This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2018) |
Address | Exchange Street Wellington Road South Stockport, Greater Manchester England |
---|---|
Type | Theatre |
Opened | 24 October 1901 [1] |
Years active | 1901–present |
Website | |
stockportgarrick.co.uk |
Stockport Garrick Theatre is a theatre in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, founded in 1901. In 1904, it obtained its own premises in Cobden Place, Wellington Street. It is the oldest "little theatre" in the United Kingdom, being defined as being an amateur theatre that owns, leases or otherwise has control of its own premises. [2]
In the summer and autumn of 1901, the drama group that was based at the Stockport Unitarian Sunday School on Petersgate was rehearsing a production of The Merchant of Venice . The church organist who was also directing the production and who was a qualified engineer, Edwin T. Heys, decided that to avoid the tortuous trek through the church on the floor above the playing space to get from one wing to the other, the solution would be to dig a tunnel under the stage. This he and his headstrong colleagues proceeded to do until the excavations were discovered by the authorities and put a stop to. The incensed actors gathered at the Church Coffee Tavern opposite under the chairmanship of Heys on 24 October and formed themselves into an independent dramatic literary company which they decided to call the Garrick Society.
It was decided that the production in rehearsal would be the first play presented by the new society and a semi-professional director, Ryder Boys, was engaged to produce the work at the Mechanics Institute at the end of February and the beginning of March 1902. It played to great acclaim and was followed in the same year by Sheridan's The School for Scandal and then by Macbeth and The Rivals . Some of the larger scale plays were performed at Stockport's Frank Matcham theatre, the Theatre Royal. The premises on Wellington Street were used for more intimate productions and ones which had not been licensed by the Lord Chamberlain such as Maeterlinck's Monna Vanna and several works by Ibsen and Shaw.
Despite the calling up of many of the society's young men during the First World War, the society continued its work during the war years and seems to have escaped relatively unscathed, continuing to present between four and eight plays per season until peace came in November 1918.
During the First World War, a scheme for acquiring new larger premises was being mooted. This came to fruition in 1920 with the formation of a limited company, the chairman of which was Edwin Heys. The building which was acquired was on the corner of Exchange Street and Wellington Road South where the present theatre stands today. It was then an engineering works and contained various other enterprises including a Spiritualist Church. In 1925 funds were raised to raise the roof, which was until then supported on low beams and in 1935–6 new rooms were constructed above what was then called the Minor Hall and which is now the bar and studio theatre.
As well as continuing to present productions of the classics, especially Shakespeare, Ibsen and Shaw, the 1920s and 1930s saw a flowering of home-grown talent in the presentation of works by Garrick members including Ross Hills, Channon Collinge, Percy Corry and Alfred Jepson. The Second World War seems to have been more traumatic for the society than the First, with many members who had joined the forces not returning and several of the founder members dying during the war years. However, the seasons of plays continued throughout, boosted it would seem by an influx of members of Stockport Operatic Society who had ceased to function for the time being, enabling the Garrick to put on several Gilbert and Sullivans and a couple of other operas.
After the war, a general sense of exhaustion and depression seemed to have set in, relieved somewhat by the 50th-anniversary celebrations in 1951 and even more so by the extensive rebuilding and refurbishment work in 1962, necessitated and financed by the local council's compulsory purchase of a "slice" of the building to enable the widening of Exchange Street. The cantilevered extension over the Exchange Street pavement was constructed, the auditorium was raked, new seats installed, the windows closed off and open fireplaces removed. The name of the building, which had until then been known as the Garrick Hall, was changed to the Garrick Theatre as it has been known ever since.
The installation of a bar in 1973, despite strong opposition from certain die-hard members, further lifted the spirits as did another major reconstruction of the auditorium and the creation of further rooms at the rear in 1984; much of the preparatory work was carried out by members themselves. Most recently a major reconstruction of the bar area, providing facilities for it to double as a studio theatre, took place in 2010.
From the outset the Garrick Theatre has often been adventurous in its choice of plays, with a particular love of Shakespeare which continues to this day (recently being involved with the RSC's Open Stages project), early productions of Ibsen, Shaw, Synge, Yeats, Hauptmann and Tagore gradually giving way in the middle years of the century to the more frivolous offerings of Noël Coward, Somerset Maugham, Alan Melville and the like. After the radical shift in theatrical tastes caused by the 1956 production of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger the Garrick gradually began to come up to date with productions of Osborne himself, Samuel Beckett, Arnold Wesker, Arthur Miller, David Hare and Simon Gray whilst continuing to lighten the mix with Alan Ayckbourn, popular West End hits and the occasional musical when the membership's talents lay in that direction. In the 1980s and '90s a number of amateur premieres were secured, including A Little Night Music (Sondheim & Wheeler), My Mother Said I Never Should (Charlotte Keatley), Corpse (Gerald Moon), Fools and Star-Spangled Girl (both by Neil Simon) and also from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s the theatre took several productions on tour to Buxton Opera House, the Isle of Man Festival, the Dundalk Festival in Eire, several venues in the U.S. and also two trips to Stockport's twin town in Germany, Heilbronn.
Since the bar refurbishment the Garrick Studio has produced a wider variety of plays, presenting intimate, exciting and sometimes controversial plays by playwrights such as David Mamet, David Harrower, Jean-Paul Sartre, Yasmina Reza, Andrew Bovell, John Godber, Laura Wade, Dennis Kelly, Joe Penhall and Simon Stephens.
The Youth Theatre has flourished in the past few years, presenting main stage productions and showcase performances each year. In recent years, Garrick Youth has grown from one weekly group of 20 students (aged 14–18) to five weekly groups for around 100 students (aged 7–18).
In 2016, BBC Radio 4 recorded Mark Steel's in Town from the theatre. [3]
In May 2018, Stockport Garrick hosted their first Stockport Festival of New Writing. A week long festival championing new writing for the stage. It included development performances of brand new plays by Stockport and Greater Manchester playwrights and talks and workshops by theatre makers. Simon Stephens, patron for the festival, gave a talk discussing his Stockport plays (Port, On the Shore of the Wide World , Punk Rock and Blindsided) with Stockport actor Katie West. Extracts from the Stockport plays were directed and performed by Garrick members.
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller, was an English film and stage actress who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly 60 years. Writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took command of the screen whenever she appeared on film". Despite many notable film performances, Hiller chose to remain primarily a stage actress.
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Samuel Johnson. He appeared in several amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III, audiences and managers began to take notice.
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English playwright and, early in his career, actor.
Hedda Gabler is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The world premiere was staged on 31 January 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. Ibsen himself was in attendance, although he remained back-stage. The play has been canonized as a masterpiece within the genres of literary realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama. Ibsen mainly wrote realistic plays until his forays into modern drama. Hedda Gabler dramatizes the experiences of the title character, Hedda, the daughter of a general, who is trapped in a marriage and a house that she does not want. Overall, the title character for Hedda Gabler is considered one of the great dramatic roles in theater. The year following its publication, the play received negative feedback and reviews. Hedda Gabler has been described as a female variation of Hamlet.
The history of Irish theatre begins in the Middle Ages and was for a long time confined to the courts of the Gaelic and "Old English" – descendants of 12th-century Norman invaders – inhabitants of Ireland. The first theatre building in Ireland was the Werburgh Street Theatre, founded in 1637, followed by the Smock Alley Theatre in 1662.
The Atlantic Theatre Festival (ATF) was a professional theatre company located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Theatre Festival presented a "broad range of critically acclaimed theatre classics" during the summer in Wolfville's Festival Theatre, the former town hockey arena that was converted into a 504 seat, thrust stage theatre and professional production facility by the Atlantic Theatre Festival Society.
Peter John Bowles was an English screen and stage actor. He gained prominence for television dramas such as Callan: A Magnum for Schneider and I, Claudius. He is however, best remembered for his roles in sitcoms and television comedy dramas, including: Rumpole of the Bailey, Only When I Laugh, To the Manor Born, The Bounder, The Irish R.M., Lytton's Diary, Executive Stress and Perfect Scoundrels.
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote acquired the lease in 1747, and in 1766 he gained a royal patent to play legitimate drama in the summer months. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. It is a Grade I listed building, with a seating capacity of 888. The freehold of the theatre is owned by the Crown Estate.
Christopher Fry was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially The Lady's Not for Burning, which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s.
Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH was an English theatre matron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. She encouraged the work of new writers and playwrights, including W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and members of what became known as the Manchester School of dramatists.
The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Exchange Shopping Centre.
Clement William Scott was an influential English theatre critic for The Daily Telegraph and other journals, and a playwright, lyricist, translator and travel writer, in the final decades of the 19th century. His style of criticism, acerbic, flowery and carried out on the first night of productions, set the standard for theatre reviewers through to today.
BATS Theatre is a theatre venue in Wellington, New Zealand. Initially founded as the Bats Theatre Company in 1976, then established in its current form in 1989. BATS Theatre has seen the development of many performing arts talents of New Zealand.
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho. Established by the actress Frances Maria Kelly in 1840, it opened as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley. The theatre's opening was ill-fated, and it was little used for a decade. It changed its name twice and was used by an opera company, amateur drama companies and for French pieces.
Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the live performing arts in Australia: performed, written or produced by Australians.
John Gabriel Borkman is a 1896 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was his penultimate work.
Theatre of United Kingdom plays an important part in British culture, and the countries that constitute the UK have had a vibrant tradition of theatre since the Renaissance with roots going back to the Roman occupation.
Star Chamber is a one-act play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8.30, a cycle written to be performed in alternating groups of three plays, across three evenings. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if, by careful writing, acting and producing I can do a little towards reinstating it in its rightful pride, I shall have achieved one of my more sentimental ambitions."
The Independent Theatre Society was a by-subscription-only organisation in London from 1891 to 1897, founded by Dutch drama critic Jacob Grein to give "special performances of plays which have a literary and artistic rather than a commercial value." The society was inspired by its continental forerunners, the Théâtre-Libre and Die Freie Bühne. The Society produced modern realist plays, mostly by continental European playwrights, on the London stage.
The People's Theatre is an amateur theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Originally located in the city centre, the People's Theatre moved to its current site, adjacent to the Coast Road in Heaton, in 1962. It shows approximately 13 productions a year including a full-scale family pantomime.