Stephen Joseph Theatre: 2001

This page contains a more detailed guide to significant events concerning the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in 2001.

2001

  • March: The Orange Tree, Richmond, and the SJT announce they will be collaborating on new productions with plays transferring between the two venues.
  • 24 February: The first amateur season at the SJT is launched with concerts and plays culminating in the National Student Drama Festival. This short-lived initiative only lasts the year despite the company's founder, Stephen Joseph, being a champion and supporter of amateur theatre when the company was founded in Scarborough in 1955.
  • Spring: Martin Tepper is appointed Theatre Manager
  • 10 May: The world premiere of Clockwatching by Torben Betts opens the spring season, the first of the Orange Tree collaborations and directed by Sam Walters.
  • 24 May: The world premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's GamePlan, the first of the Damsels in Distress trilogy which Ayckbourn hopes will re-introduce a repertory company to the theatre with one acting company presenting three plays on the same set.
  • 5 June: World premiere of Amaretti Angels by Sarah Phelps, who will notably go on to a hugely successful writing career for stage and screen.
  • 4 July: Platform talk with the former Government Minister and writer Edwina Currie.
  • Summer: Whilst the intention of 2000 was to stage a retrospective of 20th century plays (which didn't actually happen), this was to be followed in 2001 by a summer of world premieres, which was far more successful. The years included world premieres of Torben Betts' Clockwatching, Alan Ayckbourn's Damsels in Distress trilogy, Whispers Along the Patio by David Cregan, Secondhad Dreams by Liz John, Amaretti Angels by Sarah Phelps nd Robert Shearman's Inappropriate Behaviour.
  • 2 August: The Gallery's new exhibition Portraits by Eamonn McCabe celebrates one of the country's top photographers.
  • 12 - 16 August: The second Ayckbourn and the Round theatre school.
  • Summer: The Restaurant appoints a new head chef, Alasdair McNeil.
  • 29 September: Launch of Alan Ayckbourn's biography Grinning at the Edge with a platform talk with the author Paul Allen and Alan Ayckbourn.
  • 1 October: The Gallery's new exhibition Looking Back is a collaboration with the Scarborough Evening News with photos drawn from the newspaper's archives.
  • 10 November: Platform talk with Nigel Planer.
  • 11 November: Scarborough Jazz Festival utilises the SJT as one of its venue for the first and last time.
Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.