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| Photo by Max Mosscrop |
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| Photo by David Rankin |
This note was originally posted April 2007 when I began the site.
In the mid 1990's I became involved as a volunteer with the Theatre Royal Margate. I loved the place so much that, when I was made redundant from my previous retail furnishing management job, I started to spend more and more time there. Within a year of losing one job, I had a new one as Marketing Manager of the Theatre Royal, for over five years it's been the best job I've ever had!
But as you may know, at the end of March 2007, the Theatre Royal was purchased by Thanet District Council, one of the conditions of the sale was that all the staff were to be made redundant (five full time plus assorted casuals and volunteers) as it would be closing for six months and changing it's programming to more community based product.
As of today(April 11th, coincidentally my 55th birthday) , I have left the theatre but the theatre has not left me, so I plan over the next few months/years to use this site as a celebration of this amazing building. I will be using some of the personal archive that I have collected, purchased or researched in my own time, to help preerve the long and glorious history of one of the oldest theatres in the country.
But let's start at the end of the current chapter in it's multi faceted life. Below are a few pictures of some of the staff and volunteers after the final public performance at 'their' Theatre Royal on Easter Monday April 9th 2007.
This site is dedicated to all those who gave their time and enthusiasm to try to make a dream work, let's hope it wasn't in vain!
11 comments:
i read with interest about auntie pat being intered in the wall back stage but their is no mention of the person who put her there.i would like put that right.it was me.
i read your bit about pat with interest. but do you know the person who buried her.it was me.
Thanks for the update Fred, I'll add it to the entry.
David
David
Gosh I truly feel honoured to be part of your Theatre Royal Archive blog! Good luck in the Sarah Thorne Theatre Club adventure! Until we meet again, Maggie
Will there be any more?
Just to let everybody know that the Summer edition of OLD THEATRES magazine is about to be distributed. The article by our Editor, Ted Bottle, on the Theatre Royal, Margate, looks absolutely fabulous with eleven pictures (two of them in colour). Its a wonderful thing to keep for all time and to pass on to your grandchildren. For your copy, please E Mail oldtheatres@googlemail.com
Yes I was Chief Electrician , from when we re-openned the Theatre in 88 til its close in 91 After the Theatre closed, we managed to get it open for one more show, the dimmers were on and the board was off and the lights began to flash occasionally so we called out me and Joy is that you Auntie Pat ! and they flashed :)
But the other thing I wanted to mention was the main reason that Theatre stayed open for so long was because of the staff, even though we could not rely on being paid for all the hours we did. we carried on regardless.
Can anyone help me date a 16mm home movie please? It is definately from the 1930s and contains shots of Margate sea front and Dreamland Amusement Park, and also some shots at Margate station. At the station, there is a poster advertising a production of Rookery Nook at the Theatre Royal. Does anyone know what year that would be? Someone had written 1933 on the box but I would like to find out for definate. Thanks!
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