For the last month, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch has been asking its audiences‎ about their experience of lockdown. The Theatre has received over 1,000 responses – online and by phone – each of them by turn, surprising, funny, moving and ultimately full of hope.

Now the Theatre is placing those stories firmly centre stage in its empty auditorium, reflecting them back in a loving patchwork of encounters that share the collective voice of an extraordinary community.

Superstitions about ghostlights allow echoes of former actors to perform in a theatre that’s closed, where the stage is empty. But what happens when one such ghost has been waiting for her much loved audience to return? Join us and see…

Attend the Theatre online on one of three evenings only‎, for a special and unique short event – at 7.30pm on Wednesday 24, Thursday 25 or Friday 26 June.

If joining the event, please consider making a minimum donation of £10, by text, online or phone, more if you feel able. Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch will be using those donations to enable future creative and community projects when the doors re-open – and the theatre ghosts move on!

To donate to the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, visit www.queens-theatre.co.uk, or make a donation by text:

QTH 10 to 70085 to donate £10

QTH 15 to 70085 to donate £15

QTH 20 to 70085 to donate £20

UK networks only. Texts cost donation amount plus one standard rate message.

Here I Am

Live online at 7.30pm on Wednesday 24, Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June only

The event will last 35 minutes and can be accessed via Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch YouTube channel. On Friday 25 June at 8.30pm, a pre-recorded and captioned version will be available via YouTube too.

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Hull Truck Theatre and Oldham Coliseum Theatre have today (10 June) announced that they will be streaming their epic and landmark 2019 revival of The Hired Man to raise vital funds for current and future creative projects, which together reach over 380,000 people a year, while their theatres are closed to the public.

This much loved actor-musician revival played to national critical acclaim across the country, securing three Offie Award nominations and with Lauryn Redding a finalist for Best Female Performance in a Musical. Glowing reviews included:

★★★★ ‘They play Goodall’s glorious folk-based score as if it’s pouring from their very souls.’ Sunday Express

 ‘A gorgeous, resonant new production…Wrenching and wonderful’ Mark Shenton

★★★★★ ‘This is theatre to relish and cherish’ – North West End

★★★★ ‘One of the most well-crafted British Musicals of all time’ – Upstaged Manchester

Based on the stirring novel by Melvyn Bragg first published in 1969, The Hired Man was turned into a musical in 1984. The production features a superb score of rousing foot stomping rhythms and soaring choruses by the award-winning composer Howard Goodall (Bend It Like Beckham, Love Story).

With the support of The Really Useful Group Ltd, the premiere of the streaming will take place on Monday 15 June 2020 at 7.30pm, and will then be available for one week on the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch YouTube channel and via each of three theatres websites.

To donate to the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, click here, or make a donation by text:

QTH 10 to 70085 to donate £10

QTH 15 to 70085 to donate £15

QTH 20 to 70085 to donate £20

UK networks only. Texts cost donation amount plus one standard rate message.

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch is delighted to announce that it has received funding from Clarion Futures, the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group, to continue its offering of two strands of free digital classes. The classes are aimed at connecting audiences from their own homes while in lock-down, streaming live from the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch Facebook page each week. Initially commissioned for six weeks from 20 April – 31 May, these sessions have proven to be hugely beneficial in offering positive engagement to people of all ages, racking up over 12,000 views in the first 3 weeks alone.

Thanks to the funding received from Clarion Futures, the classes will recommence twice weekly beginning Tuesday 9 June providing a creative offering for our shared local community. Previous sessions are also available to catch-up via the Theatre’s Youtube and Facebook pages.

One strand features seated dance lessons led by Choreographer and Movement Director Sundeep Saini from her living room every Tuesday, with a brand new dance routine to try out each week. These sessions will be delivered seated to support access and mobility needs, subtitled, and audio described in delivery. Each session goes live on the Theatre’s Facebook page at 11am on a Tuesday.

The other strand is a musical theatre sing-a-long session with local musician and Musical Director Andrew Linham every Thursday at 11am. Andrew will lead a warm up session followed by the chance to learn a classic musical theatre number each week.

At the start of the week the Theatre will put a poll on their Facebook page where audiences can vote for one of three musical theatre songs to learn. (Audiences can also leave suggestions in the comments of songs for inclusion in future weeks.) The one with the highest votes by mid-day on Wednesday will be taught by Andrew in a Facebook Live session at 11am that Thursday.

Clarion Futures  has previously funded the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch’s participation work though regular dance and drama workshops at the Orchard Village estate. Clarion Futures is also a member of the Havering Changing consortium, a partnership of 8 local organisations that will seek radical new ideas to engage local communities in arts and culture, support local decision makers and share learnings, led by Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch.

The digital classes have been made possible thanks to a grant from Clarion Futures’ Emergency Support Fund which has been created to offer direct financial support to some of its longstanding partners during the coronavirus outbreak.

James Watson, Head of Learning and Participation at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, said ‘We are grateful for the continued support of Clarion Futures in recognising the value of the arts in building communities and promoting personal wellbeing. We hope these digital sessions will continue to benefit our local and wider communities during this period of isolation’

Matt Parsonage, Head of Communities at Clarion Futures, said: ‘We’re delighted to be supporting these online classes which, we hope, will bring the community together and provide a way for people to enjoy themselves and express their creativity – something that is particularly important during these difficult times’

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch has announced a call out to its audiences in Outer East London and Essex for a response to questions about their experience of the lockdown. The answers will inspire a unique new project.

We miss you and haven’t had the chance to talk with you about what’s going on. The pandemic has impacted all of our lives. We’ve seen the big news stories, but here at the Theatre we want to know (and tell) your story. Members of our staff: are home schooling their kids, miss seeing family, have given up wearing stilettos, have volunteered at a food bank, go for long walks, worry about the future. One hugged a tree for the first time and another secretly delivered Easter eggs to people’s houses!

We want to know what’s happened to you during lockdown so that we can share our collective stories in a special new project.

1. What is new about your daily routine in lockdown? Has anything become more or less important to you during this time?
2. Has anything changed for you forever?
3. What moment, event or image of this time will be the one thing that stays with you?
4. Is there something you have missed over the last few weeks? What do you long for?
5. What is your hope for the future?”

The Theatre will place its audiences’ stories centre stage for what will be the most important project it will make this year.

The general public can answer the questions online (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LockdownStories), by email via boxoffice@queens-theatre.co.uk or by calling the Queen’s Theatre and speaking to a member of the friendly box office team (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm on 01708 443333).

We are delighted to be partnering with Complicité to broadcast The Encounter online. The show, described as ‘a tour de force’ by Financial Times and ‘one of the most fully-immersive theatre pieces ever created’ by New York Times played sold out runs at London’s Barbican theatre in 2016 and 2017 but on Friday 15 May at 7pm the show will be available online and you can watch it on our website for free here.

The show has received a raft of five star reviews since its premiere in 2015 and is the winner of numerous awards including the 2017 Special Tony Award for Sound Design.

The Encounter tells the story of National Geographic photographer Loren McIntyre who, in 1969, became lost in a remote part of the Brazilian rainforest while searching for the Mayoruna people. His encounter was to test his perception of the world, bringing the limits of human consciousness into startling focus.

Threading scenes of his own life with details of McIntyre’s journey, Simon McBurney incorporates objects and sound effects into this solo performance to evoke the depths of the Amazon rainforest. The show’s ground-breaking binaural sound design (3D audio) by Olivier Award winner, Gareth Fry, is transmitted to the audience through headphones and plugs into the power of the imagination, questioning our perceptions of time and our own consciousness.

“We are, as a consequence of this pandemic, bodily cut off from one another. Disconnected. Isolated. But perhaps this sense of our separation one from another, is simply a heightening of what we felt before this all began. We are thinking now, not only about how long this will last, but also what happens on the other side. To reconnect we need, perhaps, to learn to listen more closely. To each other. To our communities. To other cultures. To nature itself. 

The Encounter is at its heart a story about ‘listening’, not ‘hearing’ but listening; to other, older narratives which, at the deepest level, form who we are, and if we do, we can imagine how we can ‘begin’ again.”
Simon McBurney – Complicité Artistic Director

Audiences must wear headphones to watch The Encounter online, or the effect of the binaural recording will be lost. Any headphones will work, but playing the film out of speakers will not give the same effect. It is free to watch, and will be available to watch on demand for a week until 22 May 2020.

Follow us on Twitter for updates and a reminder about The Encounter online.

The Encounter

Inspired by the novel Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu

Directed and performed Simon McBurney

Co-Director Kirsty Housley

Associate Director Jemima James

Design Michael Levine

Sound Gareth Fry with Pete Malkin

Lighting Paul Anderson

Projection Will Duke

The Encounter is a Complicité co-production with the Barbican, London, Edinburgh International Festival, Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens, Schaubühne, Berlin, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne and Warwick Arts Centre.

The Encounter online is supported by The Space.

RESCHEDULED DATE: Friday 2nd October 2020 at Thameside Theatre, Grays

Calling all performers and performance-makers in Thurrock

This festival of performance and expert industry advice will be a fantastic opportunity for performers and performance-makers across Thurrock. They can connect with the people in their own communities who can guide, inspire and provide future opportunities for development and work.

Any theatre-maker, playwright, performer, poet, dance-maker or singer/songwriter who lives in or is connected to Thurrock is invited to send in a submission for inclusion in Outer Limits Thurrock. Scratch* performances can be up to 15 minutes in length and expenses up to £100 will be paid. Ready to go performances can be between 30-60 minutes in length and depending on the scale of the piece, will receive a performance fee up to £500. The theatre’s technical staff will be available to support performances.  Now is the time to create that piece of work that has always been lurking at the back of your mind.  There’ll be lots more news nearer the time for those who’d like to come along and network, but don’t wish to bring work.

The deadline for submissions has been extended to Wednesday 29^th July at 5pm. All submissions will be considered by the Outer Limits Thurrock steering group made up of industry professionals. To find out more and request a form, email qthouterlimits@queens-theatre.co.uk 

“Outer Limits has proven to be an incredible way of discovering and celebrating exceptional local talent. It’s a hotbed of discussion and skills sharing and a brilliant way of networking up performers from across the region. We have come away from Outer Limits feeling invigorated and inspired.” Douglas Rintoul, Artistic Director, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch.

Ahead of the world premiere of our jukebox musical Love Letters, we spoke to writer and director Douglas Rintoul about his inspiration behind the show.

• Tell us a bit about the show.

Love Letters is a world premiere of a brand new jukebox musical especially written for the Queen’s Theatre. It’s about making mistakes in love and second chances. It’s shows how seemingly everyday lives are actually quite extraordinary.

• What’s the inspiration for the musical?

I grew up listening to music by Alison Moyet, Yazoo, Depeche Mode, Five Star, Billy Bragg and Blur – my first live gig was seeing Blur in my hometown, Colchester. I’ve always thought that there was a show in that music. I started to dig around for other music from Essex (I’m talking about geographical Essex and places where people self-identify as being from Essex), and I found loads. Generally, when we think of places associated with great pop music, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester and Camden amongst others come to mind, not Essex. When I told people I was researching music from Essex for a musical, they said, ‘is there any’? Well, there is! Jessie J, Anne Marie, Olly Murs, Ian Dury, Alison Moyet, Depeche Mode, Imogen Heap, Blur, Billy Bragg, Billy Ocean, Sade, Sandie Shaw, Five Star, Pixie Lott, The Tremeloes, Jessie J, Anne Marie, Olly Murs too name but a few.  Clearly, someone had a to bring these songs together for a great big musical theatre celebration of Essex.

• The musical is set in and around a pub at the heart of the local community. Why did you choose a pub setting?

Love Letters is an actor-musician musical – the actors play all of the music. To fully integrate the actor-musicianship into the narrative, I had to think of a place where you would find musicians, somewhere that has music at its heart, and an environment where you would meet everyday characters. Pubs ticked all of those boxes.  Also, Pubs are full of stories: they’re places where different people come together, where stories are told and where significant events happen. Pubs are also a big story in themselves at the moment. They’re disappearing from our communities and are currently closed.   Pubs felt like a ripe setting.

• Who’s your favourite Essex musician?

Alison Moyet. I’m always very moved by her music and voice. She’s also stridently proud of where she’s from (Blur weren’t nice about Essex back in the 90s). Alison Moyet has an album entitled Essex and has shot videos on Southend pier. What’s not to love?

• This is your first time writing a musical. What’s the process like?

It’s a Jukebox musical, so the music was the starting point; there’s something concrete to begin with – to take inspiration from.  I trawled through back catalogues of lots of artists and looked for songs that were narrative-led and had something to say. Lots of the songs were about the complexity of love, and quite a few had a strong working-class sense of survival or rebellion about them.  That mess and strength became a significant springboard for the narratives.  I also came across an Essex news report about a bag of post that wasn’t delivered for 10 years. I wondered what could happen if one of those letters had been a really heartfelt love letter: what the impact of it being posted ten years on could be.   Some of the music brings back childhood and teenage memories, inevitably some of that detail has made its way into the show.

• This show is the next step in the Theatre’s Essex On Stage programme. How does it build on the work we’ve already done?

We’ve revived seminal plays written about Essex that have been performed in national theatres but never in their native Essex, and we’ve commissioned brand new dramas. All have celebrated working-class narratives and Essex identity. I was looking for a musical that did that too.  Something really accessible. We’d already done Made In Dagenham, and I wanted something contemporary, so it felt right to create something new.

• Why should audiences come and see the show?

It’s full of cracking music by Essex artists. It’s got a brilliant cast of actor-musicians that we know and love from our other hit shows. It tugs at the heartstrings, is funny and touching. You’ll recognise the characters.  You get to spend a night in a pub (literally some audience members can sit on stage in the pub) which we’ll all need after the lockdown. You’ll come out warm and fuzzy, having spent time with great characters in a great place listening to great music. You’ll leave with a smile on your face as you rush home to Bluetooth some banging Essex tunes to your speakers.

Love Letters plays 25 September – 17 October

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch has announced its first cohort of Associate Artists as part of its Outer Limits artist development programme. Making up the Outer Limits Associate Artists are:

• Romford-based D-Live!, a leading Deaf-led British Sign Language professional theatre company;
• Old Trunk, a Southend based theatre company led by playwright Sadie Hasler and director Sarah Mayhew;
• Rebecca Brewer, an actor, songwriter and performance-maker based in Thurrock.

The artists are professionals local to the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, with a track record of making excellent work on the small scale. The Theatre will provide artistic and producing mentorship, rehearsal and performance space, funding application support, and much more. The Theatre hopes that this will enable these artists to realise their ambitions: working on a larger scale, reaching more audiences, and gaining national recognition for Essex creativity.

The announcement marks a growth in the Theatre’s Outer Limits programme, which supports, nurtures and unites artists in the region. The Theatre acted in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw an industry-wide crisis as buildings were closed and shows cancelled across the country. The Outer Limits Online initiative has recently moved meetings remotely onto Zoom, running successful online peer led development sessions facilitating skills-sharing and networking to combat the sudden increased isolation. Both responses aim to stem stagnation and propagate growth in the independent sector in the region.

Artistic Director of Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Douglas Rintoul says:  ‘It’s a balm in these times to be able to announce our first cohort of Outer Limits Associate Artists. We recognise how difficult it is for independent artists to get projects off the ground, now more than ever. These associateships will give these brilliant local creatives extensive support to realise their aspirations. In turn we hope to be influenced by their unique talents and perspectives.’

Steven Vevers-Webb, Artistic Director of D-Live!, says: ‘D-Live! is thrilled to become a new Associate Artist at the Queens Theatre, Hornchurch.  As a relatively new deaf-led theatre company, producing work in British Sign Language and spoken English, we are so excited to be partnering with the Queens to learn from their wealth of experience in producing theatrical productions.  We are from (and based in) the borough of Havering and we’re excited this local venue will be supporting a local theatre company wanting to make creative work for deaf children, young people and their wider families.  We can’t wait for the next 18 months of this Associate Artist programme and look forward to working with Douglas and his team.’

Sadie Hasler of Old Trunk says: ‘We are so delighted to be offered this fantastic opportunity. We’ve come so far in eight years making our own work and getting it out there, and are eager to work with their brilliant team on taking our work into exciting new realms. In these times of uncertainty places like Queen’s can and should be beacons to creatives. We’re so happy to be part of their fold, making fearless work for a stronger future.’

Rebecca Brewer says: ‘I am completely delighted to become an Associate Artist at the Queen’s Theatre. I’ve been connected with the theatre for the last year or so through their Artist Development programme. Doug and everyone at the theatre have been brilliant, providing the perfect concoction of support and provocation that artists need in order to push themselves to make and continue to make work. I feel really lucky to have such a welcoming and supportive team, 15 minutes from my house!’

For the last three years‎, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch has had much success making Christmas shows for younger audiences in unusual settings. An adaptation of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ premiered at the National Trust’s Rainham Hall, and new story ‘Sparky the Elf and the Secret Toyshop’ in an empty shop unit at the Mercury Shopping Centre, before both transferred to the Theatre’s Rehearsal Space for extended runs in the subsequent year.

For December 2020, we’re looking to work with a company of professional theatre makers who have a new idea or existing show they’re looking to develop for this Christmas, to play in the Theatre’s Rehearsal Space.

We’re looking for a festive show suited to aged 4 – 7 year olds, with lots of non verbal content, and a cast of at least one! It should be as site specific and unusual as possible, making the most of the space, and be able to play two or three times a day for an audience of 40 – 60 children and parents each time, over several weeks.

We’ll provide a guaranteed fee for the run against agreed costs, production support with making a set and costumes, and designing lights and sound, rehearsal space, producing support if helpful, marketing, box office and FOH.

The ideal company would be experienced in making work for families and perhaps be able to bring some funding or resources to the project to help make ‎something very special that might have a future life too.

If you have an idea, please send in a short proposal about what you’d intend, with details‎ of relevant experience and an outline budget, to hollyh@queens-theatre.co.uk by Wednesday 29 April 2020. Once we’ve had a look at the proposals, we’ll then be in touch to discuss or feedback.

Thanks in advance for your brilliant festive ideas!