Theatre is one of my passions. Last week I wrote about the development of the Rose Theatre in Kingston, and I will return to that subject again, no doubt.

I am no longer on the Board of the theatre, but I am an Ambassador, and I do still get involved in several ways. As a volunteer I turn up at least once a week in my natty uniform for Front of House duties – ushering, looking after the cloakroom or selling programmes. For many years I have also attended one or other of the many drama groups that come under the Rose Participate umbrella, along with over 1000 other people. In fact, we have the biggest Youth Theatre in the country. And, of course, I get to see all our in-house productions, plus many of the visiting companies.

So I am rather missing all that.

My drama group has continued to meet each week via Zoom, mainly to talk about and recommend productions and box sets to view at home. We all make a point of watching the National Theatre at Home offering for the week and review it together. Our tutors have also set us some simple tasks – last week we each selected and read a poem that we loved.

The Rose, like many other theatres, is trying to find ways of creating content, and giving work to actors and other creatives during lockdown – theatres expect to be shut for many months to come. Every day it posts a new contribution to Readings from the Rose, which have so far included poetry readings by Niamh Cusack, Anton Lesser, Arthur Darvill, Christopher Eccleston and others, including my favourite by Paterson Joseph.

The theatre has also launched a Rose Endures Fund to encourage people to contribute to the future of the theatre. Running a theatre is a very risky business at the best of times, and I don’t want to come out of this period of darkness to discover that our public cultural life has disappeared for good.

So what are other theatres doing? The Royal Opera House is offering a weekly filmed #FromOurHouseToYourHouse performance of opera or ballet. As with the National Theatre these were originally streamed live for Event Cinema. They tend to be available on YouTube for a limited time so you need to catch them while they are there.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is similarly releasing a recording of a live stage performance of one of his musicals each week under the title The Shows Must Go On.

I had tickets for the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith over Easter so I have been getting emails from them about what they are doing at the moment. They offer free Art films through their Virtual Cinema programme.

This is a very tough time for theatres, for actors, for directors and for all the theatre staff who provide us with such a rich cultural life in this country. We must nurture them.

Please note

We have been in full self-isolation since 16th March to protect my husband whose immune system is compromised.

If you are in self-isolation then join the Lib Dems in self-isolation Facebook group.

You can find my previous Isolation diaries here.

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.