The best of all worlds
Kate Rutter has been an actress for 30 years and has been based in Sheffield for 20, where she has brought up her son Joe. Her husband Mike teaches at Sheffield Hallam University.
Kate has has had a very full career, working at theatres such as Sheffield Crucible, Liverpool Playhouse, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Harrogate Theatre, Manchester Library Theatre and Birminngham Rep.
Her film, television and radio credits include The Full Monty, Lilies, Silent Witness, Cold Feet, Clocking Off, Fat Friends, Queer as Folk, Monsignor Renard, Eastenders, The Bill, Casualty, Holby and Sons and Lovers. She also directs and writes. Most recently she has been filming in Romania as Mrs Vincy in Affinity by Sarah Waters, screenplay by Andrew Davies.
Kate originally came to Sheffield from London to work in Linda Smith and Warren Lakin's groundbreaking Sheffield Popular Theatre. Since Linda's death from ovarian cancer in 2006, Warren has published two books about her life and work. From this Warren, Kate and Mike McCarthy have produced the national touring show Celebrating Linda Smith, which plays at the Crucible Studio next week
TWITCHING
The thing about Sheffield is that it's the best of all possible worlds. I live just off the Eccie Road, which is city life at its most cosmopolitan, but it's also your exit route to rural Derbyshire.
Now that spring's coming, it's great to be out in the countryside. I think my absolute favourite walk is the top end of Lathkill Dale, watching the dippers bobbing in the river. It's a twitcher's paradise, where you can also pick a bunch of wild watercress to spice up your picnic butties.
DANCING
Talking of the Ecclesall Road, Friday night is Tango night at the Methodist Church. You can saunter up there at seven, glaring at the 4x4s lined up like armoured cars outside Nonna's on the way, and spend an hour making a fool of yourself and getting some exercise into the bargain.
Afterwards, if I'm feeling very flush, a meal at The Mediterranean at Hunter's Bar would be a special treat or, more likely, a beer at The Lescar.
NIGHTS IN
For a takeaway the Noodle Bar on Ecclesall Road is a favourite – good freshly cooked Thai food, perfect for a night in, and no night in is complete without at least one episode of The Wire on DVD, with which my whole family is currently obsessed. Get it! Watch it!
I was listening to an interview with the playwright David Hare recently. He said after watching The Wire he wondered if he'd wasted his life. Well no, Dave, you haven't, but what a recommendation for an American series set in Baltimore. Sorry, I'm digressing from Sheffield.
GREEN
We're very lucky with green spaces in this part of the city and I live just the other side of the wall which surrounds The Botanical Gardens. It's a beautiful place in many ways but, surprisingly, it's sometimes less than peaceful.
The machinery they use makes autumn, for example, not so much a 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' but more a season of chainsaws and whining leaf-blowers. I know I'm sounding a bit 'grumpy old woman' here but I think they should issue their neighbours with ear protectors, like their hard-working gardeners, or better still let the gardens be a bit less perfect and a bit more user-friendly.
GREENER
I was glad the caf in Endcliffe Park eventually had its licence renewed. There was dangerous talk around Hunter's Bar of it going to Starbuck's or some such chain. Please, no.
GREENEST
My favourite green space is the wonderful, ramshackle General Cemetery, which is cared for by the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust. They're an interesting and eclectic bunch who run everything from volunteer gardening groups to guided tours and spooky nocturnal Ghost Walks.
They've done great work over the years in maintaining and improving the place. What their volunteer historical researchers don't know about the graves and the content of the catacombs isn't worth knowing.
For example, they discovered that an African American actor called Samuel Morgan Smith was buried in a pauper's grave there in the late 19th century. What a story… A couple of years back I managed to raise some Arts Council funding to tell it and directed a community play, which was performed at the African-Caribbean centres The Hub and Sadacca as part of Black History Month. The trust also puts on an annual Promenade Theatre Production in the summer. Theatre in the open air? Great stuff and free. Don't miss it.
NIGHTS OUT
The Showroom is excellent for films if you don't mind the wait at the bar and we have, in theory at least, two wonderful theatres. I'm looking forward to seeing the newly refurbished Crucible next year but I'm also very fearful for the future of theatre in general. Sheffield's own Compass Theatre has lost its funding in the recent round of Arts Council cuts after producing high quality work here for 27 years. The performing arts enrich all our lives and need to be cherished as much as our excellent schools and hospitals. Compass is a real loss.
TAXIS
Most people seem to agree that Sheffield Station looks great these days but whose idea the new parking arrangements are I can't imagine. So hats off to Sheffield taxi drivers for their patience and forbearance in dealing with the impossibility of the roads around the station at peak times.
STUDENTS
Students get a bad press in our area, especially if one is foolhardy enough to put details of a party on Facebook, but I think they're pretty good in the main – as soon as they've run out of money, that is, which is usually about three weeks into the term. There's nothing like the prospect of long-term debt to put a damper on a good night out. In my day you could cause mayhem in the neighbourhood and still have 3.50 in your current account at the end of the year.
MUSEUMS
Lastly, anyone who hasn't taken their kids up to Weston Park Museum lately, can I borrow them so I can go again?
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
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