Growing Imagine: From a Leap of Faith to One of the UK's Largest Pantomime Producers

The story told in PURE Pre-IMAGINE-ATION takes us through the earliest years of what would eventually become Imagine Theatre. This story continues where PURE Pre-IMAGINE-ATION leaves off. Read the story of Imagine Theatre's earliest years and the people and productions that laid the foundations for the company we know today.

By 2006 the foundations were there. What came next was nearly two decades of growth, new theatre partnerships, bigger premises, an expanding team, hundreds of pantomimes and, eventually, one challenge none of us could possibly have anticipated.

This is the next chapter of the Imagine story.

2006: Taking the leap of faith

In 2006, Sarah formally joined Imagine following maternity leave.

Until then, life had involved what we jokingly called a“muggle job” during the day, working as a management consultant, while evenings were spent working alongside Steve on what was then still a very small theatre business.

Joining Imagine full-time was a genuine leap of faith.

Could we take this small business that we loved and grow it into something that could support both of us and our family?

There were certainly no guarantees.

But we decided to find out.

2007: Crewe and a growing team

In 2007, we began our first period producing pantomime in Crewe.

It was also an important year for the development of the Imagine team. Louise Redmond joined the company, beginning a relationship which continues nearly 20 years later.

Around the same time, Dawn Outhwaite became Imagine’s Head of Wardrobe, although her relationship with us had begun several years earlier when she worked as Head of Wardrobe on our pantomime in Loughborough in 2003.

Dawn’s story is typical of something that has always been important to Imagine: building long-term relationships with talented people and growing together. Many of the performers, creatives, technicians, production teams and venue partners who became part of Imagine during these early years would remain part of our story for many years to come.

The business was still small, but the foundations of the company Imagine would become were beginning to emerge: long-term relationships with theatres, long-serving members of our team and steady, sustainable growth.

2008-2010: Nine pantomimes and a growing family of venues

By the end of the decade, Imagine was producing around nine pantomimes each year.

During this period a number of theatres joined what we have always thought of as the Imagine family, including Porthcawl, Leamington, Halifax, Reading and Inverness.

Many of those relationships became the backbone of the business, and several remain important Imagine partnerships today.

For us, growth was never simply about increasing the number of pantomimes we produced.

It was about building relationships with theatres and creating productions that audiences wanted to return to year after year.

2011-2014: A new home and our 100th pantomime

By the early 2010s we were producing around 10 or 11 pantomimes each Christmas.

Leicester joined the Imagine family and the volume of scenery, costumes and props required to support the growing production portfolio continued to increase. Our historical records show Imagine producing at venues including Kilmarnock, Coventry, Crewe, Porthcawl, Inverness, Halifax, Leamington and Reading during this period.

Something had to give.

In 2012, we moved from our previous home at Little Heath in Coventry to Brandon House in Baginton.

It felt enormous.

The move gave us significantly more space for our offices, scenery, costumes, props and production operation. At the time, we genuinely thought we had created a home which would serve Imagine for many years to come.

We were wrong.

Within a few years, growth meant that even Brandon House was beginning to feel rather full.

This era also saw Katie Shilton join the company, becoming another longstanding member of the Imagine team.

And then came a milestone we were enormously proud of.

In 2014, Imagine produced its 100th professional pantomime.

What had begun as a small operation had become an established multi-production pantomime company.

2015-2017: Imagine gets bigger

The pace of growth continued.

By this period, Imagine was producing around 14 pantomimes each year.

That meant the company behind the productions needed to grow too.

Our head office team became increasingly sophisticated, with new colleagues bringing expertise across creative production, operations, marketing and company management.

Among the people to join or become part of this next stage of the business were David Edmunds, Laura Taylor, who joined us from First Family Entertainment, Callum Roberts, and others who helped us manage the increasing scale and complexity of the operation.

Imagine was no longer simply getting bigger.

It was becoming a more mature production company with the people, infrastructure and expertise needed to deliver a sizeable portfolio of simultaneous productions.

2018-2019: Our most successful seasons yet

By 2018 and 2019, Imagine was producing around 15 pantomimes each year.

We headed into what would become our two most successful seasons to date.

We were also experimenting with how pantomime itself might evolve.

One of the most ambitious examples was Cinderella at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, where we developed and trialled a new digital pantomime concept combining traditional pantomime with new approaches to scenery, animation and production technology.

It was a project more than two years in development and involved set and costume design, animation, lighting, sound, music and scripting.

By the 2019/20 season, the public Imagine archive records 15 pantomimes across the UK.

We felt incredibly positive about the future.

We had absolutely no idea what was around the corner.

2020: The unthinkable

Then COVID arrived.

Almost overnight, theatre stopped.

Imagine's turnover went from around £5 million in FY20 to just £95,000 in FY21.

Our team spent more than eight months on furlough.

There were no pantomimes.

For a company whose entire purpose, income and identity revolved around producing live entertainment, it was terrifying.

For much of that time, Steve and Sarah effectively ran Imagine themselves from home, doing whatever was necessary to keep the company alive and give it a future.

But we weren't alone.

One of the things we remember most strongly from this extraordinary period was the support within the pantomime-producing community. Companies that would normally compete with one another shared experiences, information and support as everyone tried to navigate an unprecedented crisis.

Government support and the Culture Recovery Fund became a lifeline for Imagine, allowing the core team eventually to return and prepare the company to restart. Our existing 2021 article records that turnover had fallen by more than 95% and that most of the team had spent almost eight months on furlough by that stage.

We survived.

And then we had to rebuild.

2021-2022: Recovery and our 200th pantomime

Theatre returned, audiences returned and Imagine did too.

Turnover recovered to around £5 million in FY22.

Then came another milestone.

In 2022, Imagine produced its 200th professional pantomime.

It had taken around 12 years to produce our first 100.

The second 100 had arrived around eight years later, despite losing an entire pantomime season to the pandemic.

This was also an important year in another way.

Imagine began its producing relationship with Trafalgar Entertainment, taking on its first Trafalgar pantomime contracts.

And Beauty and the Beast in Swansea became a particularly special production for us, going on to win Best Pantomime over 900 seats at the UK Pantomime Association Awards.

Imagine had not simply recovered.

We were growing again.

2023: A transformational year

By 2023, Imagine had moved to around 20 pantomimes a year.

Jo Longworth joined the team and our head office operation continued to grow alongside the expanding production portfolio.

But the biggest change came in the summer.

On 30 July 2023, Trafalgar Entertainment acquired Imagine Theatre.

For Steve and Sarah, who had bought out the other owners of what was then a business turning over around £350,000 in 2009, it was an extraordinary milestone.

Imagine became part of a much larger international live entertainment group while retaining the specialist pantomime knowledge, team and identity that had driven its growth.

A new chapter had begun.

2025: We outgrow another home

Remember Brandon House?

The enormous new building that we thought we'd never fill?

We filled it.

And then comprehensively outgrew it.

In 2025, Imagine moved into Trafalgar House, our new Coventry home.

At around 68,000 square feet, it gave us approximately four times the space of Brandon House, providing a new home for our offices, production facilities and ever-growing collection of scenery, costumes and props.

It was another visual reminder of just how far the business had travelled from its earliest days.

2026 and beyond: The next chapter

Today, Imagine Theatre is one of the UK's largest producers of pantomime and family entertainment.

Our production archive now documents more than 275 professional pantomimes, with 21 productions in the 2026/27 season alone.

But we aren't finished.

In 2027, Imagine expects to produce its 300th professional pantomime.

From our 100th pantomime in 2014, to our 200th in 2022, to our 300th expected in 2027, the pace of the journey tells its own story.

What started with a leap of faith has become a substantial professional theatre company.

But many of the things that mattered at the beginning still matter today:

Great pantomimes.

Brilliant people.

Strong relationships with theatres.

Audiences going home happy.

And never assuming that we've finished growing.

Because, if Imagine's history has taught us anything, it is that there is probably another chapter just around the corner.

Want to discover where the Imagine story began? Read PURE Pre-IMAGINE-ATION, the story of the people and productions that laid the foundations for Imagine Theatre.

Explore more than two decades of productions in the Imagine Theatre Production Archive.

Find out why Imagine is one the the UK’s leading pantomime producers