Citizens Theatre
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The Citizens Theatre is located in Glasgow, Scotland.
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[edit] History
It is a theatre that belonged to the people of Glasgow, separate and distinct from the London repertory companies, and one made accessible and affordable to all audiences. The 1909 Manifesto of the Glasgow Repertory Theatre expressed these tenets: "The Repertory Theatre is Glasgow's own theatre. It is a citizens' theatre in the fullest sense of the term. Established to make Glasgow independent from London for its dramatic supplies, it produces plays which the Glasgow playgoers would otherwise not have the opportunity of seeing."
Such were the tenets that inspired James Bridie's vision when he led the efforts to found his repertory group, the Citizens' Company, in 1943. Bridie (born Osborne Henry Mavor) was a well-known and leading Scottish dramatist at the time, and is now considered to be a founding father of modern Scottish theatre following his involvement with both the establishment of the Citizens' Theatre, and the founding of Scotland's first college of drama, now known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Originally based in the Athenaeum theatre (now the Old Athenaeum), Bridie's Citizens' Company relocated to the Victorian-era Royal Princess's Theatre in the Gorbals in 1945. The theatre was renamed the Citizens' Theatre and the Citizens' Company opened there on September 11, 1945.
During the long period from the 1970s to the 1990s, the Citizens was associated with innovative play selections and stagings by Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald. Their internationalist approach was some distance from the original vision of a national theatre but did meet the access aspirations of the 1909 Manifesto, not least in a commitment to low pricing. There was also an associated studio theatre, The Close Theatre, until it was damaged by fire in 1973.
[edit] Controversy
During the 1970s the Citizens' attracted much controversy with its productions and advertising.
In December 1970 City Councillors called for an end to the £12,000 annual grant the Glasgow Corporation gave annually to the theatre after it was announced that anyone presenting a trade union card on 8th December would be granted free entry to the theatre. The Evening Times reported "The free tickets were suggested as a gesture of the actors' solidarity with the trade unionists' strike protest against the Industrial Relations Bill" (Evening Times, December 7, 1970). This was the first of many altercations between the theatre and the City Council throughout the decade.
Earlier in the Autumn season of 1970 a controversial new staging of Hamlet caused outrage in the press for the nudity and alternative acting styles of the Company. The Scotsman headline reported "Hamlet depicted as a gibbering oaf" (September 7, 1970) but the public flocked to the production and the theatre discovered an all new audience. Cordelia Oliver, a longterm supporter of the Citizens' in her reviews, noted in the Guardian "Schoolchildren en masse rarely sit "Hamlet" out in silence, nor are they often roused to cheering as they did at the end last Friday. If Giles Havergal has set his sights on a predominately youthful audience for the citizens this reception suggest he may not be so wide off the mark" (September 10, 1970).
In 1975 a flier advertising the spring season was condemned by Labour councillor Laurence McGarry for its depiction of "Shakespeare, in drag with large cleavage, painted lips, corsets, suspenders and hand on hip". The councillor felt the theatre was guilty of "playing to an intellectual minority rather than the great mass of the public".
In 1977 the Lord Provost Mr Peter McCann called for the sacking of theatre bosses after a performance of Dracula which featured nude scenes he described as "kinky claptrap appealing only to mentally ill weirdos" (Sunday Express, March 13, 1977). The Provost's calls were not supported by his councillors and his attempts to gain city council control of programming at the Citizens' failed. The entire run of Dracula at the Citizens' was a sell-out.
Throughout its existence the Citizens has been both criticised and acclaimed for its insistence on producing works which are not specifically populist. While many have claimed that a citizen's theatre should deliberately appeal to a mass audience the theatre has a history of experimental works which have proved immensely popular despite rather than because of their subject matter.
[edit] A producing theatre
The Citizens' Theatre is a producing theatre. Approximately 30 members of staff work backstage during the run up to a production in addition to which an average of 12 actors for a main auditorium production and a director may be rehearsing in one of the theatre's three rehearsal rooms. Costumes, sets, lighting and sound are prepared by the Citizens' backstage crew and the company produces several shows each year in the main auditorium, studio spaces and for touring.
Specialist training may be provided for actors on stage fighting, ballroom dancing, singing and even bevelling depending on the requirements of the production.
The Citizens Theatre is the only theatre in Scotland still to have the original Victorian machinery under the stage and the original Victorian paint frame is still used today to paint the backcloths for shows. Welding, carpentry, sewing, painting and paper-mache may be used to create sets for productions.
The Christmas show is always adapted from a classic text and is offered as an alternative to pantomime.
[edit] Current Citizens
While the Citizens Theatre building retains some of the original Victorian architectural features, it has undergone additional renovations and expansions over the years, and now includes the 600-seat Main Auditorium, and two studio theatres, the Circle Studio (90 seats) and the Stalls Studio (50 seats).
In the spirit of the founders' vision to keep the Citizens Theatre accessible to the citizens themselves, the theatre company was able, for over thirty years, to keep ticket prices low, and provide free previews of every show and free programs for every audience member. While no longer able to do this, the theatre endeavors to keep tickets reasonably priced and schedules £3 preview performances and "bargain night" £6 performances on Tuesdays.
In November 2003 the triumvirate of Philip Prowse, Robert David MacDonald and Giles Havergal stood down after an astonishing 33 years. They were succeeded by the current artistic director Jeremy Raison. Raison had previously been artistic director of the Chester Gateway Theatre. The List magazine praised "Raison's success at the Chester Gateway theatre, where a desperate situation turned into a spectacular success in a few short years. (The List, 19th June 2003). The Gateway then won the prestigious TMA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Regional Theatre.
Jeremy Raison has had some extremely successful productions; notably the Love will Tear us apart Spring 2006 season, featuring Iain Robertson in Romeo & Juliet and Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding. The 2006 Gorbals Voices season, which featured the popular No Mean City and two new works, From Hibernia to Hutchesontown and Sky High and After That, used professional actors, community actors and dramaturge to create a dialogue between the Citizens' and the Gorbals Community.
Guy Hollands' productions since becoming joint artistic director of the Citizens' have included Ice Cream Dreams, a ground breaking work which used community actors, ex-addicts and professional actors to explore Glasgow's history during the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars and Yellow Moon, a new work by David Greig (dramatist) aimed specifically at teenage audiences. In September/October 2007 Guy Hollands will direct the Citizen's company in Hamlet.
Established in 1967, TAG Theatre Company was originally developed as the outreach arm of the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, and was known as the Citizens Theatre for Youth. In 2006 TAG moved back into the Citizens Theatre building in the Gorbals. TAG Theatre Company is an integral part of the Citizens Theatre Ltd. and in 2007 will complete a full reintegration with the Citizens Theatre itself.
TAG produces professional touring theatre and inspirational creative learning projects for children and young people.
[edit] The Ghost
Every theatre has a ghost. The Citizens' has many. One long term staff member, trapped in the Upper Circle during a blackout, was led to safety by the distinctive outline of a monk. Customers seated in the Dress Circle during shows in the 1970s often inquired about the costumed "actor" who sat boldly on the balcony and stared back at them. Current staff members have caught glimpses of a "white lady" dressed in Victorian costume and flitting from the Dress Circle bar towards the Circle Studio dressing rooms.
[edit] The statues
Some much loved members of the Citizens' foyer are the theatre's Victorian era statues.
Inside the Citizens' foyer are four elephant statues and four Nautch girls statues, all in the baroque Anglo-Indian style, a reminder of the re-design of the Palace Theatre in 1907 by Bertie Crewe.
An order was made with little warning for the destruction of the Palace in 1977. Staff of the Citizens' arranged a stay of execution to rescue the best of the Victorian fittings, including the statues. The remaining two elephants and two more nautch girls (or goddesses) can now be found in the Theatre Museum in London.
The foyer's repainting in bright pink in the summer of 2004 included the statues and the entrance to the main auditorium is now guarded by four pink elephants.
The foyer also features statues representing William Shakespeare, Robert Burns and four muses, music, dance, tragedy and comedy, which were originally placed on the roof of the Royal Princess's Theatre and are the work of Victorian Glasgow sculptor John Mossman.
The six pillars on which they sat were once the front of a bank in Ingram Street. The statues were brought down from the building after nearly a hundred years on 12th July 1977 in order to protect them from demolition work taking place at the nearby Gorbals Cross.
At the time the Glasgow Herald reported the statues weighed around three tons each and newspaper articles from the period reveal that the allegorically named "music" muse also had the nickname Highland Mary. Smaller replicas of the four muses statues can be seen in gold above the main stage itself.
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