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.

HOW to describe York Theatre Royal? Historic, audacious, remarkable, enterprising? Yes. Certainly not boring.

I’ve worked at the theatre for the past year now: I began by supporting the events co-ordinator, then I worked behind the bar and café, and I have just finished a three-month paid internship (thanks to funding from the University of York and Santander) with the marketing department.

My first day, all those months ago, involved me dressed as a flapper serving fizz to Paul McGann.

It was one of the less unusual days.

I have thrown open the doors to introduce, for the first time as newly-weds, a couple who entered with the groom giving his giggling wife a piggy-back.

I have come into the office to discover a large mouse and Aladdin sat at my bosses’ desks tapping away at a keyboard before they went out to join and chat with those queuing for their panto tickets in the miserable January weather.

I have watched people from 11 to my own age come out of the TakeOver Festival exhausted but with the biggest grins on their face because, after months of hard work, they finally got to see their productions on the York Theatre Royal stage.

It stuck with me as I moved from department to department how it was universally understood that everyone who came through the doors of the theatre should get to be part of its community.

Working with the universities, with schools, with everyone involved in In Fog And Falling Snow and the York International Shakespeare Festival, I think with it boarded up over the next few months it will become clear how the theatre is so much more than a building with a broken roof and the best cakes.

Being part of the York Theatre Royal team is rewarding and most days surprising and hilarious - I’m yet to find it mundane, so I’ll be back, but next time with a degree and a little more time on my hands.

By Chloe Abley


• York Theatre Royal is fundraising for a £4.1 million redevelopment, taking place in 2015.

There is still £213,000 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 £5 or YTRC15 £10 to 70070.