It has been an absolute privilege to work with our friends at Bluestreak Arts in hosting two live performances with Preston Youth Theatre who suddenly found themselves without a venue for an important production they had been planning and rehearsing for months as part of the Preston Guild. Bluestreak provided lots of chairs and the lighting and PA system and helped us set everything up in the project space, while upstairs the performers made use of our first floor meeting room as a dressing room. Seemed strange finding so many people crammed into the room all changing costumes.
Attendance couldn’t have been better – it was literally standing room only on both evenings! The members of Preston Youth Theatre put on a fabulous performance, making great use of the building to maximise the effects of their entrance and used Denise’s studio at the back of the project space for quick changes and for entrances stage right. The main performance area was in the project space, backing on to the old mill wall to give a wide stage area and almost a ‘theatre-in-the-round’ kind of experience. The acoustics were ideal and really helped to create atmosphere whilst the lighting bouncing off the walls gave additional shadow effects.
All in all, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it proved that Oxheys really is a flexible venue – we’ve now hosted visual art exhibitions, live music and live theatre.
What’s next?