Abstract
This chapter analyses how amateur theatre contributes to making places and building communities. Building on ideas about the cultural value of amateur theatre raised in Chap. 2, this chapter traces the historical connection between amateur theatre and the utopian vision of the Garden City Movement, where amateur theatre was seen as a mechanism of social integration in newly constructed towns. The chapter revisits the first two Garden Cities, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, to raise questions about how far, and in what ways, this idealism remains in today’s amateur theatre companies. Moving the debate to productions in London’s suburbs and in Norwich, the chapter examines questions of social exclusion and community, arguing that an emotional attachment to amateur theatre-making creates a sense of place and belonging.
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15 February 2019
The book was inadvertently published without the names of the chapter authors in the table of contents and the chapter opening pages. This has now been updated.
Notes
- 1.
We are aware that BAME is a contested term on the grounds that it assumes a white norm. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ethnicity-labels-are-divisive-says-phillips-qptswxk3l93. Accessed 25 June 2018. In this instance, it is used to refer to official data and documents, where the term is still regularly used.
- 2.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510798/DCMS_The_Culture_White_Paper__3_.pdf, p. 30. Accessed 24 July 2016.
- 3.
Launched as a pilot in 2017, Great Place Scheme aims to meet ‘local social and economic objectives’. https://www.greatplacescheme.org.uk/. Accessed 31 July 2016.
- 4.
Interview Alex Wrightson with Erin Walcon, Birmingham, 5 March 2015.
- 5.
http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/. Accessed 12 August 2017.
- 6.
Interview Kevin Spence with Molly Flynn, Jane Milling and Helen Nicholson. Doncaster, 14 June 2016.
- 7.
See https://www.noda.org.uk/regions/london; http://littletheatreguild.org/. Accessed 25 Aug 2017.
- 8.
Interview Helen Nicholson with John Lewis, Letchworth Garden City, 9 November 2015.
- 9.
Cited in Brunt, A. W. (1942) The Pageant of Letchworth. Letchworth: Letchworth Printers p. 106. http://lgcs.org.uk/pageant/pagej06.htm. Accessed 28 Dec 2017.
- 10.
For a more detailed account of Edith Craig’s involvement with amateur theatre, see Cockin, Katharine Edith Craig (1869–1847): Dramatic Lives London: Cassell.
- 11.
For a more detailed discussion see Meacham (1999: 142–143).
- 12.
SPADS have since been re-named as the Song, Pantomime and Drama Society, thereby maintaining their acronym, and loosening it from its Christian roots.
- 13.
- 14.
www.gardencitiesinstitute.com. Accessed 12 June 2016.
- 15.
http://www.letchworth.com/sites/default/files/attachments/key_issues_report_part_two.pdf. Accessed 6 May 2017.
- 16.
http://cultureandsportplanningtoolkit.org.uk/case-studies-and-examples/case-studies/letchworth-garden-city-cultural-quarter.html; The development attracted a major Arts Council grant in 2014. http://www.letchworth.com/heritage-foundation/news/arts-council-awards-major-grant-for-new-arts-programme/. Accessed 10 May 2017.
- 17.
- 18.
http://www.totalengagementconsulting.com/blog/tag/appealing-theatre-company/. Accessed 16 June 2018.
- 19.
Gray, Cara. 2017. A Study of Amateur Theatre: Making and Making-Do. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Royal Holloway, University of London. See also Penny, Sarah and Cara Gray 2017. The Materialities of Amateur Theatre. In Contemporary Theatre Review, 27, 1:104–123, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2016.1262850
- 20.
http://www.barntheatre.co.uk/comedy-at-the-barn/event/202141. Accessed 16 June 2018.
- 21.
Interview Helen Nicholson with Judith Claxton, The Barn, Welwyn Garden City. 21 April 2015.
- 22.
Interview Helen Nicholson with Lou Wallace, Hitchin. 15 May 2015.
- 23.
Interview Helen Nicholson with Robert Gill, The Barn. Welwyn Garden City 17 April 2016.
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Nicholson, H., Holdsworth, N., Milling, J. (2018). Amateur Theatre, Place and Place-Making. In: The Ecologies of Amateur Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50810-2_4
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