Artistic director Marianne McNamara and producer Pete Toon at Mikron Theatre Company’s last performance in 2019. Picture: Mark Kelly
MIKRON Theatre Company have shot past their fundraising target to secure next year’s 50th anniversary tour in less than three weeks.
After the Covid curse de-railed their entire 2020 season, the West Yorkshire travelling troupe needed to raise £48,337.49 to continue taking shows not only on the road but on canals and rivers too.
The brisk financial fillip supplied by supporters and the public at large, both home and abroad, means the Marsden company now can plan their 2021 travels aboard their 1936 narrowboat Tyseley.
“We cannot thank people enough,” says buoyant artistic director Marianne McNamara. “We are absolutely humbled by the support we have received. It is testament to not only how valued the company is, but also to the work we have done for the past 50 years.
“We’ve had letters and emails from all over the world: Texas, Catalonia and the Netherlands and, of course, every corner of the country from Cornwall to Cromarty, saying how much Mikron means to them and that they couldn’t see us miss out on our 50th year of touring.”
What happens next? “Every penny raised over the minimum amount we needed for the appeal will, of course, be used wisely and carefully,” says Marianne. “We have Tyseley, our narrowboat, to keep ship shape, and we will be able to continue our aims of developing new writers, directors and creatives for the future of Mikron and the industry as a whole.”
Based at the Mechanics Hall in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, Mikron Theatre Company tour shows to “places that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of”, be it a play about growing-your-own staged at allotments; a play abuzz with bees performed next to hives; or one about when the chips are down, served up in a fish and chip restaurant.
Game on! Amanda Whittington’s football play, Atalanta Forever, WILL be staged by Mikron Theatre Company next year
Or a play about hostelling that spent nights at YHA youth hostels and one telling the story of the RNLI, launched at several lifeboat stations around the UK coastline.
The successful appeal ensures 2020’s Covid-cancelled shows can go ahead in 2021: Amanda Whittington’s new work on women’s football in the 1920s, Atalanta Forever, and the premiere of Polly Hollman’s canine comedy caper A Dog’s Tale.
In 48 years until this year’s enforced hibernation, Mikron have performed 64 original shows; composed and written 384 songs; issued 236 actor-musician contracts; spent 30,000 boating hours on the inland waterways; covered 530,000 road miles; performed 5,060 times and played to 428,000 people.
For further information on Mikron Theatre Company and the opportunity to donate, visit mikron.org.uk/appeal.
Atalanta Forever…but not for 2020 after Covid-19 showed the red card to Amanda Whittington’s new football play, forcing Mikron Theatre Company to call off this summer’s tour
MIKRON Theatre Company are launching a near-£50,000 fundraising appeal to secure their 50th anniversary year, but under the dark clouds of Coronavirus their future is at risk.
The West Yorkshire company had to cancel this summer’s tours of Amanda Whittington’s Atalanta Forever and Poppy Hollman’s A Dog’s Tale, once the Covid-19 lockdown strictures prevented them from touring by canal, river and road as is their custom.
The stultifying impact of the pandemic has dealt Mikron a “potentially catastrophic blow” and consequently they need help to “ensure that they get back on their feet, back on the road and back on the water”.
No touring from April to October has meant no income from 130 shows, no merchandise, no programmes, no raffle, in the budget, whereupon Mikron are facing a shortfall of £48,337.49.
Atalanta Forever playwright Amanda Whittington
Artistic director Marianne McNamara says: “The entire management team is doing as much as we can to reduce costs month by month, but this simply is not enough. On current budgets, the company will run out of money before our 50th year of touring in 2021.
“With this in mind, we have no choice but to launch an appeal to raise £48,337.49 by the end of December 2020 to ensure that Mikron has a future within the theatre industry.”
Should the appeal be successful, next summer Mikron will tour Atalanta Forever, Whittington’s story of women’s football in the 1920s, and Hollman’s canine comedy caper A Dog’s Tale. As ever, York would play host to shows at Scarcroft Allotments and Clements Hall.
After making the decision not to tour in light of the pandemic, Mikron took Arts Council England’s advice and have been helping the community in their home village of Marsden, near Huddersfield.
Coronavirus-cancelled canine comedy capers: MIkron Theatre Company’s poster for A Dog’s Tale
To do so, they have repurposed their office and van to assist with the village Covid-19 mutual aid group Marsden Help and have delivered hundreds of food parcels and prescriptions to self-isolating and vulnerable families.
“We’re so incredibly sad not to be touring,” says Marianne. “In the early stages of the Coronavirus outbreak we looked at every possible combination, but none of them were practical.
“What I would not give to see Mikron performing at a canalside venue to a large crowd with the sun setting behind us. We see the same faces in different places year on year and we really miss them but the safety of the cast and crew, venues and, of course, our loyal audiences, had to come first.”
Based in the village of Marsden, at the foot of the Yorkshire Pennines, Mikron tour on board a vintage narrowboat, Tyseley, putting on shows in “places that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of”.
It could be a play about growing-your-own, staged at allotments; a play abuzz with bees, performed next to hives, or a play where the chips are down, served up in a fish and chip restaurant. Add to that list a play celebrating hostelling, booked into YHA Youth hostels and the story of the RNLI, launched from several lifeboat stations on the coast.
Mikron Theatre Company’s summer mode of transport: Tyseley, a vintage narrowboat. Picture: Jon Gascoyne
Since Mikron formed in 1972, they have:
Written 64 original shows;
Composed 384 songs;
Issued 236 actor-musician contracts;
Spent 30,000 boating hours on the inland waterways;
Covered 530,000 road miles;
Performed 5,060 times;
Played to 428,000 people.
For further information and to donate to the appeal to keep Yorkshire’s narrowboat theatre company afloat, visit mikron.org.uk/appeal. Donations also can be sent to Mikron Theatre, Marsden Huddersfield, HD7 6BW.
Atalanta Forever…but not now for 2020 after Mikron Theatre Company called off the tour of Amanda Whittington’s new play
MIKRON Theatre Company 2020’s tour of Amanda Whittington’s new women’s
football play, Atalanta Forever, is off. The referee showing the red card is,
inevitably, Coronavirus Pandemic.
The tour would have opened at the National Football Museum, Manchester,
on April 18, and waiting in the wings was a June 2 visit to the Marsden
travelling players’ regular York idyll of the Scarcroft Allotments, kick-off at
6pm.
Also falling foul of COVID-19’s Governmental advice to avoid unnecessary
social contact is Mikron’s second show of the summer, Poppy Hollman’s new play A
Dog’s Tale, a celebration of canines past and present that explores the
enduring love between people and their dogs.
This exploration of “the extraordinary world of heroic hounds,
pampered pedigrees and naughty nobblers through the halls and history of Crufts”
was bound for Clements Hall, York, in the autumn, with a cast of Mikron stalwart
James McLean, company newcomer Thomas Cotran and Rachel Benson and
Elizabeth Robin from last year’s brace of shows, All Hands On Deck and Redcoats.
In a statement from artistic director Marianne McNamara, producer
Pete Toon, general manager Rachel Root, production manager Jo English and the board
of trustees, Mikron say: “It is with an extremely heavy hearts that we have to
tell you that we are cancelling our 2020 tour.
“We have worked on every possible scenario and this
is the only way that we will survive into our 50th year of touring in 2021.
“Our board has a duty of care for our team, venues
and Mikron supporters. We want you all to know that we are thinking of you, and
indeed everyone who is part of the Mikron family, in these very difficult
times.”
Mikron Theatre Company’s summer mode of transport: Tyseley, a vintage narrowboat. Picture: Jon Gascoyne
The statement continues: “If you’ve already booked
tickets for our 2020 season – thank you! – we will honour any ticket refunds:
just call or email if you would like us to action this.
“Like many theatre lovers across the world, if you
feel that you wish to donate your ticket price to help us come back better than
ever in 2021, we’d be so very grateful.
“If you haven’t booked, but you were planning on
seeing us in 2020, you can support Mikron now in the following ways:
Mikron praise Arts Council England for being “amazing”
“They are doing everything they can to assist the arts, museums and libraries.
We genuinely would not be here without them today,” they say.
“We have been able to cushion the financial blow
for our creative team as much as possible, and we’re planning for next year in
the hope that what we collectively do in the coming months gets us there.
Coronavirus-cancelled canine comedy capers: MIkron Theatre Company’s poster for A Dog’s Tale
“If there is anything else we can do for you,
please do keep in touch. We may not be out on the road and waterways this year
but we’re still very much here for you on email, and at the end of the phone.”
From the writer of Ladies Day, Ladies Day Down Under and Mighty Atoms
for Hull Truck Theatre and Bollywood Jane for the West Yorkshire Playhouse,
Atalanta Forever tells the story of pioneering women footballers in 1920.
In post-war Britain, women’s football is big news. Across the country,
all-girl teams are pulling huge crowds in fund-raising games for wounded
soldiers.
Huddersfield amateurs Ethel and Annie take a shot at the big time.
Teammates at Atalanta AFC, they are soon tackling new football skills,
mastering the offside rule and kicking back at the doubters.
This summer’s audiences would have been invited to “come and cheer for
Atalanta as our plucky underdogs learn how to play the game, take on the
legendary teams of the era and find the toughest opponent of all is the
Football Association”.
Whittington’s play is based on the true story of one of three women’s
football teams in Huddersfield in post-war Britain. As told through the lives
of two young women, Atalanta Ladies Football Club was formed in 1920 to
“provide games for the women of Huddersfield, to foster a sporting spirit, and
a love of honour among its members”.
During the Great War, several women’s football teams had sprung up
around the country, usually based in factories or munitions works, and proved a
great success in raising money for hospitals, war widows and so on.
Atalanta Forever playwright Amanda Whittington
The popularity of the women’s game may be measured by the estimated
25,000 crowd that packed Hillsborough, Sheffield, for the Huddersfield
team’s next game with the Dick, Kerr Ladies FC of Preston on May
4, when they lost 4-0 to their much more experienced opponents.
In the wider football world, the growing popularity of women’s football
was now causing concern. The FA even saw it as taking support away from the
men’s game and on December 5, 1921, they banned women’s teams from using FA
affiliated grounds.
Before folding in 1924, the pioneering Huddersfield Atalanta
Ladies FC had raised more than £2,000 for various charities.
Writer and co-lyricist Whittington says of her new play: “I
was an 11-year-old footballer in the 1980s, the only girl who played in the
boys’ village tournament, and I vividly remember being ‘advised’ to stop
because it wasn’t appropriate.
“I still
feel the injustice and the sense of shame for wanting to do something I wasn’t
meant to.
“It brings
joy to my heart to see football’s now the biggest team sport for girls in
Britain. I wanted to write about the battle the women’s game has fought
to survive and prosper – and perhaps to tell the 11-year-old me she was
right?”
A newly prescient poster for Mikron Theatre Company’s 2018 tour of Get Well Soon. How we need all those heroes in our NHS in the months ahead, God bless you all
Atalanta
Forever was being directed by Mikron artistic director Marianne McNamara, joined
in the production team by composer and co-lyricist Kieran Buckeridge, musical
director Rebekah Hughes and designer Celia Perkins.
Explaining why Mikron chose to tackle the subject of the fight
for women’s football, McNamara says: “Women’s football is making a comeback and
not before time. We are thrilled to pay homage to the trailblazing Huddersfield
women that paved the way against all odds.
“Just like
the great game itself, this will be an action-packed play of two halves, full
of live music, fun and laughter with no plans for extra time!”
Mikron’s 49th year of touring would have run from April 18 to October,
with the West Yorkshire company travelling hither and thither by road in the
spring and autumn, and by river and canal on the vintage narrowboat Tyseley, until October 24.
Let us look
forward to whenever Mikron will be putting on their shows once more in “places
that other theatre companies wouldn’t dream of”, whether a play about
growing-your-own veg, presented in allotments; one about bees performed
next to hives; another about chips in a fish and chips restaurant, as well as
plays about hostelling in YHA youth hostels and
the RNLI at several lifeboat stations around the UK.
In the meantime, in the spirit of Mikron’s 2018 show by York
writer Ged Cooper, please world, Get Well Soon.
