Open Air Theatre and Performance
The ruins of Reading Abbey have a history of live performance. From early impromptu artist-led events, the site has established a history of open air theatre.
In the late 1980s, the food art and performance collective 'La Grande Bouche' organised a cabaret under marquee in the ruins. The evening offered music and performance acts combined with food, much of which cooked by contributing performers.
In 1994, a large scale performance event 'From the Ruins' was held in the abbey ruins, the finale event for the 'Art in Reading' (AIR) festival, funded in part by Reading Borough Council. This was organised by and featured a large number of artists and performers living or working in Reading, and combined specially created music, dance, paintings, poetry and culminated in a spectacular evening performance involving large scale puppetry and pyrotechnics loosely based upon the history of Reading Abbey from the foundation by William I through the rise of the merchant classes to the dissolution and eventual sacking of the Abbey under Henry VIII.
In 1995, the ruined South Transept was used as the setting for the first Abbey Ruins Open Air Shakespeare production by MDM Productions and Progress Theatre in partnership with Reading Borough Council. In 1996, the outdoor production moved to the ruined chapter house and since 1999 has been staged by Progress Theatre in partnership with Reading Borough Council. This annual event expanded to the Reading Abbey Ruins Open Air Festival in 2007.
Because of the current access limitations, the 2009 and 2010 Open Air Festivals could not be held.
Read more about this topic: Reading Abbey
Famous quotes containing the words open, air, theatre and/or performance:
“Let us presently go sit in council,
How covert matters may be best disclosed
And open perils surest answered.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Many divorces are not really the result of irreparable injury but involve, instead, a desire on the part of the man or woman to shatter the setup, start out from scratch alone, and make life work for them all over again. They want the risk of disaster, want to touch bottom, see where bottom is, and, coming up, to breathe the air with relief and relish again.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“The poem of the mind in the act of finding
What will suffice. It has not always had
To find: the scene was set; it repeated what
Was in the script.
Then the theatre was changed
To something else. Its past was a souvenir.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)