Celebrating 30 years of bringing high-quality theatre productions to the county and beyond, the much-loved OTTC are ringing the changes with a new name, Oxfordshire Theatre Company, and some new ideas, while still retaining what has made them such a highly-regarded ensemble.
In 1979, The Other Oxfordshire Theatre Two was founded as a community theatre by Jill Lamede and Patrick Sandford to “promote, improve and advance education of the public, in particular, those living in rural communities in the art and science of drama”, and these admirable aims have continued throughout the decades.
Changing their name to Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company in 1982, Peter Cooper was appointed first artistic director, and two years later they were on the roads beyond Oxon with their tour of The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Other artistic directors have included Daniel Buckroyd, Mollie Guilfoyle, Jeremy James and Brendan Murray. Each had a very distinctive style and the metamorphosis of the company over the years is one of its strongest features as it constantly engages the audiences in new ways. Comparing productions such as The Little Prince, People Are Living There, River’s Up or Hansel and Gretel, the only common denominators apparent are high production values and top entertainment.
The variety and innovation has been impressive — consider just a few of their landmark productions, such as Under Milk Wood, which integrated sign language in the show in a unique way; or The Falling Sky, grown from interviews with local people that gave voice to the concerns of the rural community. And I will never forget A Fishy Tale — at Hinksey’s outdoor swimming pool — where the very young audience got nearly as wet as the cast.
Working across the age ranges has been a growing part of their mission over the years. In 2001, they presented a large scale education project, ‘A Plan to Build’, which introduced town planning within a creative arena to about 1,000 Oxfordshire pupils.
This mega project was followed in 2003 by ‘Breaking News’, which saw 22 schools taking part. In 2002, they established a yearly production for older people in residential and care centres.
In 2006, this led to a special collaboration with the Oxfordshire Falls Prevention and Rehabilitation Service with the show Head Over Heels, which was performed to more than 1,300 vulnerable older people.
Over the years the company have delivered consistently both on an artistic and social level to Oxfordshire communities.
Their latest artistic director, Karen Simpson, was animated about this. “For me it’s been a wonderful experience working with our audiences, who are so appreciative of our work. I quickly realised how important it is to the county, and that taking such high-quality work out of Oxfordshire was something that the county is rightly proud.”
I agree. OTTC was a remarkable cultural flagship for work produced here — and Oxfordshire Theatre Company are all set to do the same.
The company are increasing their productions to four per year. The shows planned are Dancing in My Dreams, the Christmas show Peach Boy — a Japanese fairy tale — with Loving, by Melvyn Burgess, and A Handful of Henna coming along in 2010.
Touring from June 19, Dancing in My Dreams is a beautiful story inspired by the 3.5 million evacuees sent to the countryside during the Second World War. It features Kathleen, who comes from London to Oxfordshire to a couple who don’t really want her because she is Catholic and they are ‘chapel folk’.
But she has a passion for dancing, which she and her friend Monica use to escape into the dream world of Fred and Ginger.
With music from Irving Berlin etc, this show promises us songs, dances, and a real story about people’s experiences. Alongside are post-show talks and drop-in sessions to involve people who lived as kids through the war to talk about their experiences and perhaps pass them on to another generation.
It sounds like a great start to their next 30 years on the Oxfordshire roads.
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