I was commissioned by Chrysalis Arts to produce a body of work for the North Yorkshire open studios and chose the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond for my project, as coincidentally I had a very personal connection to it. My first ever experience of theatre was at the Georgian Theatre and the memory has stayed with me so vividly. I spent a week at the theatre, exploring the building, its theatre museum and archives. The pieces I produced drew on the history of the place; it had about 80 years of light and noise and performance and then nothing - it was used for all sorts of other things until it was restored and reopened again in 1963. Even with the restoration there was still a sense of the old theatre underneath; places where the original paintwork had been deliberately left to show through.
It felt as though it was possible to look through all the layers of history back to when it first opened. I also found it so wonderful that the first plays performed on the opening night are documented so we know what words that first night audience heard. Standing on the stage I had such a strong sense of the words echoing across the years. Being able to be in an empty theatre in the day is a strange experience. It feels like it’s a place holding its breath and waiting for something to happen. I found visual inspiration in the wonderful theatre posters of the time which are held in the archives. They mixed in all sorts of typefaces and were entirely text, with no images and very detailed descriptions of scenery. I also loved the early painted scenery on display in the theatre museum, with its detailed painting of woodland scenes where every tree is identifiable. So my work became about a merging of this sense of the layers of history, of memories and echoes and the fabric of the building, where the past is still visible, and the wonderful posters and words, and the woodland scenery paintings.
The residency led to an exhibition in the theatre as part of the open studios event, an in-person meet the artist day and a workshop on artist’s books. I also wrote about the project as part of the commission and my blog is still available at http://sarahmorpeth.blogspot.com/
