Banner Theatre
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Banner Theatre is a community theatre company based in Birmingham. Founded in 1974, the theatre works with marginalized and disadvantaged communities using a combination of documentary theatre, music and "actuality" (recorded voices captured by video or audio). The aim of the company is to create entertaining and thought-provoking issue-led productions based on real-life experiences and in support of disenfranchised sections of society, performing to community and trade union audiences in pubs, clubs and community centres and at rallies, festivals and conferences.
A founder member of the company was former BBC radio producer Charles Parker, who with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, created the radio ballads, award-winning musical documentaries broadcast by the BBC in the 1960s. These have been a major influence on Banner’s work and have recently informed development of a new form, the 'video ballad'.
Banners have been an important feature of the trade union movement, and provided the inspiration for the company's name and logo.
