The New Vic Theatre is a purpose-built

theatre in the round A theatre in the round, arena theatre or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage. Theatre-in-the-round was common in ancient theatre, particularly that of Greece and Rome, but was not widely explored ...

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

. The theatre opened in 1986, replacing a converted cinema, the Victoria Theatre in

Hartshill Hartshill is a large village and civil parish in North Warwickshire, England, 2.5 miles (4 km) north-west of the town of Nuneaton. The parish borders the district of Nuneaton and Bedworth at the south, the North Warwickshire district parishes ...

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

History

In the early 1960s,

Stephen Joseph Stephen Joseph (13 June 1921 – 4 October 1967)Colin Chambers (ed.) ''The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre,'' London: Continuum, 2002, p.410 was an English stage director and pioneer of "theatre in the round." Life Stephen J ...

was searching for a permanent base for his Studio Theatre company which specialised in theatrical productions

in the round A theatre in the round, arena theatre or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage. Theatre-in-the-round was common in ancient theatre, particularly that of Greece and Rome, but was not widely explored ag ...

. He found it in a disused cinema in

which was converted for theatrical use and opened as a playhouse on 9 October 1962.New Vic Theatre: History
/ref> The first resident director was Peter Cheeseman who remained in control for 36 years, bar a period in 1967–68 when he was temporarily replaced by the management. The company soon established a reputation for innovative productions of both new and classic works. A particular focus was on plays with a local subject, such as ''The Knotty'', about the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. The company was bas ...

, ''The Fight for

Shelton Bar Shelton Bar (Shelton Iron, Steel & Coal Company) was a major steelworks in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. In its heyday, Shelton Bar employed 10,000 in the steelworks, had five coal mines, a complete railway system, and a by ...

'', about the closure of a local steelworks, and ''Jolly Potters''. The first production of a play by

Peter Terson Peter Terson (born Peter Patterson; 16 February 1932 – 8 April 2021) was a British playwright whose plays have been produced for stage, television and radio. Most of his theatre work was first produced at the Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Tren ...

took place there in 1964; he was writer in residence for 18 months and wrote 22 plays for the Victoria. As well as drama, the venue was also used for classical and other music. The square layout of the performance area and audience created an excellent acoustic for chamber music. The

Lindsay String Quartet The Lindsay String Quartet (or The Lindsays) was a British string quartet from 1965 to 2005. History The quartet first performed at the Royal Academy of Music in 1965 to compete for a prize and set out to make the string quartets of Bartók and ...

performed there regularly in the 1970s. By 1985, over 280 productions had been staged. The need had been felt for a larger, purpose-built building from the very start, and this was created in nearby

and opened its doors in 1986 after many years of fundraising, negotiation with local councils and construction. The new venue took the name The New Victoria Theatre, often abbreviated to "New Vic", and this shortened name was formally adopted later. Whereas the old theatre had a seating capacity of 389, the main auditorium in the new theatre has a capacity of just over 600, with the audience surrounding a central stage as before. The musical acoustics are good and the Lindsay String Quartet performed there regularly, as they had done at the old theatre. The theatre continues to keep close to its Potteries roots. One of the plays in its re-opening season was by local playwright Arthur Berry. In 1998, Peter Cheeseman retired as Artistic Director, and was succeeded by Gwenda Hughes. In 2007, she was succeeded by current Artistic Director, Theresa Heskins.

References

External links

official website
{{coord, 53.0161, -2.2145, type:landmark_region:GB-STS, display=title Theatres in Staffordshire Newcastle-under-Lyme Producing theatres in England