“I love getting to see the kids develop their confidence and seeing all their friendships”
When they came up with the idea to start their own theatre company in the living room one day, Alex McKelvey and Katie-Rose Spence could never have imagined the musical magic they would create a decade on.
Both with extensive backgrounds in drama and musical theatre, the pair decided to open East Broadway Theatre Company, a dynamic performing arts organisation based in East Belfast.
Since 2016, East Broadway has been dedicated to bringing people together through creativity, confidence, and community and offering affordable tuition to young people wanting to follow their passion.
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In their 10th year, they are kicking off celebrations with a production at the Belvoir Studio Theatre of ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ – and Belfast Live popped down to see rehearsals getting underway.
Creative director Kaite-Rose and Musical Director Alex met through performing with the Belvoir Players and decided to go out on a whim and stage some things themselves.
Katie-Rose said: “Alex wanted to do a concert and around the same time, we were asked to perform at Sunflowerfest and if we could do something for kids and their families.
“The two things happened around the same time and we were like ‘oh we’ve enjoyed this, should we maybe try and make something out of it’ – 10 years later we’re here with a building and like 30 people downstairs ready to rehearse and perform.”
A charitable theatre company, East Broadway creates and produces a wide range of shows, concerts, and community performances, offering opportunities for people of all ages to develop their skills in acting, singing, and dancing.
“We started very small,” Katie-Rose continued. “It was a group of like 4 or 5 of us just that were doing small performances.
“We had started doing classes and rehearsing in Downser Hall on the Cregagh Road and after doing the classes for a while, Alex had the idea of doing a show.
“Our first show was Jungle Book Kids and we had nin children in it all playing various parts and double rolling – just making it happen.”
From that initial small group, East Broadway has continued to grow year on year and in 2025, secured their own rehearsal space where they can teach, inspire, and perform a new generation of talented performers.
She continued: “It’s been absolutely amazing getting to see the kids that have been with us from they were four starting in the classes, now like 11 or 12 and still with us, still doing the shows.
“I love getting to see the kids develop their confidence and seeing all their friendships – that was such a huge thing for me whenever I was wee, I had zero confidence and really struggled to make friends.
“Now watching the kids that maybe come in for their first audition or their first night, and they’re looking around and they’re terrified, just 3 weeks later having a group of friends. It does the heart good.”
Alex is in charge of all things music at the company and he has been honoured to watch a generation of young performers build their musicality over the past ten years.
He described getting their own space last year as “phenomenal” and a “pinch me moment” for East Broadway as their work is all voluntary and couldn’t happen without the passionate team of people involved behind the scenes.
Alex said: “We have always been and always are a community theatre. We’ve got affordable drama here – when we first started, we found that things were a bit dear, especially just for the skills that we acquired when we were young people.
“We’ve seen so many people grow in confidence and become a completely different person. They’ve tried out other groups and it hasn’t worked out, but it’s just so nice that it has worked out here for them.
“When we got this space, everybody was like this is brilliant because they can call it home – we were rehearsing out of a council building for a while and then now, having our own space, it’s just brilliant.”
Looking ahead to the next 10 years, Alex laughed: “We never thought we would get to this 10 years so it’s crazy to think.
“Katie and I had a conversation not long ago about the fact that if you said to us in 2016 while we were sitting on that sofa that would we be here in 10 years, we’d think we would have laughed in each other’s faces.”
Alex, Katie-Rose and the rest of the East Broadway team and working hard to bring their colourful performance of Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat to the Belvoir Studio Theatre from 25-28th March. To buy ticket to the show, see here.
To find out more about what East Broadway does, see here
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