In the late 1960s, I was fully occupied in learning to
live in Staffordshire, to fend for myself as a single person and to teach
English to 11–18 year olds. Coriolanus was my first A Level Shakespeare,
not the most appealing to the girls in my group. To the rescue came Alan David,
actor from the Vic, part of Peter Cheeseman’s plan to build the relationship
between theatre and school. The academic advantages were bountiful and my
status was enhanced by my introduction of a ‘dishy’ male.
The late 1970s and 80s were dominated by money raising
for the new theatre: meetings, covenants, raffles, Open Days, Family Nature
Days, collecting at the Potteries Marathons, a Grand Auction, a New Vic Recipe
Book: you name it, we did it. For me, the most important event was in October
1989 - I married T F Evans. We had a celebratory lunch in the New Vic
restaurant with champagne, courtesy of a startled marketing department. Tom
joined me as a dedicated stuffer, vol and audience member.
Last year I went to visit a niece Jane, who lives in
South West France. She took me to tea with an English couple who were trying to
learn French later in life. Once upon a time (in fact in 1974) John, whose
profession had been sound effects for films, had been at the Vic during the
preparations for Fight For Shelton Bar. He was sent alone to the
steelworks where he found the noise and the heat terrifying. Recently I tried
to establish the date of the documentary. The garage, source of much theatre
memorabilia, produced a 9 page booklet, Fight For Shelton Bar, but no
date. I shook it impatiently and a Sentinel cutting fell out – Friday
March 15th 1974. What the booklet did reveal was a page of
Acknowledgements. Under ‘Design and Technical Staff’ appears the name John
Pakenham (Design Assistant).
Frances Evans, Ages and Stages Theatre Company
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