Sheringham Town Hall The Empire | |
 Sheringham Little Theatre as seen from the Town Centre | |
 | |
| Address | 2 Station Rd, Sheringham NR26 8RE United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Type | Theatre - active |
| Capacity | 180 |
| Current use | Theatre, performing arts venue, |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1897 |
| Closed | 1960 |
| Rebuilt | 1930 |
| Years active | 1914 – present |
| Website | |
| http://sheringhamlittletheatre.com | |
Sheringham Little Theatre is a theatre in Sheringham, Norfolk, England. It stages live theatre and music, and film screenings.
The building that houses the modern theatre was constructed in 1897, originally as a meeting hall for social events. [1] After Sheringham Town Hall on Church Street was completed and became the main venue for public events in 1912, the Station Road building became a local arts centre. Silent films were shown to the public from 1914. By 1930 it was known as 'The Picture House', being renamed 'The Empire' in the late 1950s and becoming a 'The Little Theatre' in 1960. [2]
By 1930 the building had been acquired by Victor Harrison. He installed what was then a new sound system and opened with the film Canaries Sometimes Sing. [3] In 2012 the theatre underwent £48,000 worth of renovation to the building by landlords North Norfolk District Council and now has a digital projector, cafe and bar. [4]
In September 2017, the theatre began a series of "wellbeing-boosting community music workshops" in the café, that included instruction in a variety of musical instruments, through funding by the Big Lottery Fund Awards, Norfolk County Council and Sheringham Town Council. The program, which was intended to continue for at least six months, was aimed towards music novices of ages 13 upwards, and particularly those with dementia or other health conditions and their carers. [5]
The Little Theatre holds one of the last surviving summer repertory seasons in the United Kingdom and runs 'rep' performances from July to September each year. [6] In December and January the theatre produces a pantomime with a cast of professional actors, and local young people in the chorus and smaller roles. [7]
In 2017, Sheringham Little Theatre's director was appointed as creative director to St George's Theatre in Great Yarmouth, to provide an 18-month audience development plan. [8]
Youth musicals of classic shows make up part of the Little Theatre's programme. In September 2016, the youth group performed a selection of musical theatre songs from previous productions and planned future musicals to raise money for the theatre's refurbishment scheme. A 2017 production of Oliver! was presented, also to raise money for the refurbishment scheme, and as a tribute to a late local amateur actor. [9] [10]
In 2016 the theatre entered for the Norfolk Arts Awards, winning the Eastern Daily Press People's Choice "for small attractions." [11] In June 2017 the theatre self reported that it had reached the final round of the Muddy Stilettos Norfolk Awards for Best Theatre. [12]
In 2013 Sir John Hurt was part of a 'Spring into Cinema' campaign which included the screening of the film A Late Quartet . Hurt was complimentary of the theatre's "cinema venture" which he saw as "broaden[ing] people's understanding" of cinema, and wished "something like this was around when I was young." [13] The same year Hurt prerecorded a voice role as the 'magic mirror' for The Little Theatre's production of Snow White. [14]
Norfolk is a rural and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. Norfolk is the fifth largest ceremonial county in England, with an area of 5,371 km². It borders Lincolnshire to the northwest, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and to the northwest, The Wash. The county town is the city of Norwich. With an area of 2,074 square miles (5,370 km2) and a population of 859,400, Norfolk is a largely rural county with a population density of 401 per square mile. Of the county's population, 40% live in four major built up areas: Norwich (213,000), Great Yarmouth (63,000), King's Lynn (46,000), and Thetford (25,000).
East Anglia is a geographical area in the East of England. The area included has varied but the legally defined NUTS statistical unit comprises the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a tribe whose name originated in Anglia, in what is now northern Germany.
The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) – also known as the "Poppy Line" – is a 5+1⁄4-mile (8.4 km) heritage steam railway in Norfolk, England, running between the towns of Sheringham and Holt. The North Norfolk Railway is owned and operated as a public limited company, originally called Central Norfolk Enterprises Limited. The railway is listed as exempt from the UK Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2000.
Great Yarmouth, often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort town in Norfolk, England, straddling the River Yare, some 20 miles (30 km) east of Norwich. A population of 38,693 in the 2011 Census made it Norfolk's third most populous. Its fishing industry, mainly for herring, shrank after the mid-20th century and has all but ended. North Sea oil from the 1960s supplied an oil-rig industry that services offshore natural gas rigs. More recent offshore wind power and other renewable energy have ensued. Yarmouth has been a resort since 1760 and a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. Holiday-making rose when a railway opened in 1844, bringing easier, cheaper access and some new settlement. Wellington Pier opened in 1854 and Britannia Pier in 1858. Through the 20th century, Yarmouth boomed as a resort, with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops and theatres, and the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus and the Time and Tide Museum, and a Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass.
Sheringham is an English seaside town within the county of Norfolk, United Kingdom. The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban District Council, is Mare Ditat Pinusque Decorat, Latin for "The sea enriches and the pine adorns".
North Norfolk is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Duncan Baker, a Conservative.
Norwich is a city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about 100 miles (160 km) north-east of London, 40 miles (64 km) north of Ipswich and 65 miles (105 km) east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with one of the country's largest medieval cathedrals, it is the largest city in East Anglia.
North Walsham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England, within the North Norfolk district.
Cromer is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is 23 miles north of Norwich, 116 miles north-northeast of London and four miles east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are North Norfolk District Council, whose headquarters is on Holt Road in the town, and Norfolk County Council, based in Norwich. The civil parish has an area of 4.66 km2 and at the 2011 census had a population of 7,683.
North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer. The population at the 2011 Census was 101,149.
The Borough of Great Yarmouth is a local government district with borough status in Norfolk, England. It is named after its main town, Great Yarmouth.
Allan Francis Smethurst, aka The Singing Postman was an English folk singer and postman. He is best known for his self-penned novelty song, "Hev Yew Gotta Loight, Boy?", which earned him an Ivor Novello Award in 1966, “Come Along A Me” and "A Miss from Diss". The Guardian dubbed him a "bookishly melancholy folk-satirist".
The A1082 is an English A road entirely in the county of Norfolk. It runs from a junction with the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer Road to a roundabout on the A149 in the North Norfolk coastal town of Sheringham.
Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Norfolk in the east of England. The county consists of around 870,100 people and 2,074 square miles (5,370 km2).
The Norfolk Orbital Railway — as the Holt, Melton Constable and Fakenham Railway Company — is a proposed rail project in Norfolk, England, which is proposed to look at bringing a new rail connection to North and Mid Norfolk.
Holt railway station served the town of Holt in Norfolk, England. It was part of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway network, which spread over much of East Anglia, providing connections to Cromer, Norwich and Yarmouth. Closed in 1964, there are proposals afoot to rebuild the line through the locality as part of an orbital railway scheme.
The Norfolk County Council election took place on 4 June 2009, coinciding with local elections for all county councils in England.
Healthcare in Norfolk was the responsibility of five clinical commissioning groups: Great Yarmouth and Waveney CCG, Norwich CCG, North Norfolk CCG, West Norfolk CCG and South Norfolk CCG, they merged in April 2020 becoming the Norfolk and Waveney CCG. Social Care is the responsibility of Norfolk County Council.
Sheringham Town Hall, formerly known as Sheringham Council Offices, is a former municipal building in Church Street, Sheringham, Norfolk, England. The structure served as the headquarters of Sheringham Urban District Council and then as the offices and meeting place of Sheringham Town Council until it closed in August 2019.