Milton Keynes Theatre is a large theatre in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

. It opened on 4 October 1999, 25 years after the campaign for a new theatre first started. Designed by architects Blonski-Heard with Kut Nadiadi and Robert Doe, the theatre design employed the latest building techniques, using some of the most technically advanced equipment available. The

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, communit ...

has been designed to accommodate various shows: the ceiling can be lowered or raised depending on the scale of the production. The seating can also be moved around within the auditorium to vary the capacity from between 900 and 1,400. Consequently, the theatre accommodates a wide range of productions, from large-scale musicals, to smaller, more intimate drama. The acoustic designers, Arup Acoustics, used a 1:50 scale acoustic model to determine the effect of the moving ceiling on the acoustic. The programme includes a variety of large and small West End productions and a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speakin ...

, touring

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

and

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...

, as well as touring drama. The theatre is managed and operated by the

Ambassador Theatre Group The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) is a major international theatre organisation headquartered in the United Kingdom, with offices in Woking (head office), London, New York, Sydney, Mannheim and Cologne. ATG's key operations comprise three in ...

. ATG were appointed as theatre operator in 1998, before the theatre opened."Cultural Planning Toolkit: A Review of Resources"
''Cities Institute'', 2007. Retrieved 2012-11-21.

References

External links

Milton Keynes Theatre official website

Arup Acoustics

Milton Keynes Theatre
Theatres in Buckinghamshire Buildings and structures in Milton Keynes Performance art venues {{UK-theat-struct-stub