York Theatre Royal has launched a campaign to raise £500,000 to help pay for its biggest upgrade in 50 years. Today, The Press publishes the latest in an occasional series of columns by writers explaining what the theatre means to them.

I FIRST came to York as a student at the then still new university in the autumn of 1968.

Not perhaps the most confident of 18-year-olds, I gradually found my feet and discovered what York had to offer.

It was a very different place in many ways; cattle being brought to market, Redfearn Glass dominating the Fishergate area, bedsitter rents of 45/- (£2.25) a week.

I still remember asking a man on a Sunday evening where we could find somewhere to eat to be told “this is a Cathedral city, you know”. A working city without a twee gift shop in sight.

As I started to find my feet and explored the city, I discovered the Theatre Royal, not then as a theatre-goer but as somewhere to sit around and discuss the meaning of life with all the wisdom of youth, drink coffee, read, drink more coffee and watch the world pass by.

In the near half century since then, I’ve returned many times to the city; my daughter took her first steps in a self-catering place in Bootham.

And there always was, and is, a visit to the Theatre for a coffee or two, a drink and a cake.

As the kids grew up and we started taking long weekends without them, we actually made the leap from caffeine to culture and started going to plays and shows, many years after I last visited the auditorium - half a dozen now, all excellent.

Going through life, the everyday tends to run together, so that you suddenly blink and another decade’s gone.

What stands out are those little islands of events, and those places, that keep recurring and link our past with our present.

York Theatre Royal is such a place for me and why I was pleased to donate.

I hope it goes from strength to strength and I look forward to experiencing the refurbishments and future productions.

And coffee, of course.

By Roger Williams

 

• York Theatre Royal would like to thank Roger for donating via justgiving.com/yorktheatreroyal

There is still £284,000 left to raise to ensure the theatre can be enjoyed by future generations for years to come.

For more information, please visit www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/donate

Donate to the York Theatre Royal Capital Project now by texting YTRC15 with the amount you wish to donate to 70070.