I was asked recently to contribute my history with Masque Theatre for their newsletter. As not all of you get their newsletter (I don’t think I do any more, because my membership has lapsed!) I thought I’d reproduce it here with some photos to boot. Enjoy!
Ursula Wright is responsible. If ever you see me onstage, ‘hamming it up,’ you can blame Ursula. She came to my middle school and put on some after school drama classes which I attended and when the course was over she invited us all to join Masque Youth Theatre (MYT.) I took up the opportunity and soon started going every week on a Tuesday night. And it was the night to look forward to as a spotty precocious teenager.
Now this next paragraph is a well worn tale of mine, so I apologise if you’ve heard it before… I stayed, initially, at MYT because there were girls there. Going to an all-boys upper school it was the perfect place to meet girls. I turned up early to my first session and I sat and watched as a constant stream of girls wandered in and I was sold. I quickly got hooked on acting though and I continue to act now, twenty six years later because I bloody love being onstage and being involved in theatre.
Ursula provided me, as a young person, with space to flourish. She enhanced my life with confidence, responsibility and accountability. I was taught life skills whilst having fun. And the respect she commanded from fifty or so teenagers was mesmerising. I was lucky enough to receive decent roles with MYT and was then fortunate enough for Rob Kendall to notice and cast me as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet in an adult summer show at the grand age of sixteen. It was the best summer, rehearsing, acting with friends from MYT and with a supportive cadre of ‘adults.’
When I toddled off to university I left Masque behind. However I’d always come back and support MYT. After I graduated and returned home, I asked Ursula if I could volunteer to help out. I spent four years as an Assistant Director and once again, Ursula Wright taught me more skills that I use today, diplomacy (stop laughing), organisation and management.
And Ursula was kind enough to allow me to write plays for MYT and see them through to the stage. I also have fond memories of assisting Richard Jordan with directing Peter Pan. As the show was a joint effort with Masque and MYT, the adult group wanted someone who knew the young people well to help out and I was happy to lend a hand. I will always remember ‘fondly’ how when the adult pirates got their mitts on their swords they regressed back to their childhoods and yet the younger members of the cast were better behaved.
Around this time I also started acting for Masque Theatre more often. I made friends for life in Venetian Twins, sang a one word solo in The Beggars Opera (one word was one too many) and butchered Shakespeare in many a summer show – Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Anthony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet (again, Benvolio this time), Macbeth and most recently Richard III.
If you will allow me a little detour from my time for a paragraph, MYT and Masque Theatre allowed my father, Roger, to get into acting. He was a big supporter of MYT when I was a member and as an Assistant Director I cast him in his first role. I told him that Ursula had said he was playing a role in the upcoming Youth Theatre production and what Ursula said was set in stone. So he blindly agreed and bloody loved it. And in his later years he gained a new hobby and a new group of friends. His last show was with me in Richard III. He had a small role, but was always fully committed, enjoyed the camaraderie off stage and performing onstage. Masque Theatre allowed him to express himself in a completely different way and he always brought some Roger flair to every role he played.
Ursula Wright, Masque Youth Theatre and Masque Theatre have provided me with life skills, friends and sheer joy over the years. I have gone on to act with a few other groups but here is where it all began. I have endless gratitude for the opportunities that have been given to me because of my association with Masque. Now that I live in Market Harborough, I act mainly with their theatre company, but I keep an eye on Masque and support whenever I can. And you never know, I might shake a leg and tread the boards with Masque Theatre again some time soon.
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