IT STARTED AS A CONVERSATION...
The Gap started as a conversation between writers, then quickly broadened out to other theatre practitioners. We all felt proud of the fringe we saw in Manchester, and celebrated our fantastic main house venues with their national reputations, but we felt something was missing. Where was our Arcola, Theatre 503, Bush (London)? Our Unity (Liverpool)? Our Live Theatre
(Newcastle)? The stepping stone venues that keep writing talent moving up towards the flagship venues? The venues offering professional (paid) work to our writers, actors, directors and theatre makers as their careers took them beyond the fringe? We started to wonder how we might bridge what we saw as this ‘gap’ in Manchester’s theatre scene.
.. AND KEPT GOING
Should we have a mid scale venue? A pop up venue dedicated to new writing? Something else entirely? The conversation gained momentum, so the group decided to stop talking and do something about it. With the support of the Arts Council, we appointed a team to carry out action research and produce an event that would launch our project, showcase our ambition to find a home for new writing in the city and, at the same time, start to ask people what they felt were our options. WHO WE ARE
We are a group of North West writers, directors, producers, actors and other theatre makers who have a formed an alliance. Between us we have worked in the main theatre houses as well as on the fringe. One thing we all share is that we are all passionate about theatre in the North West.
