In 1996 three local residents, Pat and Roy Greenhalgh and Marian
Redmond, all veterans of large scale community theatre projects,
collaborated in researching and writing a new play about a trip to
Blackpool from a local Working Man's Club. The play was set in the
early 1960's, with flashbacks to earlier times, so senior citizens
from day centres were interviewed and these discussions formed the
basis of the play.
Later the same year Christopher Littler,
who had acted in an early version of the play, spotted an advert for
the 'Guinness Awards for Pub Theatre' and suggested to the writers
that we got together to create a new theatre company and enter the
competition. Pat, Roy and Marian were discussing the idea when it
was pointed out that we would need a name for the group. Three Wise
Monkeys was one of the suggestions and from this we agreed on Wise
Monkey Theatre Company.
One small problem, we needed a pub!
Fortunately, Stewart Kite, the landlord of the Black Horse Hotel in
The Crescent, Salford, came to the rescue and gave us a rehearsal
room and a performance space. We asked Guy Holloway, Director of
Performance at the Chapman Theatre, University of Salford to become
our Chairman and late in 1996, after having written a constitution
for our new group and opening a bank account, the Wise Monkey
Theatre Company was born.
We waited eagerly for the results
of the Guinness Awards and were over the moon when we got a phone
call in January 1997 telling us we had won, the only group in the
North West to be successful. |