Rosemary Squire

Rosemary Squire, OBE Rosemary Squire in 2011
Born	Rosemary Squire (1956-05-27) 27 May 1956 Nottingham, England
Occupation	Theatre producer, theatre manager, businesswoman
Spouse(s)	Sir Howard Panter
Children	Jennifer Brodie (born 1986) Daniel Brodie (born 1987) Katherine "Kate" Panter (born 2002)

Rosemary Squire OBE (born 27 May 1956) is a prolific and broad-based commercial theatre producer. She is a founder, co-owner and joint chief executive of The Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd (ATG), whose subsidiary companies include Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP) and First Family Entertainment (FFE). Squire's responsibilities include the company's core business and new projects team. Widely recognised in the entertainment industry, Squire and Panter are always highly ranked in The Stage 100 – the industry’s newspaper annual guide to the 100 most influential people in UK Theatre. From 2010 to 2016, Squire and Howard Panter have topped The Stage 100 a record-breaking seven times consecutively. It firmly establishes Squire as the most prominent woman in British theatre of the modern era and makes the couple the most successful entrants ever on the list.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} In February 2013 she was assessed as the 16th most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.^[6] In 2014, Squire was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year, becoming the first woman to ever win the top UK award. In 2015 chair of the “Raise the Curtain” Development Board at Nottingham Girls High School, alongside Patron, Dame Stella Rimington. Squire was central to securing a £7.5 pledge from the Girls’ Day School Trust which will be used to build a performing arts centre (The SPACe). Squire is also leading a fundraising programme, The Donor Tree, to raise an additional £1.5m to fund the building project.

Life and career

Early years

• From 1967 to 1974 Squire studied at Nottingham High School for Girls
• 1975–79 Studying at Southampton University Squire gained a BA hons First Class – Spanish with Catalan and French
• 1977–78 Barcelona University, Spain (English language assistant)
• 1979–80 Brown University, US – postgraduate scholarship^[7]

Squire arrived in theatreland in 1980 after an education that took her from Nottingham Girls' High School to Southampton University and on to an Ivy League college in America and studies in Barcelona.^[8]

1980s

• Various administrative roles, Wyndham's Theatres Limited
• 1984 – general manager, Maybox Group plc, second largest group of West End Theatres, then owned by Associated Newspapers.
• 1988 – general manager, Turnstyle Group Limited (theatre production company)^[9]

1990s

• Executive director, Turnstyle Group Limited, co-producing (amongst others) the award-winning musical Carmen Jones.^[9]
• 1992 – With the backing of Sir Eddie Kulukundis and brothers Sir John and Peter Beckwith,^[10] Squire and Panter establish Ambassador Theatre Group with acquisitions of Duke of York's Theatre and Management contract of The Ambassadors Theatre and Cinema complex Woking.
• 1995 – The expansion of ATG continues when Squire and Panter acquire The Ambassadors Theatre, renamed New Ambassadors Theatre in 1999.
• 1996/97 – They extend the group with the management contract for the newly built Milton Keynes Theatre and the Regent Theatre and Victoria Hall in Stoke-on-Trent.
• 1997 – Executive director, Ambassador Theatre Group – Responsible for core business and new projects team, winning tenders for many regional venues

2000s

• 2000 was a pivotal year for Squire and Panter with the acquisition of further regional venues Churchill Theatre, Bromley and Richmond Theatre, Surrey and with the purchase of ACT Theatres (Albery, Donmar Warehouse, Fortune, Phoenix, Piccadilly, Comedy, Whitehall (renamed Trafalgar Studios in 2004) and Wyndhams) and the Playhouse Theatre, London and Theatre Royal Brighton acquired in 2000.
• Squire also joined the Board of Management, Society of London Theatres and Arts Council Capital Advisory Panel.
• In 2002, their first venue in Scotland came with the King's Theatre, Glasgow.
• 2000–03 ATG continues to acquire theatres in the West End and the UK regions and co-produces 25 shows in 2003 alone. Squire also elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and joins the board of Donmar Warehouse Productions (the producing company based at the Donmar).
• In 2004, Squire and Panter take over the closed Wimbledon Theatre reopening it as the New Wimbledon Theatre.
• In 2005, their Scottish portfolio extends with a lease and management contract Theatre Royal, Glasgow.
• 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. As president, Squire has campaigned fearlessly 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. She completed her three-year term in July 2008 and then went on to serve 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.
• 2006 – A full-time working mother, Squire won the CBI Real Business First Women Award for Tourism and Leisure in June 2006, recognising her outstanding commercial success and the breakthroughs she made in promoting equal opportunities for women (especially at senior management level), flexible working and promotion from within the company.^[11]
• Also in 2006 Squire was appointed a London First International Envoy for London
• 2007 Appointed an OBE for Services to Theatre.^[11]
• In January 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.^[12][13]
• In February 2009, ATG was awarded the contract to run the new Aylesbury Waterside Theatre.^[14]
• In November 2009, they realign 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 becomes the largest theatre group in the UK.^[15] Panter remains joint-owner and becomes joint Chief Executive and Creative Director. Greg Dyke becomes Executive Chairman of the larger group. Other board members include: Sir Eddie Kulukundis OBE, David Blyth, Helen Enright, Michael Lynas, Peter Kavanagh, Richard Lenane, Chris Graham, Simon Davidson, Peter Beckwith OBE and Bill Benjamin.

2010s

• In 2010, Squire and Panter open the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre their 42nd theatre (their 39th currently within ATG).
• In 2010, 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.^[16]
• From 2010 to 2016, Squire and Panter have topped The Stage 100 a record-breaking seven times consecutively.
• 2011 – Following the hugely successful run of Ghost The Musical at the Opera House, Squire and Panter/The Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd (ATG) launched its Manchester Gets it First (MGiF) initiative – the company's commitment to bringing the biggest new musicals to Manchester before London and other major cities.^[17][18]
• 2014 – Sir Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire top The Stage 100 list for the fifth consecutive year, equalling the record-breaking run previously set by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, establishing Squire as the most prominent woman in British Theatre of the modern era. This exclusive list, compiled annually by the industry’s leading newspaper, ranks the powerhouses of British Theatre.
• In June 2014, Squire is named the only Master Entrepreneur for the London & South Region at EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 Awards.
• In October 2014, Squire is named UK Overall Winner at the UK Finals of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2014, and is the first woman to top the award.
• In March 2015, Squire launches 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. Squire is currently Chair of the ‘Raise the Curtain’ Development Board at the school, alongside its Patron, Dame Stella Rimington, set up to build the state of the art facility.
• In June 2015, Squire becomes the first woman ever to represent the UK at the EY World Entrepreneur Awards in Monaco, one of only 6 woman world finalists in a field of 60 overall, and shortlisted to the final 10.

Productions

Note: Produced by Rosemary Squire unless otherwise noted

• 9 to 5 (UK tour and London)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2003 London
• After Mrs Rochester, 2003, London
• All New People (UK regions and London)
• Annie Get Your Gun 2014 (UK tour)
• 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
• Elling, 2007 London &, 2010 Broadway
• Exit The King, 2009 Broadway
• Far Away, 2000 & 2001 London
• Fat Pig, 2008 London
• Ghost The Musical, 2011 Manchester, 2011 London
• Goodnight Mister Tom (London)
• Guys and Dolls, 2005–2007 London, 2006 & 2007 UK Tour, 2008–2009 Australia, 2009 Broadway
• Joe Egg, 2001 London, 2003 Broadway, 2009UK Tour
• Jersey Boys (London)
• La Cage Aux Folles (national US tour)
• Legally Blonde, 2009 London
• Legally Blonde (London, national tour and Sydney)
• Macbeth (London)
• Matthew Bourne's Highland Fling, 2005 London, 2005 UK Tour
• Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!, 2002, 2003, 2007–08 London, 2003 & 2008 UK Tour, 2004 Worldwide Tour
• Maurice's Jubilee (UK tour)* Monkee Business (regional tour)
• Mouth To Mouth, 2001 London
• My One and Only, 2002 London
• Noises Off, 2001, 2002 & 2003 London, 2008 UK Tour, 2001 Broadway
• 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)
• Shakespeare, The Man from Stratford, 2010 UK Tour
• Shockheaded Peter, 2001 & 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 Hothouse, 2013 London
• The Pride, 2013, London
• The Last Cigarette, 2009 London
• The Lover The Collection, 2008 London
• The Misanthrope, 2009 London
• The Mountaintop, 2009 London
• The Mountaintop (Broadway)
• The Mystery of Charles Dickens, 2000, 2001 & 2002 London, 2002 Broadway
• The Mystery of Charles Dickens 2012 (London)
• The New Statesman, 2006–07 London, 2006 UK Tour
• The Three Sisters, 2003 London
• Vincent in Brixton, 2002, 2002 & 2003 London, 2003 UK Tour, 2003 Broadway
• Weir, 1997 & 1998 London, 1999 Broadway
• West Side Story, 2008 London, 2008–09 UK Tour, 1995 & 1996–97 Australia
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, London 2014
• Constellations, 2014 / 2015 (Royal Court at the Duke of York’s & UK Tour)
• East is East, 2015 (London & UK Tour)
• Inala, 2015 (London & UK Tour)
• Love Me Tender, 2015 (UK Tour)
• Jumpy (Royal Court at the Duke of York’s)
• Oresteia, 2015 (London)
• The Ruling Class, 2015 (London)

Honours and awards

• 2006 – Squire won the CBI Real Business First Women Award for Tourism and Leisure
• 2007 – appointed an OBE for Services to Theatre
• In 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 together with her husband and business partner Howard Panter, Squire was named Most Powerful Person in British Theatre by the Stage Newspaper in their annual Stage 100 list
• The Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd (ATG) was also shortlisted in 2010's 'Ones to Recognise' feature which is published as part of The Sunday Times PricewaterhouseCoopers Profit Track 100 Ones to Recognise.
• In 2012 ATG was announced as the UK's second fastest growing privately backed company in The Sunday Times Buyout Track 100, sponsored by Deloitte.
• In 2013, Squire was placed at number 16 in the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Power List^[6]
• In June 2014, Squire was named the only Master Entrepreneur for the London & South Region at EY's Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 Awards, a programme aimed at discovering exceptional companies and leaders that display the confidence, quality and aspiration to grow and prosper.
• In October 2014, Squire was named the UK Overall Winner at the UK Finals of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2014.
• Drama Desk Awards (US)

2006 Outstanding Revival of a Musical – Sweeney Todd

2007 Outstanding Revival of a Musical – Company

• Ernst & Young (UK)

2008 Entrepreneur of the Year – Regional Finalist (with Howard Panter) ^[19]

• Evening Standard Awards (UK)

1991 Best Musical – Carmen Jones^[20]

2010 No1 London's 1000 Most Influential People: Theatre – Squire and husband Howard Panter^[16]

2012 Best Play – Constellations^[21]

• Olivier Awards (UK)

1992 Musical of the Year – Carmen Jones^[22]

1998 Best Entertainment – Slava's Snow Show^[23]

1999 Best New Play – The Weir

2002 Best Entertainment – Shockheaded Peter^[24]

2003 Best New Play – Vincent in Brixton

2006 Outstanding Musical Production – Guys and Dolls

2009 Best Musical Revival – La Cage Aux Folles^[25]

• Learning and Skills Council (UK)

2002 Workforce Development Award for Innovation (Private Sector)

2005 Excellence in Workforce Development Award^[26]

• Manchester Evening News Awards (UK)

2008 Best Musical – West Side Story

2012 Best Musical – Ghost

2012 One of the 250 of the most influential people in Greater Manchester (shared with Howard Panter)^[27]

• McNaughton Review (Italy)

2006 Best Magazine Award (for the company's Ambassador Magazine)^[28]

• RAAM Awards (UK)

2009 UK Independent Cinema of the Year (for Ambassadors Cinema, Woking)^[28]

• The Stage's Top 100 People in British Theatre (UK)

2010 No.1 (Shared With Howard Panter)^[2]

2011 No.1 (Shared With Howard Panter)^[29]

2012 No.1 (Shared With Howard Panter)^[2]

2013 No.1 (Shared With Howard Panter)^[2]

2014 No.1 (Shared With Howard Panter)^[2]

2015 No.1 (Shared With Howard Panter)^[30]

• The Sunday Times(UK)

2003 Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 League Table One of the UK's fastest growing private companies

2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers Profit Track 100 One to Recognise^[31]

2010 Deloitte Buyout Track 100 Second Fastest Growing Privately backed Company^[32]

In April 2013, ATG is ranked at no. 6 on The Sunday Times PwC Profit Track 100 list, published today in the Business section of The Sunday Times. The 100 firms are ranked by their profit growth over a three-year period.

• Tony Awards (US)

2007 Best Revival of a Musical – Company

• Time Out Live Awards (UK)

2006 Best Production – Guys And Dolls

• Whatsonstage Theatregoers Choice Awards (UK)

2009 The Ticketmaster Best Musical Revival – West Side Story^[33]

2008 Best New Comedy- Elling^[34]

2006 Best Musical Revival – Guys And Dolls

Personal life

Childhood

Born in Nottingham, England. Educated at Nottingham Girls' High School followed by Southampton University and then Brown University, USA.

Marriage and family

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^[35] at the Queen's Theatre, London where Squire was working in the box office during Panter's production of And a Nightingale Sang.^[36] They married in 1994.^[37] They had their first child Kate in 2002. Panter is also step-father to Squire's other children, Jenny and Daniel.

Other information

• Squire's interests include gardens, walking, literature and contemporary dance^[7]

References