MATE Productions - 0151 281 8461

MATE Productions - community arts organisation based in Knowsley, Merseyside. Click page info for more...

MATE Productions (previously Merseyside Arts Theatre & Education) is a vibrant and successful community arts organisation based in Knowsley, led by Director Gaynor La Rocca and a team of professional practitioners (see staff team below).

Gaynor set up MATE in March 2000 in response to a local need for a community theatre company with professional standards, led by professionals, that would provide a training ground and exciting opportunities for both aspiring professional performers, and for community performers who had chosen to pursue other career paths (or made other life choices) but retained a passion for the arts. MATE uses the mediums of theatre, film, storytelling and music to engage with local people, communities and young people across Merseyside.

MATE has a reputation for staging exciting high quality productions in a wide range of genres; from physical comedic storytelling to multi-media productions, new music theatre to adaptations of classic texts, social community drama to site-specific promenade theatre and theatre in the parks. The company performs regularly in theatres, arts and cultural venues, parks, schools and community venues, local festivals and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Since 2000 MATE Productions has produced more than 25 quality productions, both independently and working with exciting creative partners such as Spike Theatre, St Georges Hall, Croxeth Hall, Knowsley Cultural Services, National Waterways Museum and Mikron Theatre. MATE Productions continues to grow and flourish; in 2012 following 5 star reviews and sell out shows for 'The Yarn', MATE was listed in MADEUP in Liverpool as 'Best Community Production' in their 'Best of Liverpool Theatre's 2012'. The MATE Ensemble are presently working with published playwright Rob Brannen on a new play 'Grace and the Sea', written especially for the company, commissioned by De Montford University and funded by the BBC Performing Arts Fund and Arts Council England; while simultaneously working with Contact Theatre in Manchester, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare North on a large scale community production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' for 2015.

MATE offers a wide variety of services and opportunities for young people, performers of all ages, the community and for schools. For more information email: director@mateproductions.co.uk or ring 1015 281 8461 / 07833 204058.