Theatre Royal project gets West End folk chatting
City stories get into print
Proof that the Theatre Royal’s creative footprint extends far beyond Grey Street comes with the celebratory launch of a new publication under the heading Stories of the West End.
Actually, it’s the first of four booklets – all packed with stories, memories, anecdotes and images.
The other three will come out in the autumn but number one, The Soil and the Seeds, is to arrive with some fanfare at a public event on Sunday (August 2) at The John Marley Centre, remembered by older local residents as a school but now a thriving creative hub.
There will be readings from the booklet by actors and some of the 150 or so West End people who shared their stories with Chatty Laura.
Those attending will also hear singer-songwriter Katie Doherty give the first public performance of a newly commissioned song inspired by contributions to the book.
But you’ll be wondering about Chatty Laura.
This is Laura Lindow, writer and multi-talented theatre person (and also clown doctor of longstanding), who was appointed two years ago to be resident artist at the Theatre Royal and embarked almost immediately on this project.
“I can chat for Scotland,” smiles Laura, who is indeed Scottish but has lived for a long time on Tyneside.
“In schools I tend to introduce myself as Chatty Laura because it saves time.”
She was thrilled recently when she was recognised by a teenage girl on a bus in the West End who “did a really cool handshake with her pal, then turned and saw me and went, ‘Chatty Laura! You were at my school’.
“She remembered me from primary school which I took as an achievement because it means people know us and what we do.”
Just prior to taking up the Theatre Royal post Laura was writer-in-residence at the Newcastle Hospitals Charity.
“In some ways that informed my approach to this project.”
Neatly encapsulating her suitability for such roles, she says: “People are my passion. It’s sort of what I do.” Hence her clown doctoring, which for years saw her donning a red nose to cheer up children in hospital.
The Theatre Royal, under chief executive Marianne Locatori, has been exploring ways of engaging with all parts of the city, striving to build new audiences while serving regular theatre-goers.
Her aim, as stated in the first booklet, was “to invest in deepening our relationships, improving the quality of our dialogue and embedding Theatre Royal in a positive and constructive way in our communities, in our schools, in places where people had lost connection with the theatre that belongs to them”.
Strengthening the connection with people in the West End was seen as particularly important.
The way Laura puts it: “The theatre’s really dear to people but it’s important that it’s not just a landmark but part of life.”
To enforce that idea, she started work, chatting but also listening and encouraging. “Relationship building was key,” she says.
Laura took advantage of the theatre’s strong relationship with the West End Schools’ Trust, which is responsible for nine primary schools, but also made friendships elsewhere.
At Westerhope Primary School she worked with children and ran creative writing sessions for staff.
She smiles as she recalls one school project where children were asked to imagine a creature that might inhabit an interesting place.
“One created a creature that lives amidst the milk at Lidl and watches him and his nana when they go shopping. Another imagined a creature that lives in a school drawer and smells of ideas and pencils.”
Laura says she was always keen to ensure that what she was offering would be useful to people.
“We did a call out and an incredible woman who was one of the last remaining staff of the old Newcastle General Hospital got in touch and said there were so many stories there but nowhere to put them.
“She said they were there literally among the rubble. I went to meet them and led some writing sessions there.”
Laura heard about mothers and daughters who worked alongside each other at the hospital for many years, and about the man who regularly came to sit under the blossom trees. Staff would give him Christmas cards.
She heard about the ‘butterfly hats’ worn by the nurses who lived at Wingrove Nurses’ Home, later Angel Heights, and there was talk of a tunnel under Westgate Road.
Elsewhere she heard tales of ‘The Tute’, run since 1977 by Westerhope Community Association but built 100 years ago as The North Walbottle Miners’ Welfare Institute.
As well as chatting, there has been a lot of exploring.
“I accompanied people who took me on their favourite walks, I ate with people who wanted to tell me about recipes which had been handed down to them,” says Laura.
“I could wax lyrical about every single voice that’s captured here.”
Sometimes she would be accompanied by photographer Chris Bishop whose images will appear in all four books, along with illustrations by Lizzie Lovejoy and Emily Cairns.
The first booklet, as the title suggests, has a theme of nature and was inspired by places like Scotswood Community Garden and The Bike Garden, situated on the old bowling green at Nuns Moor Park.
It was there that Laura found a nice connection with the Theatre Royal through the artist Lizzie Rowe who lived near the park and was a frequent visitor before she died in 2023.
“There’s a beautiful mural there by Lizzie. It was her last work which she gifted to The Bike Garden.
“I’ve been in touch with Ben Rowe (Lizzie’s brother) who said how proud she would have been that her artwork is on the front of this publication. She’s still very much present, I’d say, in the place.”
Lizzie was also a presence at the Theatre Royal where, for years, her paintings hung over the stairs and decorated the ceiling inside the entrance.
Newcastle, says Laura in the book, is built on stories just like these.
The theatre likewise.
With its “high ceilings, gilded edges and plush velvet seats it shows the value the people of this city have placed on coming together to enjoy the telling of a good tale through drama, dance and song,” she writes.
“But this is a place where stories run through, with no need of velvet curtains to frame them. This collection hopes to capture a flavour of the stories of which we are all made.”
One participant in the project, a community pharmacist, told Laura: “The West End is an amazing place with its own rhythms and pace.
“It has its challenges but projects like this are about changing that narrative.
“Everyone has a story and it’s important not to assume you know what it is before you take the time to listen.”
All are welcome to listen at the Stories of the West End community celebration at The John Marley Centre, Muscott Grove, Newcastle, on Sunday (August 2, 2-4pm).
Free copies of the first booklet will be available to those who attend.