© BET T Y BHANDARI
BATH LIVES
people who I’ve admired for years… that’s probably a whole other interview, which needs lawyers present. Christopher Biggins is one of the few actors to ever come upstairs and thank the Box Office for selling tickets for his
GRAEME SAVAGE If you want celebrity gossip from Theatre Royal Bath’s digital marketing officer, you’d best bring a lawyer. Except, he will tell you the Queen is short… Graeme has been with the Theatre Royal Bath since May 1999 and looks after the social media and general marketing for the Theatre Royal, Ustinov Studio and Egg Theatre. He is also the founder and director of Merriman Theatre Group, an amateur and youth theatre company based in Midsomer Norton. He lives in Keynsham with wife Sarah, who works as a director of learning for a local multi-academy trust, and their two children, Emily and Oscar. I applied for four or five different jobs at the Theatre Royal, because I just knew it was somewhere I wanted to be working. I love the fact that it
can be different every week, with so many different shows and casts coming through the building.
I was an insurance salesman for two weeks, and I hated it. I became
106 I BATH LIFE I www.mediaclash.co.uk
a qualified butcher and fishmonger while working on the fresh meat counter at Waitrose, which made me very popular at BBQs, but not with vegetarians. I’ve been running my youth theatre since 1998, which takes
up most weekends and a lot of school holidays, but has been one of my proudest achievements. It’s been wonderful to see young people growing in confidence through the arts – we’re not about preparing them for a life on the stage, but are passionate about building confidence and social skills. Online rehearsals continued with the youth and amateur theatre companies during
lockdown. They were really important for keeping in contact with people and checking in on them, as well as having something to focus on. It also increased my technical skills for audio recording
and broadcasting. I got fitter too – playing football with the kids in the garden and having the time to go out cycling has been a real boost, physically and mentally. Lockdown unlocked my secret talent – turns out I have
a great skill for retaining useless information and statistics, which proved quite beneficial during those many Zoom quizzes. ‘Just face the right way, and don’t be sh*t.’ I said it once to a
group of kids during a rehearsal. It obviously stuck because when they left, they put it on a t-shirt for me as a thank you present. It has now become my motto for life! My favourite ever performance seen at the Theatre Royal was
Kenneth Cranham’s performance as Andre, struggling with dementia, in The Father (now a film starring Anthony Hopkins in the same role). It was originally at the Ustinov Studio, before it transferred to London, and Ken won the Olivier Award for Best Actor. I’ve never seen an audience so absolutely speechless as at the end of that performance. My best moments in this role
have been meeting famous people who I’ve admired for years. My worst moments, meeting famous
show, which puts him very high in their esteem. Oh, and I met the Queen and Prince Philip when I was invited to Buckingham Palace for a gala celebrating those who work with young people in the Arts. They’re both much shorter than you would think. And a non-theatre related celebrity story – I used to work with Alan Carr at Safeway in Northampton when we were both students. The mood for our Welcome Back Season is cautiously positive, I would say – it’s been
a lot of work to get the new season planned, but it’s a step in the right direction. As the director Danny Moar said, this isn’t about making money, it’s about getting the doors open and hoping to get some consumer confidence back for our loyal audience.
My son’s become a big Bath City fan in the last couple of years, and we go whenever we
can – a great atmosphere, not just at the match, but from all involved who make it a really passionate community club, with some pretty decent football thrown in too. I really hope that they can get fans back in soon, and the stadium redevelopment approved, as they’re a big asset to the city.
I’d lived in and around Bath for more than 20 years before we went on the open top bus tour with some friends who were
visiting, and it was a revelation. Definitely worth the couple of hours for the views around the American Museum if nothing else. n For more: www.theatreroyal.org.uk
