Today (March 27) marks World Theatre Day, celebrating the history of performance arts and theatres, but also reminding us of the need for performance arts.
And every years thousands of residents visit theatres across Salford, including the Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays.
But it wasn’t until December 1900, that Salford welcomed its first theatre in the city, the Victoria Theatre, with a performance of William Greet’s ‘Sign of The Cross’.
Since the first performances in Victoria Theatre, the arts across has continued to grow – and has played home to thousands of productions and world renowned actors from The Rocky Horror Show and Blood Brothers, to appearances from Tracy Ann Oberman and Harry Hill.
And throughout these wide variety of stories, audiences have been able to laugh but also reflect on issues that exist in society.
The power theatre has allow people in the community to grow and be educated about current issues, and normalising and giving a platform to problems that exist in the modern day.
Theatre also has the ability to bring people together, not only to discuss issues, but gathering 100s of like-minded people into a room at once.
In a world of editing and AI created media, theatre brings a raw and ever evolving talent right in front of your eyes, with no second takes or opportunities for a cut.
Despite the script being the same every night of a tour or run on the west end, each performance of a theatre show is unique and different, something you don’t find through film or online media.
Theatre, among other art forms, has been proven to be therapeutic and relieve stress. Theatre offers a comforting place to someone other than yourself – allow residents to immerse themselves into another character and become something that you’re not.
There is even a process called Drama Therapy in which a person acts out roles in front of a therapist that would help them with self-awareness and become aware of their emotions and project them into the characters they play.
Salford based theatre student Caitlin Elliott shared the importance of theatres being available and active, she said: “It’s important for students to have theatres and for them to be accessible because if your studying theatre you want to be able to go and explore your art, you want to be able to go and feel that sense of community.”
“You go to the theatre and meet like minded people, and we’re really losing that now with all these theatres being shut down and the price of going to the theatre is so ridiculously unattainable that students are unable to go which causes to not study what they want to study.”
Cailtin continued: “A lot less people are going into the arts sector, despite the arts sector bringing around so much money for the UK economy.”
Since Covid-19 lockdowns, a rapid decline in those attending theatres and the overall demand for live theatre shows has heavily impacted the funding for the mainly old buildings, leading to mass closing of theatres across the country due to lack of funding for repairs.
The Empty Space based in Salford has ‘Liverpool Theatre School hiring the theatre on World Theatre Day (27 March), showcasing students and the performers of the future.’
A spokesperson from The Empty Space said: “The North West is fortunate to have various colleges offering performing arts training of a high calibre (Pendleton College on our doorstep is a prime example) and it’s important that they have access to venues for their work.”
“It’s equally important that audiences have access to a wide range of theatre so local venues are key in providing opportunities for diverse entertainment.”
Tickets for the Lowry Theatre productions are available on their website https://thelowry.com/ alongside tickets available for The Empty Space’s upcoming productions here https://theemptyspace.live/
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