| Biography | Chickenshed (also known as Chicken Shed or the Chicken Shed Theatre Company) is a British theatre company based in Cockfosters, London. It was founded in 1974 in a disused chicken shed by Mary Ward and Jo Collins. The company produces theatrical and musical productions, performed by children, teenagers and adults of all backgrounds and abilities. It was the first company to start the idea of "inclusive theatre" theatre that is open to everyone of all backgrounds and abilities. It doesn't hold auditions for any of its shows, and instead relies on previous knowledge of how hard working the members are. As well as its London base, the company also has several other theatre workshops (known as "sheds") across and beyond The British Isles as part of its "Outreach" project. It is registered as a charity under the name The Chickenshed Theatre Trust. Their Christmas show in December 2008/January 2009 was The Twelve Days of Christmas. In June 2009, it was announced that the following Christmas show for December 2009/January 2010 would be Pinocchio, which was actually the second time that Chickenshed had done that show. The show for December 2010/January 2011 was Badjelly's Bad Christmas, which was created by the company based on Spike Milligan's poetry and stories for children. The show for November and December 2011/January 2012 was Cinderella, and the show for November and December 2012/January 2013 will be 'Sleeping Beauty - Dream On'
In 1996, company founder Mary Ward was awarded the MBE for Services to the Arts followed in 1999, with a Creative Britons Award, to acknowledge her 25 years of work with the theatre, while co-founder Jo Collins was awarded the MBE in the 2001 New Year's honours, for Services to Music. Chickenshed has performed at a number of public events, including Queen Elizabeth II's golden jubilee celebrations in 2002. A show to commemorate 100 years of J. M. Barrie's children's story Peter Pan was staged by the theatre company at the Albery Theatre, London in 2004, in order to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital.
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