“A PASSION and a plank is all you need,” said North Country Theatre director Nobby Dimon, addressing friends, actors, colleagues and supporters on a lawn in Richmond while picking up a short, flat wooden strut.

The occasion was a garden party to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the small-scale rural touring company which began with the help of a £1,000 grant and now stages plays from Oxfordshire and Shropshire to the Scottish borders, still on a comparative shoestring.

The paraphrased reference was to an old saying meaning theatre needs only the barest of stages provided actors are passionate enough about what they are doing. It could be NCT’s motto, given that many rural venues over the years have been basic, others palatial.

There was the field near Edinburgh where actors took turns dressing in the solitary toilet, but contrasting with that, costume changes near Canaletto paintings at the Bowes Museum and sumptuous spreads provided before performances at Kiplin Hall.

Mr Dimon, 62, spoke about future directions of the company, his own role in it, the need to attract younger audiences, and the ever-pressing worry over finance.

The purpose of the plank-like prop became clear. On the side facing him, he had written down what he wanted to say.

“Some of you will have heard whispers and rumours about how long I will go on,” he said, admitting that for the first time in more than 30 years appearing on stage, he had difficulty remembering the words for his recent role as Malvolio in Twelfth Night, the company’s first Shakespeare play. In one scene he concealed a prompt sheet on a plank.

“After that experience, it’s something I wonder myself,” he said, ruefully. As previously reported, Vivienne Garnett will direct the autumn production of The Wish House, a short story by Kipling adapted by Mr Dimon, who said he would like to act more and not direct in future.

“The company will continue, but it may have to change its shape and style in the next few years because of funding,” he said.

NCT came into being in 1996 at a meeting in the home of Mr Dimon and his wife, Gill. Among the small group was the late Debbie Walker, the D&S Richmond reporter, a young woman passionate about theatre, who became the first chairwoman.

The company has produced 34 plays, all original scripts or new adaptations, and given 1,139 performances to a total audience of more than 100,000. It runs educational programmes and creates community plays. Most of its venues are unsubsidised and volunteer-run.

National Lottery funding in 1998 enabled an office to be set up in Richmond and in the same year NCT became a regularly funded organisation of the Arts Council. That arrangement ended in 2012 and was replaced by an Angel scheme, which makes the company entirely community-funded.

“For the last four years many people have supported us, sometimes with substantial amounts,” said Mr Dimon. “We would not have survived without that support.”

He thanked his wife, administrator and willing Gill-of-all-trade in innumerable tasks; set designer and builder Simon Pell; others who work on costumes, graphics, music, venue promoters and Friends. “I hope you will all continue for the sake of the company,” he added.

He had special praise for the professional actors, the kind of people willing to muck in as well as perform. This was literally the case at Castle Bolton recently when some of the cast went out with buckets to shift sheep droppings before the audience started arriving, though the performance was eventually moved indoors because of the rain.

He hopes audiences built up over the years will not react to changes by feeling that different types of production are not something they would like, adding that as long as Shep remains, continuity is guaranteed.

The company’s much-loved shaggy dog puppet was, of course, present at the party, sitting on someone’s knee, nodding in agreement.