Lawrence Batley Theatre is a lot of things to a lot of different people, housed in a beautiful 200 year-old building, we are an arts charity working to make Huddersfield a better place to live and work, the only professional theatre in Kirklees and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.
But as we enter our 30th birthday year as a theatre. I have been reflecting on what it means to me personally.
I grew up in Huddersfield and it's not exaggeration to say that I could not wait to get away. Big cities promised adventure, opportunity and excitement and a chance to find my place, which I just didn’t feel in Huddersfield growing up. I spent time in Leeds, London and Manchester as I tried to make my mark. ‘find my people’ and figure out what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. I did a degree and an MA, volunteered, undertook unpaid internships and work experience met some incredible and inspiring people and worked in a series of terrible minimum wage jobs to pay the bills. Yet as time passed, a strange thing started to happen... I realised that I missed home, that actually Huddersfield had a lot to offer and the grass wasn’t always greener.
Sure the high street was dying, there weren’t a huge amount of jobs – particularly in the creative industries which is where I had decided I wanted to be - and it was easy to buy into the rhetoric of a sad post industrialist northern town. But actually, it’s a beautiful town with incredible independent businesses, and the people here are like nowhere else in the country and I wanted to play a part, even a small one, in celebrating everything that is great about being right here.
In 2019 I was fortunate enough to get a dream job at Lawrence Batley Theatre, and to be honest it has not been easy; navigating a pandemic, a cost of living crisis and heading up a charity at a time when arts and culture doesn't always get the recognition it deserves.
But everyday I get to come to this amazing building, work with an incredibly driven team of wonderful people and spread a little joy in people lives. 70,000 people come through our doors each year to be inspired and entertained, we bring performances to the town that we think the local communities deserve to have access to on their doorsteps at a price that they can afford, we enable 1000s of local people to perform in a professional theatre with world class facilities and we create jobs and opportunities at a time when they aren’t easy to come by.
Lawrence Batley Theatre changed my life, finally I feel like I have a place to call home and there is nowhere I would rather be than right here.
Keep an eye out on our website and socials as we announce more about our 30th year celebrations.
