REGULAR Joseph Rowntree Theatre performer Hannah King will run an online virtual dance fitness class tomorrow morning in aid of the JoRo’s Raise The Roof appeal in York.
From 10am to 11am, Hannah will guide an enthusiastic group of theatre supporters through their steps as they dance to favourite show tunes.
Graham Mitchell, the Haxby Road theatre’s events and fundraising director, says: “Already we have more than 20 participants but, being online, there’s space for everyone.
“It doesn’t matter where you are, you can join in. We’ve even got participants in Troon and Aberdeen! At only £3 a slot, it’s a cheap way to have a fun hour of fitness and raise money for our appeal at the same time.”
The JoRo launched its Raise The Roof campaign last week by creating an online music video put together “virtually” during lockdown. The appeal has garnered more than £2,000 already and tomorrow’s online dance class will see this total grow over the weekend.
Dan Shrimpton, chair of trustees of the JoRo charity, say: “There’s a real swell of support from all those connected with the theatre, from stewards to performers, from stage crew to hirers. This dance class is the second event in a chain of many fundraisers that we have in the pipeline.”
To join in Hannah’s fitness fundraiser, email her at hannahfking@live.com for details.
To launch the Raise The Roof campaign, the theatre has set up a Just Giving page and is encouraging people to donate “even just the amount of a takeaway coffee”. Go to: justgiving.com/campaign/Raise-the-Roof.
Singers and musicians recording Up On The Roof remotely for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre’s Raise The Roof campaign
THE Joseph Rowntree Theatre, in York, is launching a song on You Tube to help raise £5,000 towards vital roof repairs.
At a time when the future is looking bleak for many theatres in the Coronavirus crisis, York’s community theatre in Haxby Road is determined to buck the trend of depressing news by using lockdown as a chance to further its expansion plans.
Launching the online video this week kick-starts Raise The Roof, the JoRo’s fundraising campaign with a £90,000 target.
Aptly, the choice of song is a cover of The Drifters’ hit Up On The Roof, written in 1962 by Gerry Goffin and Carole King.
Jess Douglas: Arranger, pianist, co-organiser
The video has been produced, arranged and performed by York performers who call the Art Deco building their theatrical home, many of them also counting themselves among the JoRo’s army of volunteers. Put together during lockdown via socially distanced media, it can be viewed at youtu.be/IPsw4VQcMsg.
Stage manager Ollie Nash and Jessica Douglas, a regular musical director of shows at the JoRo, have brought together a team of singers and musicians to create the video. “It’s been a real challenge under lockdown conditions,” says Ollie. “In the week leading up to its release, I spent 30 hours pulling all the bits together for the final edit.”
Arranged by Jessica and mixed and edited by Ollie, Up On The Roof is performed by Abigail Atkinson, Chris Gibson, Helen Singhateh, Jennie Wogan, Nick Sephton, Paul Blenkiron, Ruth McCartney, Sandy Nicholson and Susan Blenkiron. Backing them in the recording are Jessica Douglas, piano, Clark Howard, drums, Georgia Johnson, bass, Damien Sweeting, guitar, and Emily Jones and Tom Marlow, violin.
Graham Mitchell, the JoRo’s fundraising and events director, says: “We’ve had great fun putting this video together. The fact that so many of our performing and volunteering community came together ‘virtually’ to produce it shows just how much the future success of the theatre means to them.”
Ollie Nash: Spent 30 hours “pulling all the bits together for the final video edit”
Against a backdrop of growing fears over the future for many arts venues across the country, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre believes it is in a “particularly strong position”.
How come? Because the charity that runs it owns the building and the theatre is operated entirely by more than 170 unpaid volunteers.
Dan Shrimpton, chair of the board of trustees, says: “We’re using this period of enforced closure to look after and improve the fabric of the building. The roof repairs need to be completed before we can move on with our major plans to expand the building.
“The new insulation and solar panels will significantly reduce our operating costs and also the impact we have on the environment. The expansion plans will make our venue even greener and more accessible.”
A peck on the cheek of a teenage Judi Dench from a cheeky young chap at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre is a favourite anecdote among theatre volunteers
The roof has stood the test of time, not needing any major work since the theatre was built 85 years ago. The Raise The Roof appeal is not the first time it has appeared in a news article, however. In 2012, the Daily Telegraph published the story of a teenage Judi Dench coming down from the roof after watching the sunset with a group of friends.
One brave young man took the opportunity to sneak a quick kiss on the way down the ladder! Dame Judi does not remember the name of the cheeky chap, but it is a favourite anecdote among the theatre’s volunteers.
To launch the Raise the Roof campaign, the JoRo has set up a Just Giving page and is encouraging people to donate “even just the amount of a takeaway coffee”. Go to: justgiving.com/campaign/Raise-the-Roof.
The Joseph Rowntree Theatre, in Haxby Road, York
Did you know?
THE Joseph Rowntree Theatre was built by the Joseph Rowntree Village Trustees as a place for recreation and education for the benefit of Rowntree employees and the York community.
Seebohm Rowntree opened the Haxby Road theatre in 1935. It remains a vital community asset, run entirely by volunteers for the people of York. A board of 13 trustees and 170 volunteers give 17,000 hours of volunteering time every year.
Last year, the JoRo put on more than 135 performances, staged by 35 York groups and several professional touring companies.
“Critical situation”: Dark nights, dark days too, at York Theatre Royal until further notice
CLOSED. Closed. Closed. Closed. Closed. York’s theatres have shut down en masse in response to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Monday briefing on Black Monday to avoid unnecessary social contact at pubs, clubs and theatres.
One by one came the measured official statements in response to the rising Coronavirus pandemic, announced with regret, sadness and heavy hearts.
By way of contrast, a tide of anger rose ever higher on social media from the entertainment industry, feeling shafted by the PM not legislating closure, merely advising it.
In doing so, he placed the decision in the (no doubt frequently washed) hands of theatre managements, boards and trusts, whose sense of moral responsibility left no option but to announce closure until further notice as a precaution amid the Coronavirus crisis. When insurance effectively amounts to no insurance, hell by hand cart is the only journey in town.
Lights out: Ellen Kent Company’s La Boheme, at the Grand Opera House tomorrow is snuffed out by the Prime Minister’s Coronavirus dictum
The Grand National, the first post-Brexit Eurovision, the Chelsea Flower Show, Glastonbury Festival, the Euro 2020 football championships, are all scrapped for 2020. A tsunami of further announcements will follow, not least from theatre companies cancelling or postponing tours.
Keep Calm and Carry On may be the mantra, but the fear is that Keep Calm and Carry On may well turn to carrion on account of, well, the accounts.
York Theatre Royal, in St Leonard’s Place, Theatre @41 Monkgate, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, in Haxby Road, and Riding Lights Theatre Company’s Friargate Theatre, in Lower Friargate, have individual boards and managements addressing urgent, previously unimaginable requirements and strictures.
Likewise, the Ambassadors Theatre Group, owners of the Grand Opera House, is co-ordinating the Coronavirus-impacted strategy throughout ATG, making statements for the Cumberland Street theatre, whose staff are now working remotely from home.
Clock stopped: PIck Me Up Theatre’s Tom’s Midnight Garden was curtailed after Monday’s performance at Theatre @ 41 Monkgate, York
These are unprecedented circumstances. Circumstances not even seen in wartime when theatres – some, not all – across the land stayed open through 1939 to 1945.
Circumstances where the new C-word has led to theatre after theatre – together with cinemas, music clubs, museums, galleries, visitor attractions, SparkYork, et al – to issue variations on: “It is with enormous sadness that we take these measures, but the safety of our audiences, staff and community is of utmost importance.”
So, where does each of these York theatres stand now, in a city where, like the rest, the theatre focus is turning to those of the medical variety? The best advice is to visit the theatre websites for information on the present closures, ticket refunds, and, in light of the harsh financial reality, Donate Today requests. “Your support is vital to our survival,” pleads York Theatre Royal bluntly.
A spokesman for the Theatre Royal – take it as read that it was executive director Tom Bird – said: “The closure of theatres in the UK puts York Theatre Royal, along with hundreds of other theatres, into a critical situation.”
Road closed: Riding Lights Theatre Company have had give up The Narrow Road tour for Lent
Does that make it theatre’s version of the intensive care unit? Time will tell, but the arts have a way of defying the last rites, always have, always will, keeping the fat lady singer waiting, the final curtain up in the flies. What they will make of Richmond Rishi’s £330 billion loan scheme is another discussion point for the in-tray, however.
In a nutshell, York Theatre Royal’s shows and public events initially are cancelled until April 11, but there surely will be no miraculous resurrection on Easter Sunday. The York Theatre Royal building, box office and café remained open initially, but the building closed to the public today (March 19). The box office is still taking phone calls on 01904 623568; ticket refunds are underway.
Shows at the Grand Opera House, in common with all Ambassadors Theatre Group theatres, are “temporarily suspended with immediate effect”, with a policy of postponement and future re-arranged dates to be confirmed, rather than cancellations, at this stage.
“We are following government guidance which is currently ambiguous,” say ATG. “It is unclear how long theatres are to remain closed. We will reopen them once the government and medical authorities confirm that there is no risk to our audiences, performers and staff.
The Missing Peace: one of the now missing pieces at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, but with plans for re-arranged dates later
“We are working hard with our producers and performers to understand how this will play out, so we can’t confirm that at this time. We will try, wherever possible, to re-programme shows that have been suspended.”
The Joseph Rowntree Theatre will remain closed “until we receive further instruction that it is safe to reopen”. “We will be issuing further advice in the coming days on how we are going to manage ticket refunds and exchanges,” says trust chairman Dan Shrimpton. “We would ask that you please bear with us and wait for us to contact you.”
The Theatre @41 Monkgate website is yet to be updated following Monday’s Coronavirus ultimatum – the About Us section has Covid-19 Guidance from before – but Pick Me Up Theatre artistic director Robert Readman announced performances would cease after Tom’s Midnight Garden that evening.
He also cancelled Pick Me Up’s Sondheim 90 birthday concert this Sunday and the April 17 to 25 run of The Pirates Of Penzance. Be assured that Coronavirus has been the death of York Shakespeare Project’s Macbeth from March 31 to April 4 too.
Riding Lights, York’s Christian theatre company based at Friargate Theatre, have cancelled their March 16 to April 11 tour of The Narrow Road. “We are very sorry not to be performing this Lent but wish you a happy and safe Easter,” their website says.
Meanwhile, prayers and thoughts go to all those working in the theatres at York Hospital and elsewhere, preparing for whatever is to come.
Joseph Rowntree Theatre charity chairman Dan Shrimpton, centre, receives the £10,000 award from the J&C Joel workforce at the York theatre
THE Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, has won £10,000 in a nationwide competition run by the Theatres Trust and international stage equipment company J & C Joel.
The Sowerby Bridge company has replaced all the stage curtains and upgraded the scenery-moving equipment to facilitate “even bigger and better” shows at the Art Deco community theatre in Haxby Road.
Graham
Mitchell, the JoRo theatre’s company secretary, fundraising and events director
and charity trustee says: “We’re very grateful to everyone at J & C Joel
and at the Theatres Trust for the work done. The award’s timing could not be
better, as we’re expanding the range and number of shows we host. Coming just
after being voted York’s Best Entertainment Venue in Minster FM’s Listener
Choice awards, this is an immense boost.”
Dan Shrimpton,
the JoRo charity’s chairman, believes the award will make a huge difference to operating
the theatre. “Our audiences will be able to see ever more imaginative settings
for plays and musicals, and, of course, the annual Rowntree Players pantomime,”
he says.
“The
theatre was built in 1935 by Rowntrees for the benefit of their employees and
the citizens of York, so that everyone could experience a wide variety of
affordable entertainment, either by taking part or by just coming to watch
shows, concerts and films.
“We
have big plans to improve our facilities over the next few years to make the
theatre a truly vibrant asset for York, as originally intended by Seebohm and
Joseph Rowntree. It really is a community asset run for the people of
York, by the people of York”.
J&C Joel employees assessing the task in hand at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
James
Wheelwright, J & C Joel’s chief executive, says: “We celebrated our 40th anniversary
last year and we wanted to mark it in a special way. We worked with the
Theatres Trust, the national organisation protecting and advising theatres, to
create the competition.
“The
Joseph Rowntree Theatre won from a very wide field of theatres from up and down
the country because we loved what they are doing as a community run theatre,
providing affordable entertainment to the people of York and beyond – and who
also have big plans for the theatre’s future.”
Tom Stickland, theatres
adviser at the Theatres Trust, says: “The Joseph Rowntree Theatre is a great
example of the transformational effect that committed community groups can have
on theatres. The Theatres Trust is pleased to be in a position to link up
generous industry specialists like J & C Joel with community theatres, so
that they can offer this vital support.”
Run entirely by
volunteers, the JoRo welcomed 50 hirers last year, who staged 135 performances.
The theatre is used by more than 35 York groups, as well as several professional
touring companies and performers.
This week,
the JoRo is playing host to the York Community Choir Festival until Saturday.
Jessa Liversidge: performing her Songbirds show at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre on April 5
York St John University Musical Production Society will present Guys
& Dolls, March 19 to 21; Bev Jones Music Company, Calamity Jane, March 25
to 28; Flying Ducks Youth Theatre, Crush The Musical, April 2 to 4; Jessa
Liversidge, Songbirds, a celebration of female singing icons, April 5.
For tickets
and more details of upcoming shows, go to josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.Box office: 01904 501935.
Did you
know?
J&C Joel was established in 1978 in Sowerby Bridge, near
Halifax, founded by John Wheelwright whose family had been involved in the
textile industry for more than 150 years.
The business exports to more than 80 countries worldwide,
providing products such as front-of-house theatre curtains, stage backdrops,
cycloramas, gauzes, acoustic drapes, projection screens and stage engineering
solutions. J&C Joel has offices in the UK, Europe, Africa, the Middle East,
Asia and Australasia.
The Theatres Trust is the national advisory public body for theatres, championing the future of live performance by protecting and supporting theatre buildings that meet the needs of their communities.
The trust provides advice on the design, planning, development and sustainability of theatres, campaigning on behalf of theatres old and new and offering financial assistance through grants.
