Rosemary Squire

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Dame Rosemary Squire DBE
Squire in 2011
Born	Rosemary Anne Squire (1956-05-27) 27 May 1956 (age 65) Nottingham, England
Occupation	Theatre owner and producer
Spouse(s)	Sir Howard Panter
Children	3

Dame Rosemary Anne Squire, DBE (born 27 May 1956) is a British commercial theatre owner and entrepreneur. She was founder, co-owner and joint chief executive of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) Ltd. Squire and her husband/business partner, Howard Panter, are the second largest shareholder of ATG.^[1]

Squire is co-founder, Joint CEO and Executive Chair of Trafalgar Entertainment.^[2]

Biography[]

Early life and education[]

Squire was born in Nottingham, England, on 27 May 1956. From 1967 to 1974, Squire attended Nottingham Girls' High School.^[3] She studied at Southampton University between 1975 and 1979, gaining a First Class BA in Spanish with Catalan and French – working at the University of Barcelona in 1977–78 as an English language assistant as part of her studies. Squire then studied at Brown University (USA) in 1979–80 on a postgraduate scholarship.^[4]

Career[]

Squire arrived in Theatreland in 1980. Throughout the decade, she held various administrative roles at Wyndham's Theatres Ltd. In 1984, she was a general manager of Maxbox Group plc, the second largest group of West End Theatres, which was then owned by Associated Newspapers. In 1988, she became the general manager of the theatre production company Turnstyle Group Ltd, of which she became executive director in the 90s, co-producing (amongst others) the 1991 West End revival of the award-winning musical Carmen Jones.^[5]

With the backing of Sir Eddie Kulukundis and brothers Sir John and Peter Beckwith,^[6] Squire and her husband Panter established the Ambassador Theatre Group in 1992, with the acquisitions of the Duke of York's Theatre and a management contract of the Ambassadors Theatre and a cinema complex in Woking. In 1995, the expansion of ATG continued with the acquisition of the Ambassadors Theatre, subsequently renamed New Ambassadors Theatre in 1999. Between 1996 and 1997, the group expanded further with management contracts for the newly built Milton Keynes Theatre and the Regent Theatre, as well as Victoria Hall in Stoke-on-Trent. In 1997, Squire became executive director of the Ambassador Theatre Group.

2000s[]

2000 was a pivotal year for Squire and Panter, with the acquisition of further regional venues such as Churchill Theatre in Bromley and Richmond Theatre in Surrey, and with the purchase of ACT Theatres (which then included the Albery Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Fortune Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Piccadilly Theatre, Comedy Theatre, Whitehall Theatre – renamed Trafalgar Studios in 2004 – and Wyndhams), as well as the Playhouse Theatre and Theatre Royal Brighton, which were acquired in the same year. Squire also joined the board of management of the Society of London Theatres and the advisory panel of Arts Council Capital. Her work continued the following years, co-producing 25 shows in 2003, and with the acquisition of Squire's first two Scottish venues (King's Theatre and Theatre Royal Glasgow) and the reopening and rebranding of the New Wimbledon Theatre in 2004. She was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and joined the board of Donmar Warehouse Productions.

In June 2005, Squire became the first democratically elected president of the Society of London Theatre (the trade organisation of London's theatre owners and managers), and the second only female president in the organisation's 100-year history. She campaigned to improve the West End theatre-going environment, and to secure vital funding for capital improvements to protect the long-term future of London's historic theatres. After completing her three-year term in July 2008, she served a further three years as Vice-President. She was a member of The Arts Council of England Lottery Advisory Panel from 2000 to 2005 and is a member of the Theatrical Management Association.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, Squire was appointed a National Member of the Arts Council England Board. She was Chair of Great Ormond Street Hospital's Theatres for Theatres Appeal and Vice-Chairman of Dance Umbrella, an international contemporary dance festival. She is also a Trustee of The Hall of Cornwall.^[7][8] In February 2009, ATG was awarded the contract to run the new Aylesbury Waterside Theatre.^[9] In November 2009, Squire and Panter realigned their share holding to bring in private equity group Exponent for a deal to secure the funding for the acquisition of Live Nation's UK Theatre portfolio. ATG became the largest theatre group in the UK.^[10] Panter remained a joint-owner, and became joint Chief Executive and Creative Director. Greg Dyke became the Executive Chairman of the larger group.

2010s[]

In 2010, Squire and Panter open the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, which was their 42nd theatre. In the same year, London's Evening Standard named Squire and her husband jointly as the most influential people in British theatre in the newspaper's list of "London's 1000 most influential people 2010".^[11] In 2011, Squire and Panter (as ATG) launched their Manchester Gets it First (MGiF) initiative.^[12][13] In February 2013, Squire appeared at number 16 on the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Power List, intended to serve as a snapshot of the 100 most powerful British women, or women operating in the UK.^[14]

In 2014, Panter and Squire topped The Stage 100 list for the fifth consecutive year, equalling the record-breaking run previously set by Andrew Lloyd Webber. ^[15] From 2010 to 2016, Squire and Panter topped the list a record-breaking seven consecutive times.^[16] This list, compiled annually by the industry’s leading newspaper, ranks the powerhouses of British theatre.

In March 2015, Squire launched The SPACe (the Squire Performing Arts Centre) at Nottingham Girl's High School which is named in her family's honour by her former school. Alongside its Patron, Stella Rimington, Squire was Chair of the 'Raise the Curtain' Development Board which was created to oversee the project. Squire officially opened The SPACe in April 2017.^[17]

In 2016, Panter and Squire stepped down from their roles at Ambassador Theatre Group to concentrate on new projects^[18] They co-founded a new live entertainment business, Trafalgar Entertainment, and acquired the two-space West End theatre, Trafalgar Studios.^[19]

In December 2017, Squire was appointed Chair of Arts Council South West.

Personal life[]

Squire married Alan Brodie in 1982. They had two children, Jenny (born 1986) and Daniel (born 1987). Their marriage was dissolved in 1994. Squire is married to her business partner Howard Panter. The couple first met in 1979^[20] at the Queen's Theatre, London where Squire was working in the box office during Panter's production of And a Nightingale Sang.^[21] They married in 1994.^[22] They had their first child Kate in 2002. Panter is step-father to Squire's children, Jenny and Daniel.

Productions[]

Produced by Rosemary Squire unless otherwise noted.

• 9 to 5 (UK tour and London)
• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, 2019 London
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2003 London
• Admissions, 2019 London and UK Tour
• After Mrs Rochester, 2003, London
• All New People (UK regions and London)
• Annie Get Your Gun, 2014 UK tour
• Apologia, 2018 London
• Being Shakespeare (London, UK tour, New York and Chicago)
• Blue/Orange (UK tour)
• Carmen Jones, 1991 London
• Company, 2006–2007 Broadway
• Dandy Dick (UK tour)
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 2014 London
• Education, Education, Education, 2019 London
• Elling, 2007 London and, 2010 Broadway
• Equus, 2019 London
• Exit The King, 2009 Broadway
• Far Away, 2000 and 2001 London
• Fat Pig, 2008 London
• Ghost The Musical, 2011 Manchester, 2011 London
• Goodnight Mister Tom (London)
• Guys and Dolls, 2005–2007 London, 2006 and 2007 UK Tour, 2008–2009 Australia, 2009 Broadway
• Inala, 2015 (London and UK Tour)
• Joe Egg, 2001 London, 2003 Broadway, 2009 UK Tour
• Jersey Boys (London)
• Jersey Boys, 2017 UK Tour
• Killer Joe, 2018 London
• La Cage Aux Folles (national US tour)
• Legally Blonde, 2009 London
• Legally Blonde (London, national tour and Sydney)
• Love Me Tender, 2015 (UK Tour)
• Macbeth (London)
• Mary Stuart, 2018 London
• Matthew Bourne's Highland Fling, 2005 London, 2005 UK Tour
• Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!, 2002, 2003, 2007–08 London, 2003 and 2008 UK Tour, 2004 Worldwide Tour
• Misty, 2018 London
• Maurice's Jubilee (UK tour)* (regional tour)
• Mouth To Mouth, 2001 London
• My One and Only, 2002 London
• Nine Night, 2019 London
• Noises Off, 2001, 2002 and 2003 London, 2008 UK Tour, 2001 Broadway
• Oresteia, 2015 London
• Passion Play (London)
• Porgy and Bess, 2006–07 London
• Posh, Jumpy and Constellations (Royal Court at the Duke of York's, London)
• Pretending To Be Me, 2003 London
• Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (UK tour)
• Richard III, 2014 London
• Riflemind, 2008 London
• Rocky Horror Show, 2009–10 UK Tour, 2008 Australia
• The Rocky Horror Show 40th Anniversary (UK tour)
• The Rocky Horror Show, 2018 UK Tour and International Tour
• Shakespeare, The Man from Stratford, 2010 UK Tour
• Shockheaded Peter, 2001 and 2002 London
• Smokey Joe's Café, 1996–98 London
• South Pacific (London and national tour)
• Spamalot (London and UK tour)
• Stephen Poliakoff's Sweet Panic, 2003–04 London
• Sunset Boulevard, 2008–2009 London
• Sweeney Todd, 2004–05 London, 2006 UK Tour, 2005–06 Broadway
• The Grinning Man, 2018 London
• , 2018 London
• The Homecoming, 2015 London
• The Hothouse, 2013 London
• The King and I, 2018 – London, UK and International Tour
• The Last Cigarette, 2009 London
• The Lover The Collection, 2008 London
• The Messiah, 2018 London and UK Tour
• The Misanthrope, 2009 London
• The Mountaintop, 2009 London
• The Mountaintop (Broadway)
• The Mystery of Charles Dickens, 2000, 2001 and 2002 London, 2002 Broadway
• The Mystery of Charles Dickens 2012 (London)
• The New Statesman, 2006–07 London, 2006 UK Tour
• The Pride, 2014 London and UK tour
• The Ruling Class, 2015 London
• The Starry Messenger, 2019 London
• The Three Sisters, 2003 London
• Vincent In Brixton, 2002, 2002 and 2003 London, 2003 UK Tour, 2003 Broadway
• Vulcan VII, 2018 UK Tour
• The Weir, 1997 and 1998 London, 1999 Broadway
• West Side Story, 2008 London, 2008–09 UK Tour, 1995 and 1996–97 Australia
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, 2014 London

Honours and awards[]

• 2006 – Squire won the CBI Real Business First Women Award for Tourism and Leisure, recognising her commercial success and the breakthroughs she made in promoting equal opportunities for women;^[23]
• 2007 – appointed an OBE for Services to Theatre^[23]
• 2008 – Entrepreneur of the Year – Regional Finalist (with Howard Panter)^[24]
• 2012 – named one of the 250 of the most influential people in Greater Manchester (shared with Panter) at the Manchester Evening News Awards^[25]
• 2013 – Squire and Panter were listed first in the Evening Standard 'Power 1000' Theatre section.^[26]
• In February 2013 she was assessed as the 16th most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.^[14]
• In October 2014, Squire was named the UK Overall Winner at the UK Finals of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year.^[27]
• In the 2018 New Year Honours, Squire was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.^[28]
• In 2019, Woking Borough Council bestowed Honorary Freedom of the Borough upon Squire and Panter, both long-serving members of the community.^[29]

References[]