It's a wrap for Newbury's Watermill theatre

Missing Theatre Live tape spreads message of Covid-19's impact

The Watermill Theatre has joined theatres up and down the country taking action to highlight the impact of Covid-19 on the performing arts industry by wrapping their building in tape printed with the message 'Missing Live Theatre'.

Set and costume designer Katie Lias who is an Associate Artist at The Watermill Theatre said: “Wrapping theatres in ‘Missing Live Theatre’ tape was a concept that originated from a collective of designers called Scene Change who, recognising how sad and empty looking our beautiful buildings had become (some even surrounded by hazard tape), wished to subvert this and create a positive image. This new tape instead wraps our theatres in a positive message of love: we’re all missing live theatre, but we’re still here and we’ll be back.

Starting with the National Theatre, each theatre has been wrapped by a small team of local creatives and technicians for a period of one week before the tape is taken down and sent to a new venue.”

The Watermill continues to be closed and has reduced its operations, resulting in the majority of Watermill Theatre staff being placed on temporary furlough leave.

Katie, whose recent credits for The Watermill include set and costume design for The Prince and the Pauper, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was joined by members of The Watermill’s in-house production team, Lawrence Doyle, Harry Armytage, Eden Harrhy, Natalie Toney and Jamie Kubisch-Wiles to wrap the theatre in a striking ‘W’ design with the Missing Live Theatre tape.