Welcome to our Theatre Makes Life Better Blog!
At AboutFACE, we believe theatre makes life better.
We asked some of our company, cast members and colleagues to share their stories about how theatre has made their lives better. About how a show inspired them, how a theatre made them feel welcome and warmed their hearts, how seeing an amazing set made them smile, a crazy but wonderful experience performing in a play, a playwright's beating heart the first time their show was produced, about how it has made their hearts beat faster and made them feel more alive.
Here are some of their stories ...
here did my love of theatre and words come from? My mother. She’d deliberately use long words and make me guess what they meant or use the dictionary. She took me to lunchtime performances of Shakespeare comedies in the Peacock when I was nine but I also vividly remember seeing Mike Leigh’s play Abigail’s Party …
’m nine, living in a small town, in Far North Queensland, Australia. My parents have all but given up on finding me an afternoon activity that will get me out of Mum’s florist shop so she can make her bouquets (while simultaneously taking my nose out of a book, and placing it somewhere with kids …
remember seeing Wreck the Airline Barrier by the Riot Group at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999. The tiny, black-walled airless room at the old (and now sadly defunct) Garage Theatre. The audience crammed in. The air hot and thick. I was perched on a radiator at the back of the room – a prime position …
returned to playwriting after a lapse of a number of ill-spent years becoming a lawyer and practicing law. The first play I wrote took place in a pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, over two days in the midst of a great Nor’easter. The script called wistfully for the snow falling outside to be visible through the …
s a fella from Tipperary who’s shambled around New York stages as an actor for well over 20 years, a number of instances come to mind in which I would say wholeheartedly that theatre makes life better, but one especially comes to mind. A few years ago, I was cast in a play in the …
he last time I was in front of a live audience was at the National Theatre in London, a year or so ago, in a show called Lost Without Words. It was part of an experiment devised by Improbable, a theatre company started by Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson, 2 stand-up comics with a passion …
In a world where things are rapidly changing and uncertainty reigns supreme, we thought we’d share some stories from our friends about how theatre has made their lives better. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have. Happy World Theatre Day 2020!