Keith Vinerd Interview: Working with Theatre Royal Staff & Community Development
Title
Keith Vinerd Interview: Working with Theatre Royal Staff & Community Development
Date
6 November 2017
Description
Oral history interview with Keith Vinerd about the history of the Boys' Brigade shows at the Theatre Royal.
What's the story?
The Theatre Royal has a long history and involvement with local community-based organisations that have used the venue and its resources to stage their shows. These include Nottingham Operatic Society, Nottinghamshire Scouts and Guides (The Gang Show) and Carlton Operatic Society.
From the late 1950s another regular user was the Nottingham Boys’ Brigade.
Established in Glasgow in 1883 by Sir William Alexander Smith, the Boys’ Brigade was the first voluntary uniformed youth movement in the world and today engages with over 50,000 children and young people, providing opportunities to meet together in their communities and engage in a range of fun and developmental activities.
Keith Vinerd was a member of the Boys’ Brigade as a boy and continued to be involved in the organisation.
In this interview Keith talks about working with Theatre Royal staff and how important the venue was for the organisation's community development:
And one of the things that always tickled me really at the theatre, and I bet it’s still the same: the theatre staff, the scenery staff. I don’t know whether many people would remember, but across the road was a milk bar in those days called the Robin Hood Café, I think. I could never believe: the staff used to set out the props and the flats and the backcloth and then they’d disappear. After the first night they were nowhere to be seen and as it got towards the end of that item and things had got to be moved, we, as amateurs, we would get a little bit worked up and say “Where are they?” And they had it off to a fine art. They were over there, having their coffee and they would be back 60 seconds before the scenery needed to be moved. And every night you thought “Are they going to make it, are they going to be here?” But they were. They never let us down. But that’s just, I suppose, the difference between being an amateur and a being professional.
Thinking of the show, really. Just how grateful we are to the theatre, to be honest. It’s been very important to us to be able to use the theatre and I’m sure there are lots of young people out there that we’ll never know about, who gained experience from appearing and from taking part in our shows, never mind anything else. But, yes, it’s been very important to us as a community development, so I think that’s what I would like to emphasise, really. Most important.
From the late 1950s another regular user was the Nottingham Boys’ Brigade.
Established in Glasgow in 1883 by Sir William Alexander Smith, the Boys’ Brigade was the first voluntary uniformed youth movement in the world and today engages with over 50,000 children and young people, providing opportunities to meet together in their communities and engage in a range of fun and developmental activities.
Keith Vinerd was a member of the Boys’ Brigade as a boy and continued to be involved in the organisation.
In this interview Keith talks about working with Theatre Royal staff and how important the venue was for the organisation's community development:
And one of the things that always tickled me really at the theatre, and I bet it’s still the same: the theatre staff, the scenery staff. I don’t know whether many people would remember, but across the road was a milk bar in those days called the Robin Hood Café, I think. I could never believe: the staff used to set out the props and the flats and the backcloth and then they’d disappear. After the first night they were nowhere to be seen and as it got towards the end of that item and things had got to be moved, we, as amateurs, we would get a little bit worked up and say “Where are they?” And they had it off to a fine art. They were over there, having their coffee and they would be back 60 seconds before the scenery needed to be moved. And every night you thought “Are they going to make it, are they going to be here?” But they were. They never let us down. But that’s just, I suppose, the difference between being an amateur and a being professional.
Thinking of the show, really. Just how grateful we are to the theatre, to be honest. It’s been very important to us to be able to use the theatre and I’m sure there are lots of young people out there that we’ll never know about, who gained experience from appearing and from taking part in our shows, never mind anything else. But, yes, it’s been very important to us as a community development, so I think that’s what I would like to emphasise, really. Most important.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Liz Mackenzie & Stephen Bray
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
