Sunderland Empire

I'm going to see THIS on Tuesday:-

I've not been to the theatre in years, and I've never been to the Empire so it should be good fun.  I'm going to take my sketchbook and do some scribbling.  There will probably be some good characters there, and perhaps some people to interview.



A Brief History of the Empire (paraphrased from www.sunderlandempire.org.uk)

"Vesta Tilley laid the foundation stone of what is now the Sunderland Empire on 29 September 1906 and took to the stage on 1 July 1907 to officially declare it open"

Who is Vesta Tilley?  She was a drag king!  Haha. People loved her because she was an independence figure for woman, and entertaining for everyone else.  Must have been the equivalent of getting Gok Wan to open a book shop or something. Here's a poster of her:-

 

Three men were behind the beginnings of the Empire; Edward Moss, Oswald Stoll and Richard Thornton.  Thornton was originally from South Shields, and came from the lowly beginnings of a busker on Marsden sea front

Here is Richard!  **awaiting permission to use image from this website **


For more history see www.sunderlandempire.org.uk