‘Dad used to play bingo there’ Sharon D Clarke: I have loved Hackney Empire from the first time I saw her. My dad used to play bingo there. The Empire is a beautiful example of Frank Matcham’s genius – the boards have been graced by legends, stalwarts and emerging talents. She has embraced all. I first performed there in 1991 with Nomad and met the Empire’s wonderful technical manager Othman “Hoff” Reid. It has been a joy to perform there over the years in panto, musicals and plays, and to lead the community choir along with Joseph Roberts. In 1999, I played Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, written and directed by a lady called Susie McKenna, who I eventually married (Hoff was Susie’s best man) on the Empire stage in 2008. This beautiful theatre has given me the love of my life and a family who are my true peeps to this day. My mum, one of Susie’s staunchest fans, has a plaque on a table seat near the bar. Sharon D Clarke stars in First, Do No Harm, commissioned by the Old Vic. Read more about the Hackney Empire. ‘I found a group of misfits like me’ Joe Murphy: As a kid I never quite fitted in. Too much energy, too much imagination and way too much bright ginger hair. Then I joined the youth theatre at the Lighthouse arts centre in Poole. I found my tribe: a group of misfits just like me. In the immortal words of Lester Bangs: “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.” I found the coolest bunch of uncool people, somewhere I belonged and something I loved doing so much I dedicated my whole life to it. I now have the privilege of running the Sherman theatre in Cardiff. Our mission is to do for people from all walks of life what the Lighthouse did for me: to show everyone that they belong. This is the value of the arts: it’s a place where we all fit in. Joe Murphy is artistic director of Sherman theatre. Read more about Lighthouse. ‘I spent summer pulling pints behind the bar’ Sarah Argent: I first visited the Tron in Glasgow for a performance in the intimate Victorian bar. I later spent many youthful hours drinking in that bar and my final summer at university pulling pints behind it. When the Tron’s main auditorium opened in 1982, I was on work experience there; the excitement at the possibilities of the larger performance space was palpable. During Michael Boyd’s artistic directorship actors including Maureen Beattie, Alan Cumming, Douglas Henshall, Forbes Masson, Peter Mullan and Siobhan Redmond gave electrifying performances in plays by Scottish, Russian and Quebecer writers, by Shakespeare, and a truly thrilling adaptation of Ted Hughes’s Crow. In 1989, I pinched myself as I sat at a desk in Michael’s office, helping with the administration of a festival of Soviet art, making visa applications on behalf of the Lithuanian State Theatre, and talking animatedly with Michael about theatre and his time in Moscow. I was delighted to return in 2004 to see a performance (directed by my husband for Welsh company Theatr Iolo) of Bison and Sons by Dutch writer Pauline Mol. The entire company loved the atmosphere, the welcoming staff, the Changing House Studio and the bar. I still try to visit whenever I’m home in Glasgow. The Tron continues to be a distinctly Scottish theatre, producing and programming exciting work with an internationalist outlook and engaging with its local community. It has a special place in my heart and the hearts of so many Glaswegians. Sarah Argent is a freelance theatre-maker for young audiences. Read more about the Tron. ‘My first job was chasing Ian McDiarmid around stage’ Robert Hastie: It feels like cheating to choose the theatre where I currently work but, ever since I was at drama school, Sheffield Theatres has been a sort of beacon to me. I used to come up on the train as a student to see Michael Grandage’s revelatory productions. When I graduated, my first stage job was chasing Ian McDiarmid round the Crucible as a panicked guard in Edward Bond’s Lear. I’ve never forgotten the feeling of walking on to that stage for the first time. The Crucible is one of the very few theatres I know where, whichever door you come in from as an audience member, you can immediately see everyone else you’re about to watch the show with; no tiers, no segmentation, just a big democratic hug of an auditorium, wrapped round one of the best stages an actor (or snooker player) can stand on. I’m biased, but I love it. Robert Hastie is artistic director of Sheffield Theatres. ‘It gave me a sense of belonging’ Michael Buffong: My introduction to theatre, aged 17, was watching a youth production called A Time for Celebration at Theatre Royal Stratford East. I saw young people who looked and sounded like me talking about problems I recognised and it was right in front of my eyes. I felt viscerally that I wanted to be part of what was happening on that stage and so joined their youth theatre group soon after. As a young person growing up in east London, I got a real sense of belonging. The skills I learned there – confidence, empathy and trusting my own voice – I took into the wider world. There was such a sense of community and social cohesion because I knew that I could walk through those doors and feel at ease. It’s a feeling that has existed within Talawa’s TYPT programme for emerging black theatre-makers and one that I want to make happen again in our new studio, a space for young people to feel comfortable, welcomed and free to grow and learn as artists. Michael Buffong is artistic director of Talawa whose series Tales from the Front Line documents the pandemic stories of black frontline workers. Read more about Theatre Royal Stratford East. ‘A shining beacon of creativity’ Katie Posner: “Happy birthday to you!” It’s not often you’re sung to by a smiling group of strangers, but when I walked into Storyhouse in Chester I was greeted with a tremendous warmth that will stay in my heart. I had arrived to direct an adaptation of Swallows and Amazons by Bryony Lavery. My time there would make me wiser and emotionally richer. I remember artistic director Alex Clifton proudly showing us around the beautiful theatre. Here was a shining beacon of creativity, a former cinema that now bustled with vibrancy and verve. The old screen space led to the stage, books surrounded me in the library, which sits proudly as part of this creative hub: art co-existing, living and breathing around us. Alex spoke with passion about the Chester community and how it was at the heart of everything they did. As I blew out the candles, I was passed a star as a present from the theatre. On its front it read: “Tell a beautiful story.” It’s a phrase I believe in and always hope to achieve. Katie Posner is co-artistic director of Paines Plough. Read more about Storyhouse.