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Playbox Theatre Company is a theatre company for children and young people based in Warwick, England. Playbox provide training for children and young people aged 3-25 in various different areas, including theatre training, musical theatre, circus, voice and Shakespeare. Based at their purpose built theatre in Warwick, The Dream Factory, Playbox also run training sessions at various outlying centres including Leamington, Stratford-upon-Avon, Kenilworth, Solihull and Banbury. As well as providing training, Playbox also put on a number of productions throughout the year at The Dream Factory, in addition to international tours.
The company was founded in 1986 by Mary King, the current Executive Director of Playbox Theatre. The company began life in a hotel room in 1986. That year they invited English theatre director Michael Bogdanov to be their patron and he accepted. By 1988 the company were performing in two theatres in Warwick and Kenilworth and a year later they added Balsall Common to their schedule. In 1989 Stewart McGill, husband of Mary King, joined Playbox as a director. In 1991 and 1992, Stratford upon Avon, Rugby, and Leamington Spa added to the list. In 1993 the company produced its first work for national television. In 1994 Playbox reached out further to Coventry and have since moved into buildings in Bristol and York. Today, Playbox Theatre are running sessions in Warwick, Leamington, Stratford-upon-Avon, Kenilworth, Solihull and Banbury.
In 1999, Playbox's own theatre, The Dream Factory, opened in Warwick following a £2.7 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The theatre has a varying capacity as it is essentially a black box theatre but for safety the maximum is 250. There are 184 seats in the main auditorium, although these are flexible and can be altered for performances on a thrust stage, or in the round.
The company has performed throughout the country and further afield. In 1989 they played at the regionally well known Warwick Arts Centre and the world famous Edinburgh Festival. After Kraków City Council invited them to their city the company visited them. A year later a tour of the United States was staged. Further tours have been taken to these locations, as well as one to Germany, in the years since. Playbox has also taken Treasure Island to Cannizaro Park festival, playing on the same stage as Amy Winehouse. Playbox also added Tokyo to their resume in 2007. They visit Santa Monica every two years, in 2008 taking a tour of 'Monkey'. In the summer of 2010, Playbox will return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where a group of 14 young actors will perform The Fallen, a new work exploring the effect of war on those left behind.
David Almond
Michael Bogdanov
Sir Ben Kingsley
Adrian Noble
Harriet Walter
Sophie Turner
His Dark Materials - Playbox were the first company, after the National, to stage Pullman's epic. It starred Olivia Meguer, Calum Finlay, Ed Miller and Tabby Lamb.
Alumni include: [1]
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington, is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following the popularisation of its water which was reputed to have medicinal qualities. In the 19th century, the town experienced one of the most rapid expansions in England. It is named after the River Leam, which flows through the town.
Warwickshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon and Victorian novelist George Eliot,, at Nuneaton. Other significant towns include Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Kenilworth and Atherstone. The county offers a mix of historic towns and large rural areas. It is a popular destination for international and domestic tourists to explore both medieval and more recent history.
Warwick is a local government district of central Warwickshire in England. It borders the Borough of Rugby and Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire as well as the West Midlands County. The City of Coventry is to the north and northeast, the Stratford-on-Avon District to the southwest and south, the Borough of Rugby to the east, and the Borough of Solihull to the west and northwest.
Kineton is a village and civil parish on the River Dene in south-east Warwickshire, England. The village is part of Stratford-on-Avon district, and in the 2001 census it had a population of 2,278, increasing to 2,337 at the 2011 Census.
Leamington Spa railway station serves the town of Royal Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire, England. It is situated on Old Warwick Road towards the southern edge of the town centre. It is a major stop on the Chiltern Main Line between London and Birmingham, and is the southern terminus of a branch line to Coventry.
Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington is a British actor, director and writer. Together with director Michael Bogdanov, he founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 and was its Joint Artistic Director until 1992. He has written ten books, directed in the UK, US, Romania and Japan, and is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is popularly known as Moff Jerjerrod in the original Star Wars trilogy film Return of the Jedi.
Stratford-on-Avon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Nadhim Zahawi, a member of the Conservative Party, who briefly served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer in mid-2022. The constituency is in Warwickshire; as its name suggests, it is centred on the town of Stratford-on-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare, but also takes in the surrounding areas around the town, including the towns of Alcester and Henley-in-Arden.
Wilmcote railway station serves the village of Wilmcote, about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The station is run by West Midlands Trains. It is served by both West Midlands Railway and Chiltern Railways trains.
Stratford-upon-Avon railway station is the southern terminus of the North Warwickshire Line and Leamington-Stratford line, serving the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The station is served by West Midlands Trains (WMT) and Chiltern Railways.
Dorridge railway station serves the village of Dorridge in the West Midlands of England. The station is served by Chiltern Railways, who manage the station, and also by West Midlands Trains. It is situated 10+1⁄2 miles (16.9 km) south of Birmingham Snow Hill.
Olton railway station serves the Olton area of Solihull, in the West Midlands of England. The station is operated by West Midlands Trains. The entrance seen in the centre where the station's booking office is located leads into a tunnel which runs under the tracks providing an access staircase and lift to the island platform. The station also has a car park and bicycle racks.
Acocks Green railway station serves the Acocks Green area of Birmingham, in the West Midlands region of England. Pre-nationalisation a GWR station on their main line from London (Paddington) to Birkenhead (Woodside) the station is now served by West Midlands Railway, who manage the station.
Tyseley railway station serves the district of Tyseley in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It is at the junction of the lines linking Birmingham with Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon.
The Warwickshire Cricket League is the biggest cricket league for clubs in Warwickshire. Its origins go back to 1989, and since 1998 it has acted as a feeder league to the Birmingham and District Premier League Aston Manor in 2005, Berkswell in 2006, & Sutton Coldfield 2014 gained successive promotions from Birmingham League Division Three the following season. Coventry and North Warwickshire Cricket Club are the current champions.
Stagecoach in Warwickshire is a bus operator in and around the county of Warwickshire. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach.
Stratford-upon-Avon Parkway is a railway station located on the northern outskirts of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. It is on the North Warwickshire Line, adjacent to the A46.
The Heart of England Building Society was a 1974 amalgamation of local building societies: the Warwick and Warwickshire; the Rugby; and the Walsall. Their only common feature was that they had remained very small for a century before beginning a limited expansion in the 1960s. However, the Heart of England grew to be the 25th largest society by 1993 when it was acquired by the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society.
Warwick Boat Club is a rowing club on the River Avon.