Some News from the Nursery

10 Oct Some News from the Nursery

Dear friends,

First of all, thank you for all of the support we have had over the last 18 months of running the Nursery Theatre in Broadgate (and indeed the last nine years of running the company). To all the volunteers, staff, acts, and audience member who have together made our first dedicated theatre such an amazing endeavour, thank you.

So we live in interesting times, with change the only constant. In that spirit, by agreement with Theatre Delicatessen, the Nursery Theatre will be leaving 2 Finsbury Avenue Square at the end of March next year. We will be sad to do so, but running a bar and a theatre in a building that is not designed for it is difficult, as is managing two similar arts organisations under the same roof. We are very grateful to all the folks at Deli, British Land and Broadgate Estates for the support and the opportunity and excited to see what comes round next.

We have done a lot in that little place and are very happy that it was our first dedicated theatre. Whether it was a full house or only a handful in the audience, every show had something to be proud of; from Nursery Originals to Slapdash International to local improvisers in their very first shows.

The Nursery introduced many new people to improvisation. We have had shows based on Harry Potter, parliamentary inquiries and children’s books, cabarets, fairy tales and five a side football, streamed hundreds of hours of improvisation and deftly avoided litigation a few times. We even sold our own beer. We have supported shows that have toured nationally and internationally and welcomed performers and audience members from Finland to Australia, Peru to India.

Also, remember that time we were voted runner up in Time Out culture spot in the city?

This is not the end. We will be back, bigger and better, and we are so grateful to have our ‘theatre in a box’ to take away with us, financed by our Indiegogo campaign. The Nursery has been on the move before and, while we do not expect to immediately find ourselves the perfect new building, we are taking this opportunity to examine what we do and have been doing, and to see what the London, UK and European improvisation scenes need. The Nursery Training Centre will remain open of course and we will be back very soon with a rebrand, some new and old faces and a new plan. Don’t worry, we’ll be keeping you informed.

We would also love to hear from you, friends of The Nursery: What does the Nursery mean to you? What should it look like in the future? You can get Jules or Judith on the emails below. In the meantime we are still holding shows & jams at the theatre regularly so please come along to support, laugh, perform, drink and hang out.

jules@thenurserytheatre.com
judith@thenurserytheatre.com

Thanks again to everyone

Jules, Judith and the Nursery Team (Britt, Chris, Heather, Jennifer, Jonah, Juwel, and Stephen)