‘The curtain rises again’: 20 years ago at the New Wolsey

4 Sep 2020 News

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Have you known the New Wolsey Theatre since the beginning? Do you remember the iconic lime-green seats? Are you looking forward to our 20th birthday on 1st February 2021, the anniversary of our first performance?

We’re delighted to have stumbled across an old newspaper article from the East Anglian Daily Times, dated twenty years ago this week, when six members of staff had their first day of work in the theatre since the Wolsey became the New Wolsey. After a twenty-two-month hibernation, the building was re-opened on 4th September 2000, by our Chief Executive, Sarah Holmes. Looking at the image of the six members of staff standing smiling in front of the building, with ‘Wolsey Theatre’ displayed in block letters above the doors in the coolest of retro styles, it seems as though both so much and so little has changed.

These twenty years at the buzzing New Wolsey hive have been amazing – full of pantomimes, shows, youth theatres, Ramps on the Moon, Story Maker, workshops (the list goes on!) – and it’s not time to stop now. As we face the current coronavirus crisis, we can’t help but think how relevant and hopeful the heading of Andrew Clarke’s article is at this moment in time – ‘the curtain rises again.’ Reappearing at the right time, this article uplifts, inspires and reminds us all that the New Wolsey has made a come-back before and we can do it again.

 

If you would like to make a donation to the New Wolsey Theatre, please click here.

 

Article shown in the image: Andrew Clarke, ‘After 22 months, the curtain rises again,’ East Anglian Daily Times, 5 Sept 2000.

 

Here are those green seats we mentioned! Remember those?