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Certain Curtain Theatre.
This May Preston based, Certain Curtain Theatre Company will
celebrate 30 years of writing and producing only original theatre.
Established in 1989 on the ‘Enterprise Allowance Scheme’ Certain
Curtain have gone on to perform Internationally writing and producing
30 original plays which have toured England, Scotland, Wales, The
Netherlands, Germany and most recently The Falkland Islands.
Since May 15th 1989 the
Company has written plays with themes as diverse as Teenage
pregnancy, Drug abuse, The Holocaust, Gun-crime, Social History, Domestic
violence. The company has also covered some of Lancashire’s rich
History – writing, what is believed to be the first ever full
length musical about football – Legend The Tom Finney Story, The Ballad of Andrew Ryding – a Preston
cotton mill worker who tried to murder Cotton Kingpin Samuel Horrocks
in a bid for workers rights and most recently Woman On Fire - about
Preston Suffragette Edith Rigby.
“Feeling proud & passionate! We
have performed in Residential homes, Hospitals, primary and secondary
schools, centres for excluded children and those with special needs,
community centres, Universities, 800 seat theatres, a court room,
sports stadiums and even the corridor of a pre-fab building - so our
work is accessible to all.” Says Claire Moore co-founder. “We’ve
written 30 original plays, performed in excess of 2500 performances
reaching over 300,000 people – I’m feeling proud of our
achievements, especially when you consider we have had no revenue
funding whatsoever – we are as passionate and determined today as
we were 30 years ago!”
The company has won a number of awards, including A BBC Alfred Bradley Award for verse drama, Lucilla Award for best play, Granada TV Live Challenge Award, Best Professional Touring Theatre Company and an award for Excellence in Public Awareness Drama. As well as being nominated and shortlisted for awards including the Samuel Beckett Award and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award.
“It’s an outstanding achievement in
the face of adversity” adds writer and co-founder John Woudberg.
“It’s been a constant struggle to keep our heads above water and
so that does bring a sense of disappointment and disillusionment
especially in our local Council who should really be proud of us and
our work and proud to support us. We have taken some of Society’s
most difficult and taboo subjects and turned them into powerful, mesmerising pieces of theatre, helping to tell the untold stories so
that are so often ignored. We’ve flown the flag for Preston and
Lancashire wherever we’ve performed so yes I am very sad that our
own Council is doing nothing to support us – our audiences have
ensured our survival - along with the quality of our work of course and
we wholeheartedly thank them for that.”
Certain Curtain have started a £30 for
30yrs fundraiser asking supporters to donate a £1 for every year to
help them continue their ground-breaking work. “We’ve chosen the
paypal me method of fundraising so that every penny donated goes
directly to support our work. As a not-for-profit company every penny
counts and I think supporters are keen to see that the usual 5% or
more taken by other fundraising sites will not be taken away. You can
of course donate any amount” adds Claire
The link to help support the company is
https://www.paypal.me/cctheatre
Distributed by Pressat