NEW STRIDES News 2005
2004 has been a busy year (as usual) for the company. We have continued to tour both our plays Tea With Mrs Pankhurst and Purge to all sorts of different venues nationwide and we have expanded our Pankhurst tour to schools. This has been greatly received. We also had the privilege of performing it at the Unity Hall in Nelson, Selina’s home town and the hall that she herself laid the foundation stone for. A talk was given by historian and author Jill Liddington and suffrage songs were sung by a local choir. The hall was packed with local Nelson people some of whom actually knew Selina and her daughter Mary. (see pictures of Nelson performance)We also performed Purge at the TUC conference in Brighton at the Old Market Theatre. As usual there were some minor cast alterations with new boy Garth Williams gallantly taking the role of Paolo and Lori doing a wonderful Maganzinni.
Another of our old allies Colleen Daley (Indestructible Man) has also joined the Pankhurst team and Lori, Ruth, Nicki and Coll are having great fun on the road together (as well as handling tricky ‘hot-seating’ sessions in schools).
Both ‘Debate’ for primary schools and Tea With Mrs Pankhurst (for secondary schools and community venues) will be touring extensively throughout 2005. As well as this we have many projects on the back boiler to be revealed shortly. We are also trying to get some funding this year (about time!). The going is tough as it is for all small-scale theatre companies, but each year New Strides seems to expand more and we are optimistic for the future.