Suzie Henderson/ Storyhouse- same initials, was this always meant to be ?

I don’t know but it is quite confusing when Storyhouse gets shortened to SH internally, I sometimes think that I’m responsible for something I’m not ! Perhaps it was always in the stars!

Tell us about your early life , you had a love of drama from an early age?

I got into a youth theatre as a teenager. I had quite a lot to say as a teenager and I think my Mum thought that perhaps needed challenging constructively so that my reports stopped saying “talks too much”. She came across an advert in our local paper, I grew up in a town called Tamworth , just north of Birmingham. A youth theatre had been started and it was super cheap, which was really important to my family otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to afford it. It opened up a whole world to me that I didn’t know existed. I was really lucky, I had lots of opportunities, I got to see shows in Edinburgh.

What shows did you enjoy and what were your influences?

At that age, I hadn’t seen a lot of theatre. In my town there was an arts centre and I saw a few touring shows, but we didn’t have a place like Storyhouse. We had to go to Birmingham to see theatre. We did a lot of physical theatre, devised work, new writing. I decided that I was interested in doing it as a career, I thought I wanted to be an actor. I realised when I was doing my degree that I didn’t have the resilience, and what I really cared about was access to the arts for all, and ways I could facilitate that . After my first year of studying drama I decided I didn’t want to be an actor.

Where else did you work before here?

I worked for an community arts organisation called The Public, which doesn’t exist anymore , in West Bromwich. We worked in community spaces, talking to communities, listening to what they were interested in, finding ways to facilitate art and creativity in non traditional art spaces. I learned loads. After that I got a job at Manchester at a place called Contact. The venue focused on young people who were under heard and under represented. Its on the edge of Moss Side, I was head of Creative Development there.

You came here in 2021. What is your role on a day to day basis?

Well, no day is the same in this job ! If I was to summarise it, as Creative Director I am really fortunate and I do feel privileged to have this job. To have the overall artistic vision for this organisation. In my team I have my Head of Cinema, Head of Programming, Head of Communities, Head of Producing, and our Head of Library, all the creative things that Storyhouse does. It’s really about joining the dots, making connections, making sure we are listening and responding .

Do you get to pick the shows that are coming or is that someone else’s role?

Emily, who is our Head of Programming, does that, but we do it as a team so we have programming meetings and strategy meetings. There’s a lot of conversation, I’m not a big fan of having one singular artistic vision, I feel you need multiple voices and perspectives in order to have a programme that reflects a broad range of people, otherwise in can become based on your own view and your own biases, whether you’re aware of them or not. Its important that there are multiple people chipping in on that. And its important we are listening to what are audiences are telling us , and what our young people are telling us. I am always getting people stopping me with ideas of what they want us to put on, or what they want us to bring back.

What would be your dream show to bring to Chester?

If anything was possible… I would love to bring Little Shop of Horrors back, that was a musical that I really connected with as a child. I watched the film with my dad. Maybe we might revisit it, we are going to be ten in a few years.. Touring wise, everyone would love to have Hamilton or any of these shows that are rarely seen outside of London, just to give people the chance to see something. We have just had Dear Evan Hansen here last week, which was fantastic.

I’ve seen many big shows here, Blood Brothers, Rocky Horror, things that you just couldn’t see in Chester before…

That’s really important to me, that people don’t have to travel to see these shows. Its amazing going to London, but its really expensive. That is outside of most people’s price ranges. If we can bring things to people in their local area.. We have a bit more say in the prices, not a big say, there’s standardised pricing when tours go out, but we can have a little bit of a say in it.

How hard is it to sell new shows, less well known productions?

I think that’s an area that we are really trying to build here, to encourage audiences to take what they might perceive as a bit of a risk, on something they don’t know. We are programming a lot more new writing into The Garrett now, we have introduced a pay what you decide model for some of those shows. There are lots of creatives in this city…

How would you assess the strength of culture and creativity in Chester? Years ago people spoke of the city being a cultural desert ..

I don’t believe that there’s anywhere that doesn’t have culture, its never true. People practice culture in their everyday lives, they listen to the music, watch films, write poetry, they don’t need to do that in a building. However it is amazing to have a building like Storyhouse. There is loads of creativity in Chester, but I don’t think its been championed enough, or had the light shined on it enough. People in Chester have felt like they have to go to Manchester of Liverpool to get their work seen. I want young people growing up in Chester, or coming to study here, that they could make a career here, and not feel like they have to leave.

How would you describe your relationship with local theatre groups?

Every year we seem to be working with more local groups. I know people like Tip Top and Castaway have been coming to Storyhouse pretty much since it opened. We have other groups using us now as well. We are a venue for a lot of the dance schools, House of Dance have their annual dance showcase here every year, and we now have a relationship with them, our Christmas show used their dancers. Sadly, we don’t have space for all of them, all of the time, because we are reliant on our commercial income and there is always a balance. Sometimes people can’t get the week they want for whatever reason, but I think that we have a good dialogue with the groups that we work with currently. I’m really excited because some of them are getting the rights for shows that have been released for amateur companies, Tip Top are doing Come From Away- and that’s not touring! No one can watch that apart from the Tip Top version. The quality of amateur theatre in Chester is incredible, the amateur groups are amazing and far above the standard I’ve seen in other places.

What is your favourite feature of Storyhouse ?

It’s got to be the public spaces, the library and the way people feel they can just hang out in the space. People are waiting when we open the doors at 8am, we have to ask people to leave when we closing, I think that’s so rare in 2025. There are so few spaces that are open as long as we are, 7 days a week. Even in big cities like Manchester, places are not open, it is so unique. Whenever we have people visiting, which we do a lot, we have local authorities and arts organisations coming in to look at Storyhouse as an exemplar of how to integrate libraries and other cultural services. People of all ages, across generations in one place together. To have young people and old people all in one place together, and no one feeling excluded.

How would you describe the impact of Storyhouse on Chester?

Its hard to imagine where all these people used to go before Storyhouse. People are always surprised when I tell them how young we are, especially as 2 of those years were a pandemic, operating quite differently. I believe that Storyhouse has done what was always intended. Transform this part of Chester, The New Market is a fantastic asset, Picturehouse. Even in the time since I arrived there’s been lots of new businesses opening. Its proved that culture is a brilliant economic regeneration tool, and a brilliant way of making people feel positively about a place. The night time economy, for visitors, people staying the weekend, creating that extra offer for people to do. Kudos to Cheshire West and Chester when they decided to put all that money into this building, it’s done what they said it would.

We are still averaging 30% of new bookers on every show. We are continually reaching out to new people who haven’t been part of our audience. We have a varied programme: the beer festival, the comedians, ballets, operas, Six the Musical. We don’t have a niche so we’re not going after the same people all the time, which does happen in big cities that have multiple venues. We want to be all things to all people. We are really excited about the Park, we have a brand new Sherlock Holmes and we are bringing back Pride and Prejudice, which we did during the pandemic. Our walk around show for children is Alice in Wonderland. Our panto this year is being directed by Chester’s John Young. We have Storyhouse Women coming up in May.

We were already doing called How to Talk to Men and Boys about toxic masculinity , and off the back off all the conversations about Adolescence , we are making that event free. Its hosted by Ben who chaired the Netflix premiere discussion with the cast and creatives. I feel like its exactly the type of work we should be doing at Storyhouse. We have moved the literature festival from November to May /June.

What do you think Storyhouse could do better?

I wish we had a bit more space, we are bursting at the seams. We have found a way of fitting in art exhibitions. We have 55 community groups that use this building every month, for free. That’s everything from domestic abuse support, bereavement support, book groups…board games, everything. We constantly get requests so its about trying to fit them all in. I think we need a broader music offer for young people , more space for that work. Obviously we have The Studio now [ in the former Boots unit ] when I arrived we couldn’t programme the Garrett because the youth theatre was in there all the time. We have been able to move their activity to The Studio and programme the Garrett with more new work.

A big challenge is communicating the depth of work that we do, its overwhelming to try and communicate that. It means that there’s lots of things that have a great impact that people don’t know about. There are so many hidden gems in this building.

When Storyhouse first opened it had its critics ranging from the choice of beers to the closeness of tables to the bookshelves. Do you still get critical comments ?

I think there will always be people who don’t feel like we align with exactly what they want. We are not a traditional library , there are 22 other branches in Cheshire West that have the more traditional offer. We do have the Quiet Area for people that don’t like music in the background. Its interesting I looked at the comments on the Council’s libraries consultation and people were asking for opening hours to be more like Storyhouse. We aren’t for everyone in that way, we do have to be mindful that the books are accessible. Of anywhere I’ve worked I feel like Storyhouse is well loved in Chester.