Talking to Shoebox Theatre’s artistic director Luke Marquez is like talking to a child in a sweet shop. His eyes are gleaming with excitement and he is finding it hard to contain his passion.
He said: “We only just received the keys on Monday. It’s still a lot to get our heads around.”
We are standing with his wife Hannah, the marketing director, in the empty shell that is the Post Modern Art Gallery in Theatre Square in Swindon. All the walls are white (apart from a single Billy Beaumont painting) as if the space is a blank canvas waiting to be filled by the up and coming Shoebox Theatre.
“We are hoping to open the new theatre in the spring next year. We are pretty excited at the moment just imagining all the possibilities.”
The couple originally founded Wrong Shoes Theatre Company in 2009 as a company specialising in site specific and devised theatre.
Their vision for the new site, which will have about 50 seats once it it transformed and is being run in collaboration with Artsite, is that it will be for contemporary and original work and will offer something different to what The Wyvern Theatre and Swindon Arts Centre offer.
Hannah said: “Part of our remit for funding is to provide a space that can be a hotbed of creativity. We want theatre companies to use us for performances that will bring something new to the area. The other theatres are fantastic at what they do but we’ll be looking to put on more leftfield and more experimental works. This will not necessarily lead to bums on seats.”
At the moment, the committee behind the theatre have not exactly worked out how much they will charge people to use their space but have assured us that it will be reasonable.
Luke said: “A company putting on a new production at The Arts Centre and Wyvern will have to take a huge financial risk to get the space in the first place. We want to offer a cheaper alternative so that the financial risk is not so great. In that way people can take a few more risks and be more creative in what they do.
“Obviously, as part of our funding, they will have to fulfil certain criteria that it is an original piece of work for us to be able to put it on, but at least we’re able to give a space to new work here, whether it is art exhibitions, live music, dance or theatre.”
Wrong Shoes Theatre Company itself is a devised theatre company, which means that the performance and script is created during rehearsals around a theme to come up with a complete work. It is a form of theatre where the script originates not from a writer or writers, but from collaborative, usually improvisatory, work by a group of people (usually, but not necessarily, the performers). The venue is currently being used for several beginners and advanced devised theatre workshops.
Over the past few years the company has performed several shows including one called Anima, a darkly futuristic tale that ended up being critically acclaimed on the Edinburgh Fringe, and several performances at The Post Modern Art Gallery including The Magnificent Doctor Faustus and The Gathering, a promenade performance that took people on a magical Valentines journey.
The company prides itself on its attention to detail especially when it comes to props and costume design and even works with local students at Commonweal to get things right.
Luke said: “We’ve always found Swindon to be a hugely cultural place. There’s so much talent right here on our doorstep and we’re hoping that we can be a part of a massively buzzing cultural quarter in the town.
“We want this talent to stay in Swindon and to have the facilities to really shine in Swindon without having to go elsewhere. This space is going to be transformed into a multi-pupose theatre space and will be a major asset for the town.”
To find out more details visit www.wrongshoes.co.uk