The Crescent Theatre is a multi-venue

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

run mostly by volunteers in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

City Centre. It is part of the Brindleyplace development on Sheepcote Street. It has a resident company, one of the oldest theatre companies in the city, and is a founding member of the

Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain The Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain (''LTG'') is an Umbrella organisation promoting and supporting independent amateur theatre companies which have control over their own premises and produce drama of a high quality for the benefit of thei ...

. As a venue, it also hires its four performance spaces to a host of visitors each year, nationally and internationally, both amateur and professional. In their centenary year, June 2024, it was officially announced that they would be taking over the running of the historic Old Rep Theatre from August 2024, alongside its own theatre complex in Brindleyplace.

History

The company began, as the Municipal Players, in 1924, being an amateur company made up of City Council employees. The first theatre was a converted building, formerly Baskerville Hall, in The Crescent, Cambridge Street. The first production in this original theatre was Edmund Rostand's "The Romantics" in 1932. The company moved to newly built premises on Cumberland Street in 1964, designed by

Graham Winteringham Graham Winteringham (2 March 1923 – 29 January 2023) was an English architect. His work consisted of public buildings and the restoration of historic buildings. Early life Winteringham was born in Louth, Lincolnshire. He studied at Birmingham ...

of S.T. Walker and Partners, with a seating capacity of 296. The apron stage and first seven rows of seats were on a revolving platform to turn the interior into an arena theatre. The two-storey building was faced with London stock bricks and black-framed windows. Phase Two of the construction would have included a restaurant and a rehearsal stage. The present theatre was opened in 1998 by Celia Imrie. The theatre it replaced was demolished in the same year. It houses four performance spaces: The Main House, Ron Barber Studio, Roma's Room, and the Bar with capacities of 340, 120, 40 and 70 respectively. The building was designed by Terry Farrell and John Chatwin. The theatre is run by a board of directors elected from the membership including chairman, secretary and treasurer. They oversee the general direction of the theatre and all the membership activities. There is a small team of paid staff who look after the day-to-day running of the building and supervise the hire operation. The theatre has hosted a variety of events for Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Rep, the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, including recent live broadcasts of Radio 1's Newsbeat and Radio 4's Any Questions.

References

External links

Crescent Theatre Official WebsiteGuardian article on the theatre
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