Last Sunday marked the 40th birthday of the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff and people have been sharing their favourite memories of the venue through an interactive installation.
The memory project - Stepping Back, Looking Forward - was created by artists Liz Price and Heloise Godfrey-Talbot using photographs and memorabilia from the theatre's archives.
They have created a series of Narnia-like wardrobes for each decade and invited staff, visitors and friends of the theatre to step back to different periods in its history to think about their favourite performances, personal stories about colleagues and key moments in the building's story and share them by writing them inside the wardrobes.
Members of the public can also submit their favourite memories online at the Sherman Theatre website.
The theatre first opened on 17 November 1973 as part of Cardiff University but did not become the Sherman until a decade later when it was also made a charity. However, it wasn't until 2007 that it adopted its current name, Sherman Cymru, after the merger of Sherman Theatre and Sgript Cymru.
The venue has enjoyed numerous high-profile shows, including the debut play Everything Must Go by Patrick Jones, the brother of Manics bassist Nicky Wire in 1991; Ruth Jones in Educating Rita in 2006; patron Sian Phillips in Frantic Assembly's Lovesong in February 2012; and Ruth Madoc playing the infamous Welsh singer Dorothy Squires in the theatre's production of Say It With Flowers in May of this year.
Ruth Madoc as Dorothy Squires in Say It With Flowers. Photo: Farrows Creative
It also co-produced the award-winning play by Dafydd James, Llwyth (Tribe) with Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, which has travelled around Wales three times, entertained audiences in London and Edinburgh and in August 2012 went to the Taipei Arts Festival in Taiwan and is now the subject of a documentary film.
Director of Sherman Cymru, Chris Ricketts, said: "Llwyth has been a fabulous production, enjoyed hugely by the thousands of people who have seen it. As such a landmark production it achieved so many aspirations for us as a company and it was incredibly fitting that its last outing included performances internationally."
Dafydd James said: "When I was writing the drama, I wrote what I wanted to see on stage in Wales. I didn't think for a second that it would be so popular."
Simon Watts as Aneurin in Llwyth. Photo: Sherman Cymru
And there have also been a whole clutch of awards including Fringe First, Amnesty Freedom of Expression award and The Stages Best Male and Female actor at the Edinburgh Fringe for Deep Cut in 2008, various awards for Llwyth and Best New Play at the Young Critics Award in 2012 for Kath Chandler's Before It Rains.
Nick Allsop, head of production at the theatre, said: "My favourite production has to be The Borrowers (in 2003).
"It had a great set design by Sean Crowley which placed Act 1 in the house with the Borrowers' world downstairs, filled with over-sized props and upstairs in the real world Arrietty and co were puppets.
"At the interval this was completely removed by stage management and the technical team to reveal an enormous outside space with hills, trees and giant bumble bees which always got a great reaction when the curtain went up."
For Kate Perridge, artistic co-coordinator, the shows the theatre has taken to the Edinburgh Fringe hold the fondest memories.
She said: "Particularly Deep Cut, which won several awards at the festival, and Llwyth, which was the first time that a Welsh language show had been included in the British Council Edinburgh Showcase, which then toured to Taiwan as a result of the appearance in Edinburgh.
"In a city where there are so many choices of shows to see during the festival, it was a great achievement that both these shows were a success."
Ciaran McIntyre and Rhian Morgan in Deep Cut. Photo: Toby Farrow
Geoffrey Axworthy was one of the founders of the original Sherman Theatre in 1973. His wife Caroline was also a member of staff at Sherman until 1987.
She remembers: "Back in 1973 Cardiff was almost like a cultural desert. We had the lovely New Theatre, which had fantastic West End shows and also the Casson Theatre. Chapter had just opened on the west of Cardiff but there was no theatre on this east side of Cardiff that presented new work.
"We wanted there to be a place for new writing, new plays, new actors. We wanted a place for Cardiff, for everyone to use and bring the best of new writing from across Wales, the UK and around the world to Cardiff but back in the 70s there seemed to be more investment and supported opportunities in the arts."
She recalls meeting a young Danny Boyle when he started his career in theatre and was the stage manager for the Joint Stock theatre company who came to the Sherman in the late 70s.
She added: "Sherman used to have a light night cinema screening on a Friday night at 11pm, where we used to show things that wouldn't necessarily get screened in the big cinemas.
"I remember once we had a screening of Last Tango in Paris and the queue was from the front of the Sherman down to the Woodville Pub and we knew we wouldn't be able to fit everyone in.
"So we asked our projectionist Baz and spoke to the queue to see if anyone would want to come back for a 1am screening... and they did, and we sold out on that one too!"
As part of the theatre's ongoing 40th anniversary season, aspiring writers have been asked to submit a short play which will be performed as part of a special ScriptSlam script-held performance next week.
The Sherman has been running the event, which is aimed at giving new writers opportunities to showcase their work, for over seven years and it has acted as the starting point for many emerging writers over the years including Alun Saunders, who wrote for Dirty Protest's Plays in a Bag season performed at the Royal Court Theatre and Latitude Festival earlier this year.
As part of the anniversary themed ScriptSlam, The Sherman has invited writers to submit a script inspired by the symbols for anniversary gifts during the first 40 years of marriage.
The shortlisted nine plays are: Together by Neil Bebber; A Very Modern Office by David Harris; 40 Love by Sara Hawys; Portrait of a Gordon Brown by Kelly Jones; Goodbye My Love by Ness Owen; The Gift by Kelsey Richards; Papers by Gareth Smith; Ruby by Owen Thomas and G&M by Neil Walden.
They will be performed as rehearsed readings over three nights from 26-28 November. Tickets are £3 and are available from Sherman Theatre on 029 2064 6900 shermancymru.co.uk.