Sewell Barn Theatre is located in the grounds of

Sewell Park Academy Sewell Park Academy is a secondary school located on the north-eastern edge of the city of Norwich, Norfolk, England. Admissions It has approximately 481 students aged eleven to sixteen (years 7 to 11). It is situated between St. Clements Hill ...

(formerly the Blyth school, later the Blyth-Jex school and Sewell Park College) on Constitution Hill in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is home to a popular amateur

theatre company 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 perform ...

, with close historical links to the author

Anna Sewell Anna Sewell (; 30 March 1820 – 25 April 1878)''The Oxford guide to British women writers'' by Joanne Shattock. p. 385, Oxford University Press. (1993) was an English novelist. She is known as the author of the 1877 novel ''Black Beauty'', her ...

who wrote ''

Black Beauty ''Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse'' is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she was bedridden and seriously ill.Merriam-Webster (1995). ...

''.

The auditorium

The auditorium features raked seating on three sides of an open acting space. This unusual staging helps to draw the audience deeply into the performance. Ground level spaces can be provided for audience members with limited mobility. The auditorium also provides an unusual and convenient space for presentations, meetings and other private hire uses.

History

Originally the barn belonged to Clare House which was owned by Philip Sewell, a local benefactor, from 1864 to 1906. http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/Norwich/anna_sewell.htm

, author of the children’s story "Black Beauty", was Philip’s sister and lived in the White House, Spixworth Road,

Spixworth Spixworth is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village lies close to the B1150 road and is north of Norwich and some south of North Walsham. It covers an area of and had a population of 3,769 in 1,508 househo ...

. Philip owned a mare called Black Bess which used to draw his carriage along Spixworth Road and it might be supposed that Bess was the original inspiration for Black Beauty, and the barn a prototype for Black Beauty’s stable. The book was published by

Jarrolds The Jarrold Group is a Norwich–based company, founded as ''Jarrold & Sons Ltd'', in 1770, by John Jarrold, at Woodbridge, Suffolk, before relocating to Norfolk in 1823. ''The Jarrold Group'' still involves members of the Jarrold family. Fami ...

in 1877. Philip Sewell died in 1906 and left his house and estate to the City of Norwich. Clare House became an

open air school Open air schools or schools of the woods were purpose-built educational institutions for children, that were designed to prevent and combat the widespread rise of tuberculosis that occurred in the period leading up to the Second World War. The s ...

for city children suffering from respiratory complaints and the barn became their washroom, restroom and handicraft centre. Since then the old hay barn has seen many uses. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

it was used as a theatre when Catton residents put on a concert for troops billeted in the area. It was used for storage and also as a bicycle shed for girls of the Blyth School (which was constructed in 1929 in the grounds of Clare House). Clare House was demolished in 1970 and out of the rubble rose the foundations of part of the new Blyth Jex school. The barn later housed the very first school minibus. During a visit to the school in 1974 it was suggested by

Norfolk County Council Norfolk County Council is the top-tier local government authority for Norfolk, England. Its headquarters are based in the city of Norwich. Below it there are 7 second-tier local government district councils: Breckland District, Broadland Distr ...

lors that the barn might make an admirable small theatre. At the time the barn was a dirty, leaky building stacked with broken school furniture and other accumulated rubbish. It took several years for this building, with the help of Valerie Glauert - head of Blyth Jex School - to be turned into a fully functioning small theatre.Norfolk Tourist Information-Sewell Barn Theatre
Retrieved 4 March 2013

The Sewell Barn Theatre Company

In 1980, the Sewell Barn Theatre Company was formed. Their first public production ''The Norfolk Furies'' was written and directed by Henry Burke (the first Artistic Director), and staged at the barn. The company stages a number of productions every year, ranging from

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Alan Ayckbourn Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced as of 2021, more than eighty full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of ...

. In February 2008 the company presented its 200th production ''

The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some criti ...

''.

Today

Membership of the Sewell Barn company is open to everyone, and workshops are open to non-members. The foyer was renovated in 2012. As of 2016, the Artistic Directors are Cassie Tillett and Clare Williamson.

References

{{Reflist

External links