Theakstons sponsors musical celebration
T&R Theakston, the Masham-based brewer, is to sponsor a new musical stage show celebrating the life and work of the late Jake Thackray, the internationally acclaimed Swaledale-based singer/songwriter.
The production, Sister Jose-phine Kicks the Habit, will bring to life many of the eccentric characters created by Jake in his 30-year career, during which he was once dubbed "the Yorkshire Noel Coward".
Theakston director Simon Theakston said the decision to sponsor the production was both in recognition of Thackray's major contribution to modern culture and music and a commemoration of his close connections with the area of North Yorkshire close to Theakston's brewery at Masham.
He said: "We are delighted to be sponsoring this new show. As a company we have always had a strong association with live music and given that Jake Thackray spent so much of his life living in our part of the world writing songs about dales people, towns and villages it seemed a natural fit. He was a hugely talented craftsman and artist and we are very proud to be associated with this celebration of his life and work."
At the time of his death on Christmas Eve 2002 Jake was working on a musical incorporating his characters and songs. The work has been completed by Yorkshire poet and writer Ian McMillan, who has set it in a North Yorkshire village and written the narrative in rhyme.
The musical is directed by Yorkshire actor and director, Fine Time Fontayne and will have its world premiere at the Helmsley Arts Centre on 24 May 2005.
Executive producer, Ian Wat-son, of TAMAR Scarborough, said: "Jake was universally regarded as the foremost UK singer-songwriter of the late 20th century. In 80 or so songs he created a community of eccentrics, both comic and tragic and these will be brought to life by a cast of six actor/musicians in a celebration of Jake's work."
