What a fantastic year 2012 has been! We thought we’d take this opportunity to look back on the Space highlights!
Way back in January this year, the newly formed community theatre company, WorkSpace Productions staged Steven Berkoff’s The Trial to full houses, whilst our fundraising committee hosted a successful Bad Luck Cabaret on Friday 13th.
February saw the return of Fifteen Festival participants, Leering Falcon Theatre with the full length version of their sex-trafficking in the Olympics play (…act like it never happened). One Stop Arts described the piece as ‘bizarrely engaging’ and having ‘a creative impudence that must be admired.’
March was all about two major events. The first was the staging of our most ambitious in-house production to date – The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (parts one and two) had a 25-strong cast and was so long you had to come and see it over two nights (unless you were brave enough to do a marathon Saturday!). The show received Off-West End nominations for Best Ensemble and Best Director. We also said farewell to our SpaceWorks Company Manager, Alex Crampton, who had for the last three years shaped the community theatre engagement project so magnificently.
April saw the start of the fourth year of SpaceWorks despite the end of the funding for the project. Contributions from participants allied with the dedicated efforts of our fundraising committee have enabled us to continue providing creative opportunities for our local residents in these financially difficult times.
In May we were well and truly taken over by the amazing Lazarus Theatre Company’s Bard Rep Season. King Lear and As You Like It were performed on a purpose-built hexagonal stage and Entertainment Focus described them as ‘brilliantly imaginative.’
In June we celebrated the birth of Artistic Director, Adam Hemming’s first child, Phoebe May whilst WorkSpace Productions staged their second production – A Matter of Life and Death.
July brought exciting new company Blind Tiger to the Space with their murder mystery piece A Life in Monochrome. Theatre Reviews London called it ‘360 degree theatre at it’s most atmospheric…the Speakeasy is brought to life in all its seamy decadence.’
A quiet August (well, there was a lot going on in London that month!) was enlivened by local playwright and director Steven Shawcroft’s triptych on modern society, Class in Session, Teach Me.
Joseph C Walsh has directed many fine productions at the Space and he returned in September with producer Darren Batten with the truly memorable Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens. Marking both the 20th anniversary of the original London production and the 25th anniversary of the start of the AIDS Memorial Quilt which inspired the writing of the piece, Elegies was a joyous and poignant show that deservedly received rave reviews and big audiences. The clever use of the Space prompted reviewers to mention the venue more than they normally would, we were described as ‘small but perfectly formed’ (The Stage), ‘a venue that is definitely worth visiting’ (Everything Theatre) and ‘a rather unique, very quirky venue.’ (Bargain Theatreland).
October brought WorkSpace Productions third offering, Frankenstein which was promptly followed up by our gala fundraising event, the Midnight Masquerade Ball. Some fabulous outfits, entertaining performances and some impressive stamina made it a night (and early morning) to remember!
In November we hosted C-12 Dance Theatre’s showcase Emerge, a beautiful, energetic and imaginative collection of physical theatre and dance. A hugely successful run and a company we hope to see more of in 2013.
And finally, in December, our second in-house production of the year also received two Off-West End award nominations. Sebastian Rex, playwright and director of Fulfil Me Fully, Phil was nominated Most Promising New Writer whilst Faye Bradley picked up a nomination for Best Costume Design.
The year was ended, as always, with a packed house for the London Docklands Singers’ Christmas Concert. For the second year running we managed to raise our highest amount for the CRISIS charity since the annual concerts began.
There have been many more events (1 short of our record for most events in a year), workshops and showcases in the last year that we don’t have room to mention here. We sold over 5,000 tickets for only the third time in our history, hosted our 2000th event and welcomed our 50,000th audience member.
We’d like to say a big thank you to our Centre Manager, Mari Rettedal-Westlake, who has now been with us for 5 years, to all our wonderful staff and volunteers, performers and audience members, tutors and workshop participants, trustees, patrons and funders.
2012 will live long in the memory for many reasons and we look forward to an equally successful 2013!