Stephen Crocker

This week marked seven years since I made one of the decisions of which I am most proud: to accept the offer to come to Norwich to lead Theatre Royal, Playhouse and the very newly built Stage Two.  

Seven years on, with the three venues now firmly one organisation as ‘Norwich Theatre’ alongside our touring work, digital programmes and Norwich Theatre Beyond (which builds on the success of the INTERLUDE seasons we ran during Covid by taking theatre to different audiences in different places and spaces) I am prouder than ever to lead this organisation.  

As I got to know Norwich and Norfolk in the early part of my time here, I will also never forget how struck I was by the incredible sense of pride for both city and county.

For me, civic pride is visible here in a way that it simply isn’t in the other cities in which I’ve lived and worked.

Over my years leading Norwich Theatre, our whole team has grown to use this civic pride in all of its manifestations as both our road map and our fuel. 

One of the first areas of new development that we undertook after I came to Norwich was to test how we might bring more new theatre work to life here in Norwich, in addition to receiving established work on tour.

Our first foray into this arena was with SIX The Musical. Whilst that show is now a global sensation, consistently selling out and with productions across several continents, back in the summer of 2018 when it had its world premiere at our Playhouse it was a completely unknown quantity in terms of its format and how that particular story could translate into a musical. 

It goes without saying that all the ingredients were there in SIX’s amazing creative team, but I have no doubt it was our Norwich audiences that lit the fire under the show. I remember one audience member saying to me: “We weren’t sure, but as the theatre is involved in it and it is special to us here in Norwich, we thought we’d try it.” This is a kind of local pride and loyalty that we are also drawing upon with our next musical venture, The Land of Might-Have-Been, which opens at Theatre Royal on July 25.  

In return, we have been working hard to consider how we repay our brilliant audiences by taking pride in our place in our city and supporting civic pride and the togetherness that it brings however we can. 

This is where it has been wonderful exploring creative ways for our buildings to be used in new and different ways and then seeing people engaging with us for the first time. The first of these was Theatre Street Racing - a Nintendo Mario Kart competition on the Royal’s giant outdoor screens! - during Lord Mayor’s Weekend.

I hear lots of feedback about our work but a teenager on that afternoon exclaiming "This is sick!" ranks higher than most for me! 

Last weekend it was also fantastic to be at the start line of Run Norwich and opening The Royal’s balconies especially to ensure those with specific access needs had a comfortable and enjoyable experience of absorbing the amazing race atmosphere.

Then looking forward, all three of our venues will be proudly and progressively celebrating LGBTQ+ life and love, for Norwich’s 15th city-wide Pride celebration with a range of free participatory activities, and some amazing drag artists hosting a brunch and getting the party vibe going at Theatre Royal before, during and after the parade passes by. 

I’m often reminded of an expression my grandmother used to use for special and important things, when she’d say that they must go ‘pride of place.’

For us at Norwich Theatre, celebrating our city, country and all those who make these places so fantastic absolutely has pride of place for us as we take huge pride in our place. 

Stephen Crocker is chief executive and creative director of Norwich Theatre