Past Productions
Here are details of all our past productions
Unsinkable
This large scale community musical was produced in partnership with the Hammond School, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The cast of over a hundred was composed of community actors, Hammond School dance and drama students and members of Jigsaw, TIQ’s young people’s theatre company.
Written by Richard Wolfenden Brown and Matt Baker. Directed by Ruth Alexander Rubin. Composer/ Musical Director Matt Baker. Designed by Judith Croft. Choreography by Katherine Robinson.
Across the World
Starring ten choirs, children from 12 primary schools, the Chester Schools’ Concert Band, Homegrown Dance Theatre and 5 giants from Chester the Giant City. Matt Baker’s Olympic anthem involved an astonishing 700 performers and attracted an audience of 3000 to Chester’s Roman amphitheatre. Presented by A Handbag of Harmonies in collaboration with Theatre in the Quarter, the anthem was commissioed by the BBC and LOCOG for the Music Nation weekend as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Star of Wonder
Starring: Emily Barlow, Isla Carter, Paul Dabek, Michael Magnet
On Christmas Eve, 1899, under the watchful eyes of a packed house in Chester’s music hall, the impossible happens! The fate of two young lovers hangs in the balance as the lines between illusion and reality, love and ambition are blurred by their encounter with the beautiful and exotic magician known as Isis, the Star of Wonder, self-proclaimed possessor of the lost secrets of ancient Egyptian magic. Star of Wonder used song and dance, magic and melodrama to explore the mysterious compact between playwright, actors and audience which creates the real magic of theatre. Clink the link for a compilation of music from the show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E18hiYqefjU&feature=player_embedded.
Writer Helen Newall; Composer/Music Director Matt Baker; Director Russ Tunney; Designer Emma Cains; Lighting Designer Mark Dymock; Illusion Consultant Paul Dabek; Choreographer Lindsay Inglesby; Technical Stage Manager Rebecca Loxton.
A Jacobean Christmas
Starring: Melissa Daly, Ian Hayles, Tom Latham, Max Rubin, Harriet Barrow, Stavros Demetraki, Emma Higginbottom, and the Theatre in the Quarter Choir
Presented in the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. Script by Helen Newall, music by Matt Baker.
Forgotten Fortress
Starring: Harriet Barrow, Stavros Demetraki, Emma Higginbottom, Thomas Latham
Written by Helen Newall with music by Matt Baker, Forgotten Fortress was commissioned as part of Habitats and Hillforts, a three year project to explore, preserve and publicise the iron age hillforts along Cheshire’s Sandstone Ridge and their surrounding environments. The play also involved around 200 children from fourteen primary schools around Cheshire in a dramatic re-imagining of the impact of Rome’s conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD. Directed by Russ Tunney, design by Emma Cains, lighting design by Anna Barrett.
James
Starring: Michael Cole, Melissa Daly.Ian Hayles. Tom Latham
James:a new historical play by Helen Newall with music by Matt Baker, Commissioned by the 2011 Trust to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, one of the glories of Enlish prose writing, James is a dramatic musical retelling of the story of King James I and VI, highlighting the religious struggles of the day, his obsession with witchcraft, the Gunpowder Plot and his subsequent speech to Parliamant pleading for religious toleration. As the king lay dreaming on his deathbed,Helen Newall’s script brought James’ turbulent times vividly and wittily to life. It was directed by Max Rubin and designed by Judith Croft, with lighting design by Adam Butcher. The cast was supported by a community choir singing Matt Baker’s evocative original score.
Home for Christmas
Starring: Roanna Cochrane, Emma Higginbottom, Tom Latham. Michael Magnet
Following on from the huge success of 2008′s sold-out tour of ‘Silent Night’, Theatre in the Quarter’s Christmas production was based on Chester residents’ recollections of Christmas during World War II. ‘Home for Christmas’ featured a cast of four professional actors supported by a choir drawn from local communities. The play toured for three weeks in December to venues throughout Chester and Cheshire. Written by Helen Newall with music by Matt Baker, Directed by Russ Tunney, design by Judith Croft.
Silent Night
This highly acclaimed show, built around the story of the Christmas Truce in the Great War, was TITQ’s first professional touring production. It was a sell out in all of the venues and starred Elizabeth Bassham, Paul Dabek, Thomas Latham and Jay McWinen.
Writer:Helen Newall, Composer and musical director Matt Baker. Director: Russ Tunney
Designer: Heather Shaw. Lighting: Ben Willetts.
Garden Lane – The Musical
In September 2008 the Pavilion at Chester Racecourse was transformed into a theatrical space to present this hilarious and moving play based on the problems and tensions experienced by a local community as it struggles to to maintain its sense of identity and pride in the face of change. Written by local playwright Rob Edmunds with music by Matt Baker, the show was brought to life by a company of twenty young actors and musicians
Directed by Ally Cutler, design by Rhyannon Richardson, Lighting by Ben Willetts Choreography by Lindsay Ingoldsby.
Twelve Days of Christmas
A professional and community cast of a hundred performers of every age, all drawn from the local community, presented our third original production in the beautiful and unusual setting of St Thomas of Canterbury Church, in the Garden Quarter of Chester. As Professor Crumple tried to explain the meaning of the Twelve Days of Christmas, the audience were literally immersed in the atmosphere of carollers, mummers, scholars, choristers, children singing the Nativity story, St George and even the Lord of Misrule.
Written by Helen Newall, with music by Matt Baker. Directed by Gav Cross, Design by Cathy Cross, lighting by Ben Willetts.
Sweet Sixteen
Theatre in The Quarter’s second major production. Sweet Sixteen was inspired by the stories and memories of people living in and around our city, as they remembered being sixteen years of age. The production, bursting with energy, music, dance, photo imagery and a very multi-talented company, performed to very large audiences at Chester’s Gateway Theatre in September 2006.
Written by Helen Newall, with music by Matt Baker. Directed by Max Rubin, lighting by Ben Willetts, design by Cathy Cross.
Some Sunny Day
‘Some Sunny Day’ was a weave of memories and stories from the Second World War, inspired by the people and the places of Chester’s Garden Quarter, and told by a company of talented young actor/musicians from the Chester area. The play was a magical theatrical timepiece, evoking, through drama and song, the real world of a close knit urban community of Chester, as it experienced the Second World War both at home and away. Performed to sell out audiences at Chester’s atmospheric Guild Hall.
Writer:Helen Newall, composer and musical director Matt Baker.
Directed by Ally Cutler, design by Cathy Cross,choreography by Lindsay Ingoldsby