As part of our 50^th anniversary, we’ve been speaking to people who have memories of New Perspectives from years past both as audience members and as people who’ve worked with the company. If you have any memories, pictures or anecdotes you’d like to share with the team please email [email protected].

In July, we spoke to Rick Hall who had reached out with memories of New Perspectives from the 1980s and 90s.

Rick first heard of New Perspectives after he joined Nottingham Playhouse’s theatre in education (TIE) programme Roundabout in 1981. At that time New Perspectives was known as Perspectives Theatre Company and was based at The Cresset Theatre in Peterborough, but shortly after Rick started at Roundabout, in 1982, we moved to The Old Library in Mansfield and became a sister company to Nottingham Playhouse.

In 1984 Rick left Roundabout to work for Half Moon Theatre in London, however, he soon returned as Director of Roundabout in 1986 and his relationship with Perspectives Theatre company grew.

“The relationship turned to one of campaigning to save the company,” Rick recalls. “Within a couple of years, East Midlands Arts had decided it wanted to revamp its position on community theatre and for a variety of reasons wanted to withdraw its support for New Perspectives.”

Rick felt that process wasn’t fair.

“One of the issues was that New Perspectives was run on a kind of cooperative basis.”

When the first iteration New Perspectives, simply called Perspectives, was formed in 1972, it was run by five Bretton Hall College graduates: David Johnston, Colin Hicks, Richard Pinner, Christopher Vine and Carol Leader.

“It was seen as an impediment to the way that companies ought to be run or be an accountable body.” Rick also commented that the funding decision was seen as quite an affront in the TIE and community theatre industry at the time – that East Midlands Arts should have been wanting to help community theatre companies grow rather than withdraw their funding

And so, along with various other members of Roundabout, Rick joined the campaign committee to save Perspectives Theatre Company.

“It was an interesting time. I’m not sure how feasible it would be or how likely it would be that such a campaign would be mounted again. Although, of course, there has been a similar campaign recently to save Oldham Coliseum,” Rick says.

“I can distinctly remember one particular lobbying meeting which was held in Loughborough where the East Midlands Arts committee were going to make a recommendation and we all turned out – companies from all over the country. We briefed each other really well on who to talk to, a fact sheet of information of various considerations around how fair or unfair the process was. And the decision was to not uphold the recommendation. It felt like quite a victory!”

The success of the campaign meant that East Midlands Arts would continue to support Perspectives Theatre Company, but there followed a period of negotiation which found that a new company structure was required including a new board.

Given his strong relationship with the company by this point and his position in the Nottingham and East Midlands arts industry, Rick joined the first ever board. Christopher Vine, one of the company’s founders, was Chair.

One of the boards first tasks was to appoint the company’s first Artistic Director Helen White. When run as a cooperative, Perspectives Theatre Company typically created devised theatre pieces as a company as opposed to working with playwrights, however, once Helen was in position that changed. “Helen was particularly interested in working with female playwrights including Bryony Lavery and Julie Wilkinson,” Rick says. She also saw the company become New Perspectives in 1988.

In 1991, Rick took over as Chair of the board despite having moved to Southampton to take the role of Director at Artswork.

Rick remembers his time as part of the New Perspectives board as clearly defined.

“Board members are the guardians of the constitution and therefore you shouldn’t be making day-to-day decisions. You try and establish it so that the occasions where you have to do some emergency firefighting were few and far between.”

Rick does however distinctly remember his commute home: “My key memory is lots of late night driving back from Mansfield to Winchester. I’m ashamed to say, picking up a speeding ticket in the process whilst trying to get the journey back down to under 3 hours!”

In 1993, Gavin Stride was appointed Artistic Director of New Perspectives and brought about more changes in the company’s focus and how it worked: “Gavin brought a very distinct style to the company of interesting stories for community audiences and he worked with a regular group of actors. There was a real emphasis on audiences having a good time.”

Rick recalls New Perspectives production Thank God for Cod by Kevin Dyer (2001), a play on the history of the world from the Cod’s point of view during which cod was cooked on stage and was given to the audience for them to eat.

Rick left the New Perspectives board after many years in 1996.

Speaking on the difference between the industry then and now, and why so many companies and arts professionals banded together to save Perspectives Theatre Company, Rick said: “The industry in the 1980s was really rich and diverse. Almost every local authority had a TIE company and at least in every region there was a community touring company like Pentabus and Red Ladder. So, there was a very rich landscape of small-scale community touring.

“The vandalism really was created by Thatcher’s insistence that local authorities couldn’t hold budgets for core services like enrichment and theatre and that’s what scuppered all of the TIE companies. A whole movement just wiped away like that. But, c’est la vie. We have to do it in other ways!"

Banner image credit: Fabrice Gagos