History

A Brief History of Harrogate Theatre

Harrogate Grand Opera House, as the Theatre was originally known, opened its doors on 11 th January 1900 becoming a number one provincial circuit theatre for star-studded touring companies. By the 1930’s, with touring companies in decline, the Opera House re-emerged with a resident repertory company, the White Rose Players who were amongst the first repertory companies in the country.

In 1960 Harrogate Borough Council became involved with the theatre and a non-profit making charitable company was formed, The Harrogate (White Rose) Theatre Trust. The Trust runs the Theatre to this day leasing the Grade II listed building from Harrogate Borough Council.

The Theatre has undergone several refurbishments during its existence, in 1970 the size of the auditorium was greatly reduced from the original 1400 seats of the Grand Opera House to a mere 500. Today the Theatre has an authentic Victorian auditorium with proscenium arch and a shallow raked stage, a studio used for rehearsals and small-scale performance (70 seats). The Theatre also has its own workshop located three miles away where sets are built and which provides limited storage.

As with all older buildings, running repairs are demanding of time and resources. An application to the Arts Lottery was made in 2000, which was not successful on the basis of new Lottery priorities. The Board established ‘Theatre Forward’, a separate fundraising arm of the Theatre who, supported by prominent local businesses, are running a capital appeal to enable refurbishment to be tackled in a phased programme.

In spring 1997 a grant cut from North Yorkshire County Council, the departure of the Artistic Director and the creation of a new senior post of Executive Director, heralded the beginning of a process of review and re-think at Harrogate Theatre. Financial problems, loss of faith by the funding bodies and lower than anticipated audience levels led to the realisation that change was needed to secure the long term future of the Theatre.

The Theatre went ‘dark’ for three months in autumn ‘97 to allow time and space to take stock and for a major review to be undertaken. Since the re-launch in December 1997 the Theatre has been enjoying one of its most successful periods in recent history. Attendance for drama is now averaging 72% (68% excluding pantomime) and overall turnover has risen 58% since 1997.

The Theatre moved from being a nine-show a year repertory house to a broader mixed programme, combing home produced in-house work with the work of visiting touring companies and more diverse one-night entertainments. This formula has been retained to the current point. The Theatre produces five of its own main house shows, takes in touring work from leading companies and, for the last four years, has toured its own work to middle scale venues in the Yorkshire region and nationally. Arts Council of England, NTP funding, has supported two of those tours.

During this period the Theatre maintained a strong Youth Theatre. In 2000 the Theatre was awarded funds, which enabled the expansion of the Youth Theatre into surrounding areas and a programme of performance and participatory work and audience development to be launched in rural areas.

In February 2003 Hannah Chissick was appointed as Artistic Director and opened her first season with production of ‘Art’ by Yazmina Reza. At the same time Steve Ansell joined the Senior Staff as new Director of Education. With David Bown joining the staff as Chief Executive later in 2003, the theatre continued to produce diverse and critically acclaimed work with Hannah as Artistic Director until her departure in 2006.

Now at the beginning of 2007 Harrogate Theatre is on the brink of an exciting new era, working in partnership with other theatre companies and pioneering a new artistic enterprise called The Academy. This will see new talent nurtured and developed by working in partnership with established professionals.