Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Alan Knight at Mottisfont in 1981. Outdoor Summer productions caught the public’s attention whether at Mottisfont or at Wolvesey Palace, Winchester. The outdoors provided the opportunity to use extra special effects: in this production towards the climax there was a horse on the stage and also fireworks (and actors) — all at the same time!

 

 

Roy Faithful (then a student, centre), Pam Bagguley and John Sykes in Chekov’s The Proposal, the play which opened the John Stripe Theatre in October 1969.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plays involving prisoners, staff and students have been a feature of university outreach in recent years. Here is a detail from Oh What a Lovely War by Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop (2006)

 

 

 

 

To the right is a shot from the Prison production of The Convict’s Opera by Stephen Jeffries (2009).

The Box, by Design Engine, won an RIBA Award and is shortlisted for a Civic Trust Award. It provides additional space for Performing Arts students.

 

 

 

Musical outreach. The Reverend Professor June Boyce-Tillman conducting in Winchester Cathedral where she has masterminded many ecumenical musical events.