David Peel asks Paul McCartney to sponsor a children show

Apple and Peel

Two weeks from today the Apple Peel Players will perform their first play for children on the beach at Brighton. Unlike most seaside attractions, the entertainment will be free, intended as a foretaste and an advertisement for their shows at the tiny Brighton Combination Theatre in West Street.

David Peel, aged 22, a Sussex University graduate, hit on the idea of presenting a summer programme for children and looked for a sponsor. He approached Apple, the Beatles’ multifold organization, and enlisted the support and his asking capital of £100 from Paul McCartney. “One of the reasons Apple was formed was to help young people to do things”, explains David Peel. “And with a name like mine, I was just made for them.”

The Apple Peel Players will present as the first of their four programmes a fairly traditional children’s story called The Car that wouldn’t Budge, but as the season progresses the plays will become increasingly experimental. After an Elizabethan comedy called The Old Wives’ Tale which Mr. Peel expects the children to “sit down, shut up and enjoy”, will come three short playlets which will require audience involvement in that there is no scripted ending. The final programme will be a “playground”, the theatre filled with sound, liquid lights and things to climb over and do.

The beach play will remain a kingpin of the whole scheme, but David Peel hopes to continue the idea long after the last stick of rock has gone. He hopes that the Apple Peel Players can do an imaginative children’s pantomime in Brighton next winter.

From The Times London – June 24, 1968

Apple Peel Encore

“We had a major technical problem — how to stop the children throwing pebbles at the baddies”, said 23-year-old David Peel, who hit on the idea of presenting plays for children on Brighton beach this summer.

This was audience participation at its most successful, and now the company, Apple Peel, so named because Paul McCartney provided the money to enable it to get going, is becoming a full-time one.

It is based in Brighton, and we reported its first ventures two months ago. Since then the company has entertained 5,000 children on the beach and in Brighton Combination Theatre.

“We envisage that the company will function on two levels”, said David Peel. “The everyday work will consist of visiting schools, at first in the Brighton area, but later farther afield, giving a performance and following it up with workshop sessions.”

Next summer holidays the company will take to the beach again, with more ambitious performances planned to get the audience joining in.

“We are planning shows where well-known pop groups with special appeal to children will give a concert act, again with audience participation”, explained David Peel. “The Scaffold are interested.”

Apple Peel will also present previously unperformed plays for adult audiences in a theatre, but its immediate problem is money.

“We are no longer connected with Apple, but we thought we would keep the name”, said David. “They provided the money to get us started, but now we are on our own. We haven’t got any money, but we are writing to trusts and various organizations.”

So far, the children’s plays have all been written by members of the company. Auditions are being held in Brighton now, and the company will consist of about 10 players. It will begin work in Brighton early in October.

From The Times London – September 16, 1968