Assembly is a theatre and comedy promotion company, producer and venue operator. It programmes and promotes entertainment events at venues in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, and is the longest-established of the so-called Big Four
[ promoters at the ]Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
in August.[ Year-round audience numbers at Assembly events are more than 500,000, and the company's artistic director is ]William Burdett-Coutts
William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett Burdett-Coutts (20 January 1851 – 28 July 1921), born William Lehman Ashmead-Bartlett, was an American-born British Conservative politician and social climber who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1921 ...
.[
]
History
Assembly can trace its roots back to the 1981 Edinburgh Fringe when William Burdett-Coutts, who at the time was working at the Old Vic
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
* Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...
, intended to bring a show to the Fringe, The Madman and the Nun. However, he had left it too late to organise a venue. Fortunately, the Assembly Rooms
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were ...
on George Street had been vacated by the Festival Club, which had found it unprofitable to operate there. This meant there was space for Burdett-Coutts to host both his own show, and others.[
] This was the foundation of the company which would become one of the "Big Four" Fringe venues, promoting shows at multiple venues across the city.[
An early success was Alternative Cabaret, a show featuring Tony Allen, Jim Barclay, ]Andy de la Tour
Andy de la Tour (born 1948) is an English actor and screenwriter.
In films he appeared in '' Plenty'', ''Notting Hill'', the Roman Polanski's ''Oliver Twist'', '' 44 Inch Chest'', and '' The Confessions'', and in television '' The Young Ones'' ...
and Pauline Melville
Pauline Melville FRSL (born 1948) is an English/Guyanese-born writer and former actor of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, who is currently based in London, England. Among awards she has received for her writing – which encompasses short ...
, which became one of the critical hits of 1981.[
]
Edinburgh
Assembly Festival
During August, as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and under the title "Assembly Festival", the company now operates seventeen theatre spaces, and eight bars. In 2015, the Assembly Festival programme consisted of 163 shows, including performances by Milton Jones
Milton Hywel Jones (born 16 May 1964) is an English comedian. His style of humour is based on one-liners involving puns delivered in a deadpan and slightly neurotic style. Jones has had various shows on BBC Radio 4 and was a recurring guest pa ...
, Adam Hills
Adam Christopher Hills (born 10 July 1970) is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter. In Australia, he hosted the music quiz show '' Spicks and Specks'' from 2005 to 2011, and again in 2021 onwards, and the talk show ''Adam Hi ...
and Jason Byrne.[
The company has been running events at the Fringe since the early 1980s, originally at the ]Assembly Rooms
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were ...
, from which the name is derived. In recent years, the contract for operating the Assembly Rooms building during the Fringe has been awarded to the promoters behind The Stand Comedy Club
The Stand Comedy Club is a chain of three stand-up comedy venues in the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Newcastle upon Tyne.
History
The Stand hosted its first regular club night on Thursday, 21 September 1995, in the small basement of W.J. C ...
, separating the company from its origins. However, from 2016, the company will again be operating the building.
In more recent times, the Assembly has been based in and around George Square
George Square ( gd, Ceàrnag Sheòrais) is the principal civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, St Enoch Square, Royal Exchange Sq ...
, and has made particular use of the George Square Theatre
The Gordon Aikman Lecture Theatre is a category B listed performing arts and lecture theatre located in the historic George Square in Edinburgh. Primarily operated as a lecture theatre for the University of Edinburgh, it is also used for general ...
, having rebranded it as Assembly George Square.
The entire Assembly Festival operation is three times the size of the Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially classical music) and the performing arts are i ...
and plays to audiences the equivalent of the BBC Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
.
Assembly Roxy
Assembly also run a year-round venue in Edinburgh in a converted church building near the main university campus. It is named the Assembly Roxy
Assembly is a theatre and comedy promotion company, producer and venue operator. It programmes and promotes entertainment events at venues in Edinburgh, London and Brighton, and is the longest-established of the so-called Big Four promoters at ...
after the street on which it stands, Roxburgh Place. It hosts a small theatre, music and comedy programme, and also operates as a function suite for weddings and corporate events.
The current building dates to the early 20th century, when it was built to replace an old chapel on the site. That previous chapel - a "dark, oddly-shaped building"[ - had been taken over in 1856 by the congregation of Lady Glenorchy's Parish Church, who had moved there when their original church was demolished in the development of ]Waverley Station
Edinburgh Waverley railway station (also known simply as Waverley; gd, Waverley Dhùn Èideann) is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. It is the north ...
. In 1904, the minister, Reverend Thomas Burns, decided to rebuild the church to better meet the needs of the people. It was built in 2 stages - the hall, by Thomas Ross, in 1908-10 and the church, by Peter MacGregor Chalmers
Peter MacGregor Chalmers LLD (14 March 1859 – 15 March 1922) was a Scottish architect specialising in country churches, and also being involved in several important restoration schemes.
Life
Chalmers was born on 14 March 1859, the son of Georg ...
, in 1912-13. It cost £21,000 and opened in December 1913. As Lady Glenorchy South Church (to distinguish it from another church in Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
) it became one of the busiest churches in Edinburgh. The congregation diminished with the demolition of surrounding tenements in the mid 20th century. In 1969, it was sold to the University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
, and used as an examination hall, under the name "Roxburgh Place Hall".[ During this time, it also served as a venue for the Fringe, under the management of the nearby Pleasance as "Pleasance Over The Road". The Edinburgh University Settlement charity, which owned the building, went bankrupt in 2010, and the building was bought by Assembly in a joint deal with restaurateur Malcolm Innes to become Assembly's first permanent Edinburgh home.][
It has four performance spaces, including the 250-seater Roxy Central, and a snug bar in the basement.
]
Assembly Checkpoint
Plans are also being discussed for the permanent conversion of another of Assembly's Fringe venues, Assembly Checkpoint, into a year-round music venue. The building, a former church built in 1900, was taken over by Assembly in 2012. It is situated on Bristo Place, near the National Museum of Scotland
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...
. The plan is for live music events to be held on the upper floor of the Grade B listed building, which has been soundproofed.[
]
Brighton
In September, Assembly run Brighton Comedy Festival, a curated festival, operating across five venues. In 2014, the festival featured 140 acts across 16 days including Simon Amstell
Simon Marc Amstell (born 29 November 1979) is a British comedian, writer and director. He wrote and directed the films '' Carnage'' (2017) and ''Benjamin'' (2018). His work on television has included presenting ''Popworld'' and ''Never Mind the ...
, Bridget Christie
Bridget Louise Christie (born 17 August 1971) is an English stand-up comedian, actress and writer. She has written and performed 12 Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows and several comedy tours, in addition to radio and television work. She has rece ...
, Marcus Brigstocke
Marcus Alexander Brigstocke (born 8 May 1973) is a British comedian, actor and satirist. He has worked in stand-up comedy, television, radio and musical theatre. He has appeared on many BBC television and radio shows.
Early life
Brigstocke is th ...
, Jack Dee
James Andrew Innes Dee (born 24 September 1961), known professionally as Jack Dee, is an English stand-up comedian, actor, presenter and writer known for his sarcasm, irony and deadpan humour. He wrote and starred in the sitcom ''Lead Balloon'' ...
and Seann Walsh
Sean Christopher Walsh (born 2 December 1985), known professionally as Seann Walsh, is an English stand-up comedian.
Early life
Walsh was born in Camden in London, but was brought up in Brighton. He left school with one GCSE examination pas ...
.[
]
London
Assembly's London base is at Riverside Studios
Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production.
Having closed for redevelopment in ...
in Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
. Riverside is currently under redevelopment, with a plan to reopen in 2018 will as a national live and digital arts hub.[
]
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Assembly website
{{Authority control
Assembly
Assembly may refer to:
Organisations and meetings
* Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions
* General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...