3. “ Excellent, Among the very best.” The Stage 2008 “I could actually understand what was going on!” Audience feedback to our Facebook page Lodestar Theatre Company Ltd is a professional arts organisation with charitable status, formed in June 2006 in order to establish The Liverpool Shakespeare Festival . Our working methods are designed to nurture local talent and develop new audiences promoting the region as a centre of artistic excellence
4. “ They have given our city one of the world ’ s finest open-air theatres... This is a major coup for Liverpool” David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post 2008 Lodestar Theatre expresses a love of language and a passion for story-telling. Our vision is to present Classical plays as living, breathing texts with clarity and innovation. Shakespeare ’s language can often seem inaccessible to a modern audience. We have developed an action-based story-telling style that focuses on clarity
5. Our productions have attracted more than 15,000 local, national and international visitors and created employment for more than 50 local artists since 2007. Our previous supporters include the Liverpool Culture Company, PH Holt, the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, Lord Lieutenancy of Liverpool, Awards for All and the Hemby Trust. “ One of this summer ’s highlights ” The Independent 2007
6. “ The lighting, setting and direction were beyond criticism” BBC online 2008
7. “ Shakespeare as it should be performed, with wit and passion ... 9/10” Liverpool Confidential 2008.
9. “ Lodestar should be congratulated wholeheartedly on their achievement ” The Stage 2009.
10. Stephen Fletcher: “A Midsummer Night's Dream was one of my proudest moments of 2008. Following Lodestar, I was cast in a new musical at The Everyman, and then pantomime at The Liverpool Empire. Playing Oberon led to some great reviews, and has definitely put me in a better position to further my career in the NW” The Liverpool Shakespeare Festival is a large-scale event that provides a range of opportunities to local artists. Our local recruitment policy is designed to create sustained employment in the NW and to encourage artists to invest their careers here. Our mentoring scheme, whereby recent graduates are guided through their first professional job by more experienced cast-members is now firmly established and provides demonstrable benefits to those involved
11. This year, we plan to present an exciting new production of 'Romeo & Juliet' that will look to the streets of 19th Century Liverpool for its inspiration. We hope to extend our reach by taking our work to other venues around the NW and by undertaking a community drama project to involve the commissioning of a new verbatim theatre work to be presented alongside our main show. It is shaping up to be a superb festival with a real and tangible connection to its home audience
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13. “ Never mind to be or not to be, the question should really be to go or not to go and the answer is a resounding yes” Liverpool Echo 2009.
14. “ Powerfully moving...a triumph. . .to miss this Hamlet would be a tragedy” Liverpool Daily Post 2009.
