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The Stephen Joseph Theatre
was founded in Scarborough by theatrical pioneer
Stephen Joseph. |
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Stephen, the son of actress Hermione Gingold
and publisher Michael Joseph, had seen theatre in the round
in America and determined to bring it back to Britain. A
series of events brought him to the seaside town of
Scarborough on the North-East coast where in 1955 he
established a tiny theatre in the round on the first floor
of the Public Library.
The theatre flourished and in 1976 moved to a
supposedly temporary home on the ground floor of the former
Scarborough Boys' High School.
However, a permanent home proved difficult to
find and it wasn't until late 1988 and the closure of the
local Odeon cinema by Rank Leisure that the theatre's
long-standing Artistic Director, Alan Ayckbourn, found a
suitable venue.
The new theatre, known simply as the Stephen
Joseph Theatre opened on 30th April 1996 and has
two auditoria: The Round, a 404-seat in the round and The
McCarthy, a 165-seat endstage/cinema. The building also
contains a restaurant, shop, and full front-of-house and
backstage facilities.
The Round boasts two important technical
innovations: the stage lift, facilitating speedy set changes
and the trampoline, a Canadian invention which allows
technicians particularly easy access to the lighting grid. |
