Volunteers celebrating theatre’s 80th birthday
NESTLED in a residential street in Aberdare sits the Coliseum Theatre.
In the 80 years since it first opened, it has changed names and facades countless times.
However, one thing has remained the same – the people giving their time to keep it going.
For the theatre’s longest-serving volunteer, Olive Howells, this year’s 80th-anniversary celebrations will coincide with her 80th birthday.
And, after first taking to the stage in the 1970s, this autumn’s performance of Oklahoma! will also mark the great-grandmother’s last time as stage manager at the 600-seat venue.
“I was first involved in the Coliseum when I was in the Sound of Music in 1973. I was on the stage as one of the nuns,” said Olive, from Aberdare.
“I’d done something similar when I was younger in Sunday school, but that was the first time I was involved in amateur dramatics.”
From that moment onwards, the grandmother of six and great-grandmother of eight started what would become a lifelong love of theatre.
Balancing a job at Ladbrokes as well as raising a family, Olive started to volunteer at the box office and later backstage with the props at the Coliseum, as well as the Park & Dare theatre in Treor- chy and the Aberavon Grand Theatre.
Looking back, Olive said: “I managed it, but with great difficulty! I enjoyed it, I’ve always enjoyed it and I was younger then. My time was my own and that was it, it was great.”
Despite the enthusiasm of the volunteers, however, running the theatre wasn’t always easy.
In the 1970s a decision was made by the mining board who owned the theatre to turn the venue into a bingo hall.
The move sparked fierce opposition by volunteers and locals alike, who took the brave decision to take the running of the theatre into their own hands. Speaking about the potential closure, Olive said: “A lot of people in the Valleys were against it, there wasn’t any other theatres in the Valleys to put anything on.
“We decided to keep it going. We used to buy the bags of coal ourselves to keep it warm – a bag was 50p in those days.
“We used to pay it ourselves, there was no such thing as donations in those days.”
Backed by the public, the team of close-knit volunteers worked day and night to make the theatre profitable once more.
From there, Olive rose once again in the ranks to take on the role of stage manager.
She said: “I became stage manager in the late 1980s. It’s a big responsibility looking after it all, but I enjoyed it and it gives young people somewhere to go and something to do. I’ve met so many nice people and professionals too.”
Over the years Olive has met countless celebrities and stars, both on and off the stage.
As well as meeting the likes of Joe Pasquale, Chas and Dave and Jasper Carrott, youngsters she has taken under her wing to help stage manage have also moved on, including one man who now stage-manages Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the West End.
From September 12-15 the Showcase Performing Arts Association will put on a performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!.
For Olive, the show will be her last as stage manager. She said: “I think it’s time to elegantly back away.
“At the moment I’m at rehearsals a couple of times a week and the show starts September 12, so we’ll have the dress rehearsal and then we’ll see it in.”
For more information about the show, visit rcttheatres.co.uk/