Cornwall's Miracle Theatre company looks on 47 years

"Everyone in the company is encouraged to put in their input."

So says Bill Scott, leader of Cornwall's Miracle Theatre troupe, which started with just three people and now has four full-time staff members and up to 15 freelancers during production periods.

Now celebrating 47 years of work, the company has produced a range of adaptations of well-known plays, as well as self-written performances, which are often held in open-air venues across the South West.

Scott, who is co-artistic director and chief executive of the company based in Penryn, said it was important for them from the start to entertain local people while having "quite a lot of comedy".

Miracle Theatre started when Scott, Steve Clarke and Keri Jessiman decided to create an adaptation of the Cornish Ordinivia in 1979 - a series of stories from the Bible but with a humorous twist.

Scott said, as a touring company, it had to be "very flexible and adaptable" because sometimes they would be performing in gardens, parks, old bits of houses, school playing fields and beaches.

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Scott said originally the group of three would tour around local pubs and then on to high streets.

Since those early days, they have gone on to perform in large settings, including the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno, which Scott said was an "amazing treat".

Scott said, as a touring company, "you have to bend whatever you're doing to fit that environment and also try and make something of the environment you're in".

"Because things happen, you can't control it, so you have to turn those occasions to their advantage," he said.

Scott added the company was fortunate to receive regular funding by the Arts Council England and Cornwall Council.

"We didn't have any funding support in the early days," Scott added.

"Everyone was doing it for the love and a share of the box office takings, but now we get funding from the Arts Council and Cornwall Council.

"It's a very different sort of organisation."

Scott said he would often write the scripts or do an adaptation before it went into rehearsals.

"Everyone in the company is encouraged to put in their input," he said.

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