The Theatre Royal’s 175th anniversary approaches and the fun will spill on to the streets. DAVID WHETSTONE meets Katy Fuller, producer of The Birthday Blaze

THE Theatre Royal, standing proud at the top of Newcastle’s Grey Street, has touched the lives of more people than there are seats in the auditorium.

Some 300,000 tickets are sold annually but only 1,200 people can attend the theatre’s 175th Birthday Gala on February 19.

The stats are offered by Katy Fuller, an outdoor events specialist hired to ensure the theatre’s birthday celebrations don’t all happen behind closed doors.

Katy was at the theatre yesterday to reveal the details of The Birthday Blaze, a free outdoor show that will ensure thousands can join in.

But first she explained how she got into the business of planning spectacular outdoor events.

Originally from Cumbria, Katy said she got the taste for such things while studying for an MA in cultural criticism at Manchester University.

It was around the time of the millennium celebrations and there were torch-lit parades on city streets. She was inspired.

“I ended up interviewing festival directors around the country and I’ve been hanging around outside since then,” she laughed.

Katy, who has a young child and another on the way, moved to the North East 18 months ago, setting up as a freelance producer under the name Pinwheel (www.pinwheel.org.uk).

Before that she was in London, working with Artichoke, the specialists in outdoor spectaculars who produced the last two Lumiere festivals in Durham.

Katy worked with them on their giant elephant project in London and their Capital of Culture Year giant spider in Liverpool – and also on The One & Other, the Antony Gormley project which, for 100 days in 2009, allowed a wide range of people to occupy a plinth in Trafalgar Square for one hour each.

She well remembers the exhaustive discussions that one generated, including a serious debate over the likelihood of a sniper targeting one of the volunteers and the issue of nakedness on the plinth.

Curiously, one plinth activity which would have contravened the by-laws was the feeding of pigeons.

Katy said that even after logistical problems had been surmounted, there were imponderables such as the weather to contend with.

“For me,” she said, “it’s part of the joy and challenge of working outdoors that you don’t have any control of the environment.”

Clearly she’s made of stern stuff which must be why, in the autumn of 2010, she was commissioned by the Theatre Royal, Newcastle & Gateshead Initiative and other bodies involved in marking a significant moment in North East history.

“The brief was very open in a way,” she recalled. “It was just about doing something celebratory. I think they were interested to see what people would come up with.”