After the Scandal: How a Community Theatre Starts Over

(Photo: North West Place)

by Chris Peterson

There are few places more dependent on trust than a community theatre. What keeps a community theatre alive is the faith people place in it. When that trust is broken, the damage does not stay attached to the person who caused it.

That is what makes the reopening of Thornton Little Theatre in Blackpool so complicated and, I imagine, so emotionally difficult for everyone involved. 

The venue, previously operating as Cre8iv Little Theatre, closed after its former boss, Chris Higgins, was jailed for sexual communication with a child. Higgins, a piano and theatre teacher, was sentenced to 10 months in custody after pleading guilty. A 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order was also imposed. Police said sexually explicit and inappropriate messages were recovered, including references to taking the child to a hotel in London.

The case also raised questions about safeguarding and supervision. According to reporting, the victim’s parents questioned how Higgins was still able to be around young people while under investigation.

Now, Wyre Council says the theatre is set to reopen under new leaseholders Claire and Ged Mills, with plans for entertainment, theatre, community events, and creative opportunities. I hope they succeed. Local theatres matter, and communities lose something real when those spaces go dark.

But for the new leadership, this is not simply a matter of unlocking the doors, announcing a season, and hoping people move on.

They are inheriting a building, a history, and a wound.

Community theatres often describe themselves as families. Sometimes that language is lovely. Sometimes it can also hide problems. After a scandal, especially one involving the safety of young people, the language of family has to give way to more concrete policies.

There will probably be people who desperately want Thornton Little Theatre to thrive again. But wanting something back does not mean pretending nothing happened.

I hope Thornton Little Theatre becomes a safe, joyful, busy place again. I hope local performers get their stage back and that families once again feel comfortable walking through those doors.

But the lesson for every community theatre is larger than one venue near Blackpool. A theatre’s reputation is not built only by the shows it produces. It is built by the culture it tolerates, the questions it welcomes, the protections it puts in place, and the seriousness with which it treats the people who trust it.

Starting over is possible. But in community theatre, starting over has to mean more than a new name on the lease. It has to mean proving, day by day, that the room is worthy of the people who enter it.