Recently I traveled to England on holiday and whilst there I also put on my hat as Artistic Director of the Bakehouse and went to make some professional connections with a local theatre company in Oxford. As a result, the Bakehouse may soon have a 'sister theatre company' arrangement with the OFS theatre in the UK. I'd noticed the OFS (Old Fire Station) theatre in Oxford on a previous trip, and was very much drawn to it because it is so quaint and reminds me very much of the Bakehouse. Not only does it have its origins outside the world of theatre as a building that traded as something completely different (it really was a Fire Station, just as the Bakehouse really was a bakery) but it is also very similar inside, being an intimate black-box style of theatre which holds around 150 audience members. The only real difference is that it also has a nightclub upstairs.

I arranged a meeting with Charlie Parker who kindly showed me around her theatre and was very helpful and happy to discuss and compare our different situations. We hope this may lead to a sort of 'exchange' arrangement in the future where some of our cast and crew could tour their shows over there and in turn the Bakehouse could host some British shows or cast members. By the way, just so you know, I also made the sacrifice of doing more theatre 'work' attending shows in London's West End. I even queued on the pavement from 5am to get tickets for the RSC production of Hamlet starring Patrick Stewart and David Tennant!