History
Dave Savage, Chairman
In February 1988, a team of people sat in a lounge and dreamt of starting a theatre company for young people. Giving them the opportunity to work and socialise in a healthy environment and to provide training in all aspects of theatre and the performing arts. With professional directors, musicians, choreographers and technicians the youngster can gain confidence and experience in this field in addition to valuable guidance and assistance in all social and career matters especially those related to the entertainment industry and finally to provide top quality entertainment for the community by happy, enthusiastic young people.
Starmaker is not only providing all of these things, but much more. We continue to be inventive and push the barriers of the Company and its members and to help give our members, both past, present and we hope the future, more opportunities in the performing arts sector.
With four or five productions each year, including musicals, plays and serious drama, we offer classes that help people improve in dance, drama and singing techniques and we aim to give our members the opportunity to enjoy working in all genres of the performing arts. We have performed at The Hexagon, Reading, The Kenton Theatre in Henley, The Wilde Theatre in Bracknell, The Fulcrum in Slough, The Corn Exchange in Newbury, The Desborough Hall and Pearce Suite in Maidenhead, The Oakwood Theatre in Woodley, Wokingham Theatre, Shinfield Theatre etc and have performed almost 90 shows.
With over 4000 costumes that are made available to schools and local theatre groups, we are constantly looking for ways to expand the support we give to others. Starmaker is also very proud of the fact that it has helped other charitable organisations in raising funds, and supporting them in their very worthy aims.
Starmaker is itself a registered charity, formed for the benefit of people in Reading, Berkshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire and is not part of a major franchise. Many of our members have gone on to be professionally trained in performing arts colleges all over the country and many are now working professionally in Theatre, Film and Television.
Starmaker hopes to be able to continue to operate for many years to come and if you are able to offer help, it would be most appreciated as we do not receive any public funding and have to survive purely on our own resources. The help can come in many ways, including Financial, or through helping us to increase our profile, working with us on many of our voluntary teams, or just coming and supporting our members in the productions they do. But whatever help you can give, is very much appreciated.
