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King's Head Celebrates 40th With Promenade Theatre

The King's Head Theatre, one of the London Fringe's best loved venues, will be celebrating its 40th birthday this October with a free promenade show taking place around Islington and culminating in a screening of a documentary about the theatre.

On Our Street, which takes place on 2, 3, 9 and 10 October, is part of the Story of London Festival 2010, a series of events brought together by the Mayor of London's office. It will involve six professional performers alongside 15 community volunteers who will work with a local historian to create a piece of theatre that reflects the area and the past of the King's Head. The show will feature song and dance and ends with the documentary, A Maverick in London, which tells the story of the theatre under the artistic directorship of founder Dan Crawford.

The King's Head was founded in 1970 and claims to be the first pub theatre in England since the time of Shakespeare. Crawford ran the theatre until his death in 2005 at the age of 62. His wife and associate director, Stephanie Sinclaire, took over as creative director and relaunched the theatre as an independent producing house two years later, but it was only in March this year that a new artistic director was announced. Adam Spreadbury-Maher now runs the King's Head in conjunction with his other venture, the Cock Tavern, in Kilburn.

The Mayor, Boris Johnson, who lives locally to the King's Head, has called the theatre, "a little gem" and praised the "way it has brought theatre to locals and theatergoers from across the capital over the years".

- by Jo Caird - Theatregoer Reporter

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