Free tickets for theatre

LOCAL fans of the hit TV show “Hollyoaks” had stars in their eyes when one of its cast members dropped into Oldham Coliseum to highlight a new theatre initiative for young people.

Anthony Quinlan, who plays Gilly Roach in the Channel Four soap, popped into the Fairbottom Street theatre to greet his fans and talk about the innovative scheme, A Night Less Ordinary, which offers free theatre tickets to young people.

He said: “This is such a fantastic opportunity —I wish something like this had been around when I was younger. I’ll certainly be telling all my friends to take advantage.”

The two-year programme, funded by the Arts Council, encourages young people to discover a passion for the theatre and the Coliseum will be playing its part by offering a limited number of tickets for Tuesday and Thursday nights to anyone under the age of 26.
The £2.5m scheme, supported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, will get more young people into theatres across the country by providing 618,000 free theatre tickets to anyone under 26 in more than 200 venues nationwide until March, 2011.

Curtain up:Hollyoaks star Anthony Quinlan (who plays Gilly Roach) chats to fans at the Coliseum Theatre. L-R: Hannah Murray, Caitlin O’Ryan, Norah Lopez and Lauren Collier, who all attend the Oldham Theatre Workshop.