welcome Welcome to our Autumn 2019 Season. I love the fact that many of our Patrons have been visiting our Theatre for years. Some of our most loyal supporters can remember the opening of our Theatre in 1936! A key part of my role is to ensure that we nurture and grow their love of the theatre in general, and this Theatre in particular, and to honour the astonishing history of our Institution. The best way we can do this is to continue to produce and present theatre of the highest calibre but it is also vital that we learn from, and celebrate, our rich and diverse theatrical heritage. We are very grateful to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who have awarded us a sizeable grant to help us record and preserve our history. We will be cataloguing our extensive archive which contains costumes, programmes, posters, set designs and much more besides. We will be training local volunteers to record oral histories from our supporters, old and young, to build a living archive of theatrical memories. Our collection will be available to view and we will be able to produce educational resources to inspire and inform school children in advance of them coming to see one of our productions. Permanent and temporary exhibitions within the Theatre will enable us to display the most cherished reminders of our heritage. Our history is important to us but it only matters if it inspires us to go to theatre anew, now and in the future. This season highlights our sustained efforts to inspire the next generation of theatregoers. Emma Rice’s new company Wise Children return with a musical adaptation of Enid Blyton’s classic Malory Towers. Oedipus at Colonus continues the tradition of the University Greek play which we are proud to present every three years. Astonishingly, despite being performed in Ancient Greek, it will attract students and school children from across the country and will play to sell out audiences. The Woman in Black returns to us once again and given the fact that it is both terrifying and on many school syllabi we are expecting coachloads of screaming school children! Dance students can choose to see the wildly popular BalletBoyz in their double bill Them/Us or to see the final performances of the wonderful Richard Alston Dance Company. A-level literature students will be able to look jealousy and revenge in the eye in our new production of Shakespeare’s Cambridge Arts Theatre is managed by The Cambridge Arts Theatre Trust Ltd. Registered in England No. 03536370 Registered Charity No. 1069912. Registered Office: 6 St Edward’s Passage, Cambridge CB2 3PJ VAT Registration No. 229 1368 04

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Othello or consider the meaning of coming of age in the breathtaking new production of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. The season finishes with the Olivier Awardwinning West End production of A Monster Calls which is a stunning theatrical adaptation of a wonderful novel. We are expecting huge numbers of school children to experience this devastating but uplifting tale about a young boy finding timeless wisdom as he faces tragic events at home. Truly, a must see. Finally, for the biggest production in our year, Cinderella, we are expecting to see around 10,000 school children, partly funded by our own in-house charity Panto Wheels, and another 12,000 children to be brought by their families. Panto is the greatest single recruiting sergeant for a lifetime of theatregoing. With our traditional in-house panto featuring laugh-out-loud comedy moments, dazzling song and dance numbers and the classic rags to riches tale of Cinderella, we are hoping to inspire a lifetime of theatregoing for thousands of Cambridgeshire youngsters. We are hugely blessed to have this wonderful Institution in our City. Those of us that work here feel very honoured to be able to look after our theatrical heritage and to hopefully continue to build new supporters for many years to come. We could not do it without your steadfast support so thank you, as ever, and I hope that I will see you again soon at Cambridge Arts Theatre. With my best wishes

Dave Murphy Chief Executive Cambridge Arts Theatre 6 St Edward’s Passage Cambridge CB2 3PJ Administration: 01223 578933

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