York Theatre Royal is a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

in St Leonard's Place, in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, England, which dates back to 1744. The theatre currently seats 750 people. Whilst the theatre is traditionally a

proscenium A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...

theatre, it was reconfigured for a season in 2011 to offer productions in-the-round. The theatre puts on many of its own productions, as well as hosting touring companies, one of which is

Pilot Theatre Pilot Theatre is an Arts Council England funded Theatre Company based in York, England. It was founded in by students from Bretton Hall College in Wakefield. The company was based in Wakefield and Castleford before moving to York in 2001. Histo ...

, a national touring company which often co-produces its work with the theatre. Additionally the main stage and studio are regularly used by local amateur dramatic and operatic societies. York Theatre Royal was one of the co-producers of the historic

York Mystery Plays The York Mystery Plays, more properly the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of 48 mystery plays or pageants covering sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgment. They were traditionally presented on the feast day ...

2012 which were staged in

York Museum Gardens The York Museum Gardens are botanic gardens in the centre of York, England, beside the River Ouse. They cover an area of of the former grounds of St Mary's Abbey, and were created in the 1830s by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society along wit ...

between 2–27 August. The theatre reopened on Friday 22 April 2016 following a £6million redevelopment, with a new roof, an extended and re-modelled front of house area, a refurbished and redecorated main auditorium and with major improvements to access and environmental impact.

History

York Theatre Royal was built in 1744 on, and among, the site of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

St. Leonard's Hospital."History"
York Theatre Royal. Retrieved 19 November 2011 Parts of the old hospital can still be seen in the modern building, including archways and walls. Under the stage lies a well, which is believed to be dated from the Roman era of York's history. The 1744 theatre replaced a theatre in

Minster Yard Minster Yard is a street in the city centre of York, England. It runs along the southern, eastern and northeastern sides of York Minster, for which it is named. History The street may have originated as the courtyard of the headquarters buildi ...

, built by Thomas Keregan, with the encouragement of the City Corporation, in 1734. Twenty five years after its construction, in 1769,

Tate Wilkinson Tate Wilkinson (27 October 173916 November 1803) was an English actor and manager. Life He was the son of a clergyman and was sent to Harrow. His first attempts at acting were badly received, and it was to his wonderful gift of mimicry that he ...

paid £500 for a Royal Patent, and, accordingly, it was renamed the Theatre Royal. Wilkinson ran a company that included theatres in Hull, Leeds, Pontefract, Wakefield and other Yorkshire towns. His company was reckoned to be the leading provincial company, and he attracted many of the finest actors of the period, including

John Philip Kemble John Philip Kemble (1 February 1757 – 26 February 1823) was a British actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him o ...

and his sister

Sarah Siddons Sarah Siddons (''née'' Kemble; 5 July 1755 – 8 June 1831) was a Welsh actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. Contemporaneous critic William Hazlitt dubbed Siddons as "tragedy personified". She was the elder sister of Joh ...

Dorothea Jordan Dorothea Jordan, née Bland (21 November 17615 July 1816), was an Anglo-Irish actress, as well as a courtesan. She was the long-time mistress of Prince William, Duke of Clarence, later William IV, and the mother of ten illegitimate children by ...

and

Elizabeth Farren Elizabeth Farren (c. 175923 April 1829) was an Irish actress of the late 18th century. Born in Cork in 1759 her father, George Farren was a surgeon. His drinking habits brought on early death and his widow returned to Liverpool. Her mother went ...

, to act in York. NEW FOYER MODEL, YORK THEATRE ROYAL

Since Wilkinson's time the theatre has undergone several renovations and upgrades. In the late 1800s the theatre was refurbished into the Victorian style, including, in 1879, a new

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

frontage, which is decorated with carved heads representing

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

and characters from Shakespeare's plays. In 1902 architect F. A. Tugwell of Scarborough redesigned the theatre interior. The latest major redevelopment was an extensive renovation of the theatre, with a new

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or an entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc. ...

(architect:

Patrick Gwynne (Alban) Patrick Gwynne (1913 – 2003) was a British modernist architect with Welsh roots, best known for designing and building The Homewood, which he left to the National Trust in 2003. Early life and work Gwynne was born in Portchester, Hamps ...

), in 1967. The theatre has been designated a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

. The theatre was forced to close to the public during the lockdowns brought about by

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

. The theatre building was closed between March 2020 and May 2022. During this time, the theatre staff made scrubs for the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

, created a pop-up outdoor theatre adjacent to the building and performed a 'Travelling Pantomime' in 14 different neighbourhoods of the city. The building re-opened on 17 May 2022 for 'The Love Season', a season of love stories featuring

Ralph Fiennes Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes ( ; born 22 December 1962) is an English actor, film producer, and director. A Shakespeare interpreter, he excelled onstage at the Royal National Theatre before having further success at the Royal Shak ...

Julie Hesmondhalgh Julie Claire Hesmondhalgh (born 25 February 1970) is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her role as Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' between 1998 and 2014. For this role, she won Best Serial Drama Perf ...

and New Earth Theatre among many others. In 2022, the theatre welcomed th
Kyiv City Ballet
to the UK for the first time, in order to raise funds for

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to c ...

's work in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

Pantomime

The theatre produced its first

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speakin ...

in 1862 with a production of ''The Sleeping Beauty.'' The theatre's annual pantomime was for more than 30 years been written and directed by

Berwick Kaler Berwick Kaler (born 31 October 1946) is a British actor most famous for playing the dame in York Theatre Royal's annual pantomime, which he also wrote and directed. He has been awarded the freedom of the city, and in 2002 received an honorary de ...

, who also starred in the show. Kaler retired from playing the Dame in 2019. Due to an ongoing fall in ticket sales, the Theatre Royal announced that the pantomime for 2020 was going to be a 'reboot' and move away from the Berwick Kaler era pantomimes with a new writer and director. In December 2020, the theatre performed 'The Travelling Pantomime', a tour of a small-scale pantomime to 14 different neighbourhoods in

References

External links

*
York Mystery Plays 2012
{{Authority control Grade II* listed buildings in York Grade II* listed theatres History of York Theatres in York 1744 establishments in England

History

Pantomime

See also

References

External links