Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Reborn: Bradford Playhouse

Before we go behind-the-scenes at the Playhouse, a quick question: what do you think these people have in common?

• Peter Firth, who's played many leading roles on stage and screen but who is now very familiar to TV audiences as Harry in Spooks.
• Thelma Barlow: Mavis in Coronation Street and Dolly in Dinnerladies, to name just two of the many parts she has played over the years.
• Duncan Preston: Another Dinnerladies star, and much else besides.
• Billie Whitelaw: Favourite actress of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, she's appeared in everything from Jackanory to Hot Fuzz - and she also appears on the cover of a single by The Smiths!
• Tony Richardson: Oscar-winning film director with credits ranging from Look Back in Anger to Charge of the Light Brigade and father of actors Natasha and Joely Richardson.
• James Hill, director of the lion film, Born Free.

You've probably guessed by now that they all first trod the boards at Bradford Playhouse!

Full house @ the Playhouse!

Over the years, the Playhouse has seen its fair share of upcoming stars strutting their stuff on the stage, and it's experienced some low points too. Angela Curtis has been involved with the theatre for the past 30 years, for the last 20 years she's been in charge of the Wardrobe there and she has many memories of the Playhouse's ups and downs. She particularly remembers one night in 1996 - a night when it looked as though everything might be going up in smoke: "We were very fortunate we had a safety curtain. It was just after a performance of the classic Greek drama Lysistrata and it was on a Friday night. Somebody needed to pop back to the stage to collect something and discovered the fire...We got everybody out of the building so they didn't come to any harm but I can't say the same for the theatre. The fire went straight up and everything from about four feet above the stage just went."

Luckily what might have been the end for Bradford Playhouse was instead used as an opportunity to refurbish the theatre and restore it to its original Art Deco style. Re-opened on November 1st 1997 it also got a new name, The Priestley Centre for the Arts, honouring Bradford-born writer and broadcaster J.B. Priestley who had been the theatre's first President. It was re-opened by Priestley's son, Tom, and the first play was his father's classic thriller An Inspector Calls.

Angela Curtis was amongst those who were in favour of changing the name because of the part the Priestley family played in setting up what began as an amateur dramatic society in the 1920s. Angela says of Priestley: "He had had some success but he was not the great figure of English drama that he went on to become, and his sister Winnie was the first Hon Sec...Quite a few of his plays were premiered here and in his will he left us the rights to perform them without having to pay royalties, which is very nice." Unlike her brother, Winnie still lived in the city and also had acting roles in the society's productions.

Inspiration: JB Priestley

Perhaps it's not entirely surprising, then, that in 2001 a forgotten play by Priestley, The Rebel - which had only been performed once back in the 1930s - together with some letters from Priestley to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ were discovered in a cupboard in the theatre!

In the early days of the dramatic society the players performed where they could across the city. In the 1930s a chapel burned down on what is now the edge of Little Germany and was replaced by a purpose-built theatre. Back then, the main activity was amateur actors putting on plays although Angela points out that films were also shown there for very many years: "In the 1950s it got known as a place for 'funny' films. They were art house, they weren't porn!"

Drama classes were also provided. Angela remembers speaking to someone now recently retired who went to the drama classes as a little girl: "Her mum was one of the early leading ladies. She wanted to go to the theatre as well." Today, Bradford Stage and Theatre School is still going strong.

Angela in the Playhouse Wardrobe

Over the years Bradford Playhouse has provided a home for those wanting to learn a variety of theatre skills or just be involved in the theatre. For Angela, the Playhouse provided her with an opportunity to develop her own particular interests in a way she could never have imagined: "I've always sewn because I'm tall and when I was a teenager in the 1960s I had to start sewing when I grew because I couldn't buy a mini skirt long enough to cover my knickers so I had to make one an inch longer...I never envisaged getting involved in theatre. I just envisaged sewing for myself but I got asked to help by the wardrobe mistress when I first joined and soon I was it. I've made all sorts of things since then."

Angela's done far more than that, though. In fact, she has created a treasure trove of costume within the theatre. She's found many of the clothes here in charity shops - she's particularly pleased with a 1930s evening dress she bought in Oxfam for 99p - but other creations have been all her own work. A set of costumes she made for a Restoration comedy are probably her particular favourites: "It was a big job but they certainly looked nice when they were done." Asked if she's ever wanted to tread the boards herself, Angela says: "I'm far too valuable to waste on acting." (To take a look at what's in Bradford Playhouse's wardrobe just click on the link at the bottom of this page!)

Stage-struck?: Bradford Playhouse

Bradford Playhouse may have been the first step to stardom for a few but over the years,Μύfrom steward to stage hand, it's provided a wide variety of roles for very many people. Megan Wilson, for instance, began coming to the theatre for drama classes when she was ten, later on she helped Angela with the costumes and now she works as a theatre technician. For Angela, it's been a very satisfying experience: "It boosted my confidence when I first came here. I'd been made redundant, I was very low and found somewhere where I could do something and realise I was doing a good job and get the recognition I was doing a good job."

And now, once again, things are changing at the theatre. The present administrators are specialists in corporate recovery and an arts consultant is helping to develop a more diverse role for the building. Go on a weekday morning, the sort of time you would expect a theatre to be at least quiet if not 'dark', and you'll find it is a hive of activity! Among other things it's providing a home and resources for various projects including work on a cartoon and live action presentation which it's hoped will eventually be developed into a drama. It seems that The Priestley has been reborn once again, this timeΜύas Bradford Playhouse - it's even started to show films again, something it's not done since the 1996 fire.

Prom Queen: Sarah searches the wardrobe

Angela Curtis's collection is especially in demand just now with those looking for fancy dress or period costume. Anyone who wants to go along to the annual Haworth World War II Weekend need look no further, and today Sarah from Hanson School in Bradford is hoping to find an evening dress for her school prom. Angela says she's optimistic about the theatre's future and doesn't want to think of Bradford without its Playhouse: "It would leave a great big hole in the lives of a lot of people because I firmly believe the arts are one of the things that make life worth living. You can support a tedious job and your life not being the greatest if you've got an outlet to enrich it, and theatre and the arts are things that can do that. It's something you can do all your life."

Want to take a look at the amazing collection of costumes in Bradford Playhouse's wardrobe? Click on the link below to get just a taster of all the clothes Angela has to choose from...