Magic, mystery and the Queen's jester!

Shrewsbury's popular @TheatreSevern has joined the Twitter community and staff have been using the site to post events, ticket availability, reviews and information from the stages, the restaurant and the bar."I'm really interested in social media and digital technology, and Twitter's another great way for our visitors to get in touch with us," says Nikki Slawson from the theatre's marketing department."Our followers have been writing in to tell us what they think of the theatre and which show's they've enjoyed most.""We've had some lovely comments about our Christmas panto and I've been passing them on to the cast – we're halfway through the run and they're all quite tired, so it's lovely to be able to put a smile on their faces!"The pantomime, Peter Pan, stars Emmerdale's Matthew King as Hook and The Disney Channel's Samantha Dorrance as Wendy, and has been a tremendous success so far."We'll have done 47 shows by the end of the pantomime season and we're very close to selling out!"Despite the credit crunch, Nikki says the show have done so well because it's a family tradition."It's good, old-fashioned fun, so it makes everyone feel better. We've had lots of schools visiting too, and people have come to see all the technical stuff we've never been able to do at the Music Hall, like actors flying onto the sets from a fly tower!"Nikki also asked Twitter followers to suggest names for the theatre's new comedy club, which begins on January 7th 2010."One of our followers, @McKellier, suggested the word 'Jesters', which we've turned into 'Severn Jesters'."The name has a local significance because Queen Elizabeth's jester, Richard Tarlton, was from Shropshire, so it's a tribute to him."The club will showcase the country's rising stars of comedy and each event will feature three different acts, but tickets are expected to sell quickly and the first event is already sold out."There are lots of young people in Shropshire and not much in the way of comedy outside of the larger university towns or cities, so it's great to be able to put on affordable comedy shows like this," says Nikki.The theatre will also welcome more established comedians like Tim Vine and Sean Lock in the New Year, as well as a host of exciting new theatre productions, ballets, music concerts, folk events and lectures."We're really looking forward to next year's play, Agatha Christie's 'Witness for the Prosecution', and 'Joseph' will be our big West End show in May."The theatre's proved popular with celebrities as well as audiences – James Morrison, Stephen K Amos and Wayne Sleep have all commented on how much they enjoyed performing there."It's nice for them as they usually play big arena tours, and it's a lot more intimate when they come here. It's a really lovely atmosphere."Follow Theatre Severn on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TheatreSevern