live Theatre's current Senior Creative Associate Children and Young People, Paul James at the request of then Artistic Director Max Roberts, and has notable alumni including
Laura Norton Laura Norton (born 19 June 1983) is an English actress, known for her role as Kerry Wyatt on the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. Norton has also appeared in numerous television series working for ITV and the BBC, and has significant theatre cre ...
, Dean Bone, and Natalie Jamieson


Staff

The current
Artistic Director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...
of Live Theatre is Jack McNamara. Max Roberts, Artistic Director until 2018, is currently Emeritus Artistic Director, and also lectures at the
University of Sunderland The University of Sunderland is a public research university located in Sunderland in the North East of England. Its predecessor, Sunderland Technical College, was established as a municipal training college in 1901. It gained university status ...
. Chief Executive of Live Theatre is Jacqui Kell.


References

{{Coord, 54.9700, -1.6049, display=title Theatres in Newcastle upon Tyne 1973 establishments in England Producing theatres in England