Last Thursday we were entertained by Marilyn Shalks who spoke to us about The History of the Manchester Theatres'. It was a very thorough and detailed talk, in which she explained how, after a period of volunteering to archive and catalogue old theatre programmes for the library, she realised what an interesting area of research it was. 

She went on to further pursue this interest and continued to make connections through Twitter and Facebook which furthered her research. This in turn led to her being invited to talk to various groups like our U3a. She enlightened us with some interesting facts.

For example, at one time there were as many as 15 theatres all clustered in the same area of Manchester, similar to the West End or Broadway! Who knew!!

She also included some video clips of various performers from the past, such as George Formby and Arthur Askey; while a clip of what was known as the Egyptian Dance and another of some performing pigeons clearly illustrated how the performing arts have changed.