The New Theatre and the Playhouse have long been the top venues for stage shows in Oxford.

But we mustn’t forget the vital role that Pegasus Theatre has played in giving young aspiring actors and actresses the chance to perform.

It began as the Oxford Youth Theatre working in the old school meals service building in Magdalen Road.

It outgrew its original breeze block building and now boasts a striking new purpose-built venue which opened in 2010.

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Picture 1 takes us back to the old days, to 1982 when six long-legged dancers performed in a production of the musical Cabaret.

Oxford Mail:

They were members of the Studio Theatre Club and played the high-kicking girls of the Kit Kat Klub, entertainers who provided a frenzied escape for people living in bankrupt Berlin in 1929.

The dancers were captured by Oxford Mail photographer Chris Love outside the theatre, much to the delight of passersby.

Picture 2 shows a scene of violence from a play called Penal Settlement performed over three nights in 1982.

Oxford Mail:

Claire Doole, left, Peter Coates, right and Sally Smith, face down, were among those taking part.

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The play was one of the winners in a Playwright of the Year contest promoted by Oxford Polytechnic and the Oxford Star, the Oxford Mail’s former free newspaper.

Teenage terrorism took to the stage in 1984 in a dramatic showing of the Barrie Keeffe play, Gotcha. Timm Ebbs and David McManus are seen in one scene in Picture 3.

Oxford Mail:

A school rebel, played by 16-year-old Timm, holds two teachers hostage as he threatens to blow up the premises on the last day of term. He has innocently stumbled across two staff members, played by David McManus, 16, and Rachel Purves, 14, secretly kissing and cuddling in a science stock room where he keeps his motorbike.

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Oxford Mail:

There was more terror in Monkey Subdues the White Bone Demon. Looking suitably in fear in Picture 4 are, left to right, Philip Barrett, John Foley, Liz Harris and Michaela Young, all members of the Pegasus Youth Theatre.

Oxford Mail:

In Picture 5, Carol Vigurs, 11, is seen getting stuck into the part of a vampire in 1984.

Oxford Mail:

Picture 6 shows the whole cast singing at a production of Rebuilding Jerusalem in 1992.

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