The story
Founded in 1974, the theatre works with marginalized and disadvantaged communities using a combination of documentary theatre, music and recorded voices. The aim of the company is to create issue-led productions based on real-life experiences and in support of disenfranchised sections of society, performing to community and trade union audiences in pubs, clubs and community centres and at rallies, festivals and conferences.
A founder member of the company was former BBC radio producer Charles Parker, who with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, created the radio ballads, award-winning musical documentaries broadcast by the BBC in the 1960s and now available via Listen Again on
the BBC Radio 2 website. These have been a major influence on Banner's work and have recently informed development of a new form, the 'video ballad'.
Another founder member, and current artistic director, is Dave Rogers. He has written many of the company's songs and written or co-written most of their shows. Some 80 of his songs are published in Singing the Changes (Bread Books 2005) as well as social background and photographs from Banner's archives. Others have been released on Banner albums such as Black and White in the Red, Elixir of Life and Wild Geese.
Banners have been an important feature of the trade union movement, and provided the inspiration for the company's name and logo.
From Wikipedia’s article on Banner Theatre, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4