The New Vic Theatre is a purpose-built

theatre in the round Theatre-in-the-round, also known as arena theatre or central staging, is a theatrical stage configuration in which the audience surrounds the performance area on all sides. Historically rooted in ancient Greece and Rome performance practices, ...

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

. 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, contiguous with the much larger town of Nuneaton, the town centre of which is 2.5 miles (4 km) to the south-east. The parish borders the district of Nuneaton a ...

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

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. Life Stephen Joseph was born in London, the child ...

was searching for a permanent base for his Studio Theatre company which specialised in theatrical productions in the round. 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 Peter Barrie Cheeseman, CBE (27 January 1932, Cowplain, Hampshire – 27 April 2010, Stoke-on-Trent) was a British theatre director who is credited with having pioneered "theatre in the round". Early life His father's work as a Naval Commun ...

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 Great Britain, British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shro ...

, ''The Fight for Shelton Bar'', about the closure of a local steelworks, and ''Jolly Potters''. The first production of a play by Peter Terson 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 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 New Vic continues to keep close to its Potteries roots. One of the plays in its re-opening season was by local playwright Arthur Berry. In 2023, the theatre showed a production of

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...

The Card ''The Card'' is a comic novel written by Arnold Bennett in 1911 (entitled ''Denry the Audacious'' in the American edition). It was later made into a 1952 movie, starring Alec Guinness and Petula Clark. Like much of Bennett's best work, it is ...

'', whose Artistic Director was Conrad Nelson, (who had earlier premiered the play with the Claybody Theatre in Fenton, one of Stoke-on-Trent's six towns).Note: ironically, in (locally-born) Bennett's '' Anna of the Five Towns'', the author omitted to consider Fenton, hence the reduction in the number of town from six to five. In 1998,

retired as Artistic Director, and was succeeded by Gwenda Hughes. In 2007, she was succeeded by current Artistic Director, Theresa Heskins.

References

External links

*
Archived
on 9 May 2024

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