I live in Scarborough, a fishing port and holiday town on the Yorkshire coast, where the cultural jewel of the

town is a theatre housed in a former art-deco cinema. It’s named after Stephen Joseph, whose name is

synonymous with ‘theatre in the round’ – a stage form where the audience completely surrounds the stage

and actors can get very close indeed! Both the town and the theatre are home to Sir Alan Ayckbourn, a

renowned playwright who premiers his plays at the ‘SJT’ before taking them to London’s west end.

For the last two years I have been documenting the life of the theatre and the results of that work will be

shown at an exhibition in the theatre for the entire summer season (July to September). What a great

opportunity, not only to show actors as they are, but also as people they aren’t, occupying both ends of the

reality spectrum! The aim of the project is to mount an exhibition to encourage new audiences and raise

money for new script development and ‘outreach’ projects in an endeavour to improve the cultural lives of

the local community.

The banner images above are from a Tobacco Factory production of Henry V