A THEATRE in Reading is celebrating the success of its 10th anniversary and has released new figures from the last year.
Reading Repertory Theatre has marked 10 years since it was established by celebrating its success in a tough period for creative organisations.
The theatre’s 10th season saw a combination of new work and re-imagined classics shown to around 13,000 audience members.
Overall the company reached 27,000 people through its outreach and work experience programmes, as well as youth theatre, associate companies, and showings.
The theatre worked on more than 4,000 hours of free workshops to 1,000 people around Reading who were among the least likely to engage with the arts.
It also delivered a year-round work experience scheme to 60 students at Reading College, and five year-round workshop programmes to high-need participants such as those with learning disabilities and offenders.
It ran four year-round youth theatres as well as running an early years programme with Reading Libraries, 15 primary schools, 12 secondary schools, three colleges, and a university.
Its work on the stage garnered the company a nomination for The Stage Awards’ Fring Theatre of the Year and eight nominations in the BroadwayWorld UK/West End Awards.
This included a nomination for founding artistic director Paul Stacey for his direction of their recent production of Shakespeare’s R&J.
Looking to the future, Reading Rep has brought their world premier production of Jekyll and Hyde at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh until Saturday, January 27, ahead of a tour.
Reading Rep Founding Artistic Director Paul Stacey said of the the theatre’s recent nominations: “We are really thrilled to be short-listed for The Stage Awards for the second time in three years.
“Being recognised on a national level really puts Reading on the cultural map, and we hope the whole town can be proud of what we’ve achieved.
“This is all made possible by our wonderful and dedicated staff team, all the cast and creative teams, incredible workshop facilitators and freelancers, and, of course, our audience and participants.”
Full details of Reading Repertory Theatre’s upcoming shows are available via: readingrep.com
