Ed Vaizey, Minister of Culture visited the Backstage centre last week to address the Creative Skills conference. Whilst there he enjoyed a guided tour of the Backstage centre, the new artist studios and the Royal Opera House workshop.
Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price said, "I was really proud to be able to show off Thurrock’s creative sector to the Minister for Culture and to show him the real skills which are on display and being learned at the High House Production Park. It is now true that everything on stage at Covent Garden is made in Thurrock and I now learn that some of the materials are going wider afield too. We saw staging being constructed for an Opera in Amsterdam. Ed was hugely impressed also to hear about the work that the Royal Opera House is doing with local schools and with the Thurrock Community chorus. It was great to see a Minister so enthused with what he had seen"