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Hello and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast which shines a light on the success stories, key learnings and insights from people and businesses based in Reading,

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Berkshire. I'm your host Maria Lloyd.

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I've lived in Reading for 20 years and I've only recently started to appreciate what our wonderful town has to offer.

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Join me as I explore Reading's opportunities and lessons in more detail.

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Now without further ado, let's jump in.

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Hello, Emily, and welcome to the My Local Marketive podcast.

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Thank you for going on and for welcoming me to Progress today.

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How are you doing? Hi, Maria. Thank you so much for inviting me and welcome to Progress.

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I'm so excited to be here. Well, I've been here before, but this is backstage, so...

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Behind the scenes. Anyway, getting distracted.

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Could you please tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

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Yes. Hello, I'm Emily Good. I'm Progress' theatre manager.

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My role here is to support Progress.

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in its charitable aims, which is really to provide access and opportunity for the arts and theatre and education in theatre to everybody in the Reading area.

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How long have you lived in Reading for? it all your life or did you move here?

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that's a good question. I was actually born and grew up in Reading.

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Like many people that I've heard on your podcast, born here, moved away and then came back for work and was really glad to come back.

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Really felt like coming home actually, coming back to Reading.

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What do you actually like about Reading? I mean, you came back, so you must like it.

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Yes, I do. I do love it. It's size really.

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It's just that right size. It's big enough that it's got lots going on.

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There's lots of wonderful arts opportunities, but it's also small enough that you can bump into people.

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You can go for a walk. It's wonderful.

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I also really like actually that it's a river town.

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I actually really like that we're on the river here. You can go for a walk over by the big Tesco.

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tense path and it's just stunning. There's a lovely variety.

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I really like what you said there, how everyone knows each other because it's true, I meet people and they're yeah, I know that person.

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Same circles, clearly. Yeah, recognise people that you see about and it's just as nice, it's that nice sense of community.

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As you said, we're at Progress Theatre today. Now, Progress, I didn't realise what an amazing history it had.

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So could you just please give a bit more about Progress's history and what Progress Theatre is?

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Yes, so Progress Theatre was actually

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founded in 1946. So we're coming up to being 80 years old as a company.

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We've been here at our current home, which is in the mountains just off Christchurch Road in Reading since the 1950s.

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As an organization, we have a wonderful history of bringing firsts to the stage.

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We like to talk about the fact we were the first company in England to produce Bertil Brackett's The Good Woman of Szechuan.

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The first time it was seen on the stage in England was here at Progress Theatre in the 1950s.

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That kind of Being the first, that kind of ambition is a core part of who we are as a theatre.

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It's something that we love to do. We were really, actually really annoyed that we were the second amateur theatre to bring Martin McDonagh's, to stage Martin McDonagh's Hangman.

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We got picked in the post by about two weeks in November 2019.

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So we were the second in the country to do that. So yeah, we try to keep that ambition alive today.

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I like that you've got the real community spirit going despite the fact that progress is largely run on volunteers, which I know we'll come to in little bit.

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Progress, think, is one of the ones, because I came to university here, so it's one of the ones that is top of my mind when I think about Reading, but there are other theatres.

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So how would you say progress differs from the other theatres in Reading?

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I mean, we have a wonderful variety of theatres in Reading now, which is fantastic.

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Progress is unique in that we offer everybody the opportunity to get involved, but also that we focus on specifically new writing.

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That is our big part of what we do here. We just had Fright Fest, which is our annual festival of new writing.

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Six or seven new plays every year staged here on our stage for the first time.

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And it's a great opportunity for local writers to see their work on stage, for actors to get to be in new writing, for directors to get to direct new writing.

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Yeah, it's one of the things we love to celebrate. I mean, we do a whole range here, but we do love, particularly love, new writing here.

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And given the sold out audiences, think many other people like the Writfest ones too.

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Yeah. I mean, it's 18 years and it was just our 18th Writfest.

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So we built up a real community around it.

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So if anyone's listening, they want to get involved.

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Submissions are for writers normally in around the January to March time.

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So keep an eye on our website. I came to the Writfest one, which was amazing.

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Looking forward to next year's already.

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But one of things I was really impressed about, she was

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the wide range of ages. I mean, you introduced me to someone who was, how old was he?

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At 12. 12. That's amazing.

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Because normally I go to community groups and they're all older people.

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I don't normally see such a wide variety of ages. So well done on doing that.

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How have you managed to do that and sort of capture the different generations?

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I mean, that's one of the things that we're really proud about in our community here at Progress is like an intergenerational aspect to the creativity we do.

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A large driver of it. is the fact that we have a wonderful Progress Youth Theatre which meets here once a week in 10 times, run by two fantastic professional youth facilitators.

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We love to include our youth members in our other activities.

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We've got regular performances throughout the year where they have the opportunity to audition and perform on stage.

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It just gives such a wonderful opportunity for young people to actually get on stage and be watched by live audiences.

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get to work with a company of actors.

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And we find that actually it filters through to the rest of our community as well.

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I was at a read through we had in-house recently and we had people from their late teens right through to their late eighties all in the same room or having a giggle or having a

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slice of cake or a cup of tea. know, whilst we were having a read through of an upcoming play that we have.

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Yeah, it's just, wonderful being in the room with that kind of level of generational interaction.

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It's not something you get very often.

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No, I agree. You don't really get it in community groups.

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think especially since COVID, with people like largely working from home now, it's an option.

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It's such a shame in the workplaces because I think the younger generations need the older generations just to see and to pass on that knowledge and expertise because even those

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small tips that they pass on are so meaningful.

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obviously the older ones need the younger ones to get that different perspective and injection of enthusiasm, I think, to remind them why they love what they do.

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It's so important for everyone. It's a wonderful thing that we're able to do.

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Yeah, so well done on that.

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Obviously, like I you managed to get in front of a wide variety of audiences.

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So how have you managed to promote what you do?

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What are the strategies that you use marketing wise to get in front of the different audiences that you need to?

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We have recently had come on board a wonderful new marketing manager who's been overhauling our marketing, which has been fantastic.

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We've been running for 80 years, so we're very grateful for our loyal audiences who do come and watch most of our performances.

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We rely on our members and our volunteers.

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It's word of mouth, people talk about what they're doing, they talk about what the theatre's doing, they tell their friends, they tell their workmates, and then hopefully

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they come along and watch it. And then they see what we're doing, and then they come along to the next one.

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I think one of the benefits, obviously, of going on like you said is word of mouth, people get to know you.

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But on the other hand, not a disadvantage of that, but something to bear in mind is that obviously things change over 80 years, audiences change their taste.

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So as well as... How the audience, you've got to have your finger on the pulse all the time for what's changing, what's new, what do they want?

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So I imagine that's a bit of a challenge too, is it?

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How do you work through that, if at all?

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Yeah, I mean, absolutely. What people want to watch has changed.

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I mean, in the last few years, obviously we've seen a focus on people wanting, just wanting more comedy and understandably so, you know, after the time we've had.

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We have a very dedicated...

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play planning team who choose our plays, you kind of pick our upcoming season every year.

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And we're just in the process of doing that at the moment actually.

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Our model is we invite submissions from our volunteers, ask them to pitch plays that they'd like to direct or see on our stage.

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And then we choose from those the place that we'd like to put on for the next year.

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So really our programming comes primarily from our volunteers.

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It's what they want to see on stage.

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And then we shape that into our season.

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that's a great model. So it's sort of you dictating what people see, you're asking people what you want to see, suggest things and then you're just going with what the audience wants basically.

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We're going with people's passions really, you know, it's making sure that people are passionate about what they want to see and say.

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We always, always ask why, why are we staging this now?

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What is it that this play is saying about the times that we live in?

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So even if we're staging a classic play, why are we doing it now?

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Very wise, I love that. Always ask why you're doing something.

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It's a very wise question. Now,

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What's the most, would you say, rewarding part of running Progress?

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I mean, we've kind of touched on it already, but it is absolutely the community.

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is helping build and create the space for that community around theatre.

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Every time we survey our volunteers and ask them what it is that keeps them coming back to Progress, it is always the community.

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That's what people are here for. For me personally, it is really about enabling that kind of participation in creativity.

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seeing people come in saying, don't know if I can do this.

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And then helping them learn or it is shown in the ropes and then watching them perform or fun tech on a show or direct or produce and seeing people enjoy and express themselves

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creatively. That's for me is why I do this job.

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Now on the other side of the coin, what would you say is difficult about running an independent theatre?

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I'd say the two top ones at the moment and

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They're perennials, but they've become, you can imagine, particularly pointed in the last couple of, well, last few years.

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Our building is a wonderful, wonderful building, but it's getting older.

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It needs more time, it needs more care.

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And apart from myself, we run entirely by volunteers.

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So we are looking at volunteers to maintain it.

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It's a lot of work and we're looking to the future now.

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We're looking to how we maintain and shape this building.

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for potentially the next 80 years and how we keep it standing and operational.

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So yeah, that's a big challenge for the time being.

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So will progress stay on this location then?

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You won't be looking for another location. It's hard to know sometimes is it best to maintain something or just to find something which is already nice and new and doesn't need maintenance.

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Chances are would a lovely thing to have a brand new theatre.

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But there is so much history in this building.

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There's so much love. You pointed out just before we started recording, there was a plaque on the wall.

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Suit Battersea. Yeah, it's that generational feeling again, you know, the people who have come before us, the people who run this theatre before us.

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Yeah, I think we'd lose that.

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Yeah, if you were growing up in Reading and you came to see a play here when you were growing up and then when you, if you wanted to be an actor later on and then you went

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behind stage and thought, this is where, this is where they were.

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Yes, I mean, we had Notably Kenneth Branagh coming through here.

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We've actually had many actors come through here, particularly the youth group or our adult group, and then go on to professional careers.

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I also have people coming up to me say, you work for Progress Theatre.

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I love that space. Went to youth group there.

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So we are really attached to this space, but obviously we do need to make it fit for the future.

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Yeah. I'd say you can't put a price on history, but I bet some of the contractors give it a good shot.

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They certainly do. Yeah. As you said before, volunteers, that's a big challenge trying to get enough volunteers to help you run progress.

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What opportunities do you have for volunteers or is there some way you can point them to for more information?

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Yes, volunteers. It certainly is a challenge for both progress and for most of the industry at the moment.

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Volunteer time is in really short supply after the last few years and the challenges that we've all faced.

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about to launch a new recruitment drive actually for volunteers.

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So that will be coming very shortly.

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At the moment, please go to progressnature.co.uk and there's a get involved section.

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You can either get in touch with our members rep or you can just fill in the form that's there on the page.

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We do also have access scheme, so it's free to join for anyone who would need that.

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Perfect. Now, we touched upon Progress' future, but do you have

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Anything else to say about ProGrasse's future?

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ProGrasse is going to be 80 in 2026.

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So we have a whole post of celebrations and events planned for our 80th year, which we're looking forward to sharing with everyone very soon.

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We can't announce them yet.

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I'm afraid, sorry. I'd love to be able am just saying, am super, I'm still trying to get my marketing calendar for next year done for my 2026.

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So very well done on that.

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We're well into the planning for that.

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team of wonderful volunteers are putting our events together for our 80th.

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So that's, would say, something very much to look out for in the near future.

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We are now starting to think forward to getting to 100 and what it is that we need to do, the work that we need to do to make sure that progress is fit and thriving for our 100th

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celebration. Yeah, so that we're looking to the next 20 years and well beyond as well.

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If people are actors and interested in coming and performing here, is that something you do?

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Can people come? and audition for things and it's the same for anyone who like has plays or anything to add.

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So do they just send things like that in to you?

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How does that work? So we have regular open auditions, check our website or keep an eye on our social media for our open auditions that are coming up.

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We are particularly interested in empowering people who have not been so represented on stage to get on stage.

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So yeah, please come along and audition.

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We are particularly recruiting for tech team at the moment.

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We'd love anyone who'd like to learn or has any technical skills to come along, learn how to rig a lighting rig or stage manage.

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I started stage managing. That was where I fell in love with theatre at a stage manager's desk when I was in my late teens.

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It's a great thing to do. Yeah, come along and help us with marketing.

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As you can imagine running an organization like this, there are lots and lots of jobs to do.

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So if you want to come in and get involved, then I'm sure we'll able to find something for you to do.

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Great, so if people are acting or want any part of theatre experience or plays or anything like that, just get in touch with you and then you can go from there.

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Yeah, I mean we have an active new writing program, we stage short plays every year by local writers.

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We also have slots in our calendar for longer plays as well.

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So, yeah, get in touch.

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I must admit, seeing that, because I really like non-fiction, I was going to the plays thinking, they're all fiction, but actually a couple of the non-fiction ones, The Victims

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of Jack the Ripper. yes.

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That really caught my attention. This is non-fiction but in a more accessible way and it's showing a story that hadn't been shown before.

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That really grabbed me. Historical fiction is, especially when it's based on something like Jack the Ripper's Victims, it's a really powerful thing to stage and to give a voice to the voiceless.

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Yeah, very interesting different perspectives. So that's given me some ideas for next year.

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So watch out for my subscription next year.

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Now, do you have any final takeaways you'd like to leave our listeners with?

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Get involved if you'd like to.

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You know, come along, get involved, come and learn what it is to make theatre, to enjoy making theatre and be part of the community around theatre.

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That's the perfect way to leave it. So wonderful. Thank you so much for time, Emily.

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I really appreciate it. And thank you for inviting me backstage and look forward to the next production here at Progress Theatre.

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Thank you. It's been lovely to chat to