Nottingham Playhouse
Oxford Companion to the Theatre:
Top
Nottingham Playhouse
This theatre, run by a Trust since 1948, was originally a converted cinema seating 467. The new Playhouse, one of the first modern regional theatres, opened in 1963, funded by private contributions and Nottingham City Council. Its cylindrical auditorium gives a feeling of intimacy and seats 500 in the stalls and 250 in the circle. It has a large and well-equipped stage on which elaborate productions can be mounted. Frank Dunlop (1961–4), John Neville (1965–8), and Richard Eyre (1973–8) were among its Artistic Directors. Outstanding presentations included Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Shaw's Widowers' Houses, Hamlet with Alan Bates, and King Lear with Michael Hordern, all of which were seen in London. Notable among numerous premières were Peter Barnes's The Ruling Class (1968) and his Lulu (1970), adapted from Wedekind, Christopher Fry's A Yard of Sun (also 1970), Howard Brenton and David Hare's Brassneck (1973), and Brenton's The Churchill Play (1974). Trevor Griffiths's Comedians (1975; London, 1976), set in an evening class for training comics, also had its première there. In the 1980s it staged a highly acclaimed production of Tolkien's The Hobbit. A Theatre in Education scheme is run by the Roundabout Company.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Nottingham Playhouse
| Nottingham Playhouse | |
|---|---|
 Nottingham Playhouse & Sky Mirror at night |
|
| Address | Wellington Circus |
| City | City Centre, Nottingham |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 52°57′13″N 1°09′28″W / 52.9537°N 1.1577°WCoordinates: 52°57′13″N 1°09′28″W / 52.9537°N 1.1577°W |
| Designation | Grade II* Listed Building |
| Architect | Peter Moro |
| Capacity | 770 (2 levels) |
| Type | Proscenium |
| Opened | 1963 |
| Years active | 36 years |
| www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/ | |
The Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in the 1950s when it operated from a former cinema. Directors during this period included Val May and Frank Dunlop.[1]
|
Contents
|
The building
The current Modern movement theatre was opened in 1963. The architect was Peter Moro who had worked on the interior design of the Royal Festival Hall in London. It was initially controversial as it faces the gothic revival Roman Catholic cathedral designed by Augustus Pugin.
The buildings received a Civic Trust Award in 1965.[2] Despite the modern external appearance and the circular auditorium walls, the theatre has a conventional proscenium layout, seating an audience of 770.
During the 1980s, when the concrete interiors were out of fashion, the Playhouse suffered from insensitive "refurbishment" that sought to hide its character. Since 1996, it has been a Grade II* listed building and in 2004, the theatre was sympathetically restored and refurbished with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The sculpture Sky Mirror by Anish Kapoor was installed between the theatre and the adjacent green space of Wellington Circus in 2001[3] at a cost of £1.25m (£1.54 million as of 2012),[4]. It is one of the main features of the 160 seat patio area of Cast Restaurant and in autumn 2007 won the Nottingham Pride of Place in a public vote to determine the city's favourite landmark.
Performance history
The new theatre's artistic direction was shared between Frank Dunlop and actor John Neville with Peter Ustinov as associate.[5]
The first production in the new theatre was Shakespeare's Coriolanus in a production by Tyrone Guthrie. This included a young Ian McKellen as Tullus Aufidius opposite Neville in the title role.
Subsequent artistic directors were Stuart Burge, Richard Eyre, Geoffrey Reeves, Richard Digby Day, Kenneth Alan Taylor, Pip Broughton and Martin Duncan. The Playhouse is currently under the leadership of Stephanie Sirr, Chief Executive and Giles Croft Artistic Director.
The Playhouse has a strong tradition of new works for children, both in the form of original writing and more recently in the form of classic pantomimes conceived by former artistic director Kenneth Alan Taylor. Taylor has directed 25 consecutive pantomimes at the theatre as of 2008.
In common with most producing theatres, Nottingham Playhouse no longer generally has a repertory approach to programming although it continues to create up to 13 new productions per annum. Its recent plays include Old Big 'Ead in the Spirit of the Man, a homage to Nottingham legend Brian Clough, Rat Pack Confidential and Summer and Smoke, which both transferred to the West End and The Burial at Thebes which was part of the Barbican BITE season of autumn 2007 and toured the USA in 2008.
Nottingham Playhouse celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2008 along with Kenneth Alan Taylor's 25th anniversary pantomime where he returned to the stage as Widow Twankey in Aladdin.
External links
- Official Site
- Kenneth Alan Taylor on Nottingham Playhouse pantomime (BBC)
- Rebecca Little - Veteran of Nottingham Playhouse pantomimes (BBC)
- Frank Dunlop career [1]
- Sky mirror sculpture page
- CAST Restaurant
- See Nottingham Playhouse on Google Street View
References
- ^ A theatre for all seasons: Nottingham Playhouse : the first thirty years 1948-1978 John Bailey, Nottingham Playhouse. 1994
- ^ Britain. Peter Murray, Stephen Trombley. Architecture Design and Technology Press, 1990
- ^ Public Art Since 1950. Lynn F. Pearson. Osprey Publishing, 2006
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
- ^ Michael Coveney Obituary: John Neville, The Guardian, 21 November 2011
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
Oxford Companion to the Theatre
The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. © 1996
Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Peter Moro
(architecture)
David Hare
(English dramatist)
John Wells
(Classical Artist, '60s-'80s)
David Leland
(Writer, Director, Actor, Drama/Comedy Drama)
Alfred Burke
(Actor, Drama/Crime)
» More