How did Scoot Start?

 

I started Scoot Theatre because I wanted to offer some live theatre again after months of being stuck inside during lockdown number 1.  With all theatre buildings closed at the time, a bit of thinking outside of the box was required in terms of where our first production could be staged.

 

On a bike ride with my little boy one afternoon we cycled past a cricket pitch and it struck me as the perfect venue – a community focal point complete with big open space and facilities! I started contacting all my local clubs immediately (this was before any restrictions were eased, so it was all hypothetical) but luckily they liked the idea of hosting an outdoor, family-friendly, sixty minute version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ so we started setting dates in the hope that restrictions would ease in time.

 

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Our production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream toured

ten venues in two weeks, played to over 2500 audience

members in total, received two mentions in

The Guardian and one four-star review in The Telegraph.

 

Since then we have collaborated with East Molesey Cricket Club twice:

in October 2020 for an evening of ‘Songs from the Musicals’ and in December 2020 for our brand

new adaptation of ‘A Christmas Carol’.

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You can read more about these shows on our Past Shows page here:

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I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved in our first year.

To hear people laughing and giving such warm feedback after the shows felt like an important step towards some normality. The fact that we made sure our audiences felt safe enough to come out in large numbers in such strange times also confirmed to me the necessity of theatre. For me, as an audience member, more than anything I want to be entertained and so I’ve made that our number one priority for Scoot. We’re going to offer all sorts of things and cater for all sorts of tastes and I hope you walk away from all of our shows feeling a bit warmer and a bit brighter than before!