The Castle Theatre Wellingborough
Encyclopedia
The Castle Theatre is located in the town of Wellingborough
, Northamptonshire
, England
. The theatre's main house can hold up to 503 people and hosts many productions through the year. The Castle was opened in 1995 as a community resource organisation on the site of Wellingborough's old cattle market. Its facilities include a Main House with 503 variable seats, an 89-seat studio theatre, dance and rehearsal space), a youth theatre studio for rehearsals and workshops, an Artist Residency space, a small art room, an art gallery and separate exhibition space, a meeting room and lounge space, and a bar-restaurant.Spaces are also available for business meetings and functions, wedding receptions, lectures, conferences, Christmas parties, dinners, talks, workshops, classes, and seminars,
Programming is a balanced mix of amateur and professional work as well as a home-produced professional Christmas show and a summer community production.
The Castle Theatre is also the current host of RYTF (Youth Theatre Festival "EAST MIDLANDS") from 2009. The festival celebrates all the hard work with youth theatre groups across the midlands. The festival includes professional workshops (from musical theatre - to script weighting) performances from professional performers as well as the attending youth theatres. Past and present CYT members help run the festival as the "buddy team"
In the summer of 2010 the castle re-branded itself with a new logo, changing its first logo of the castle itself to a more modern style to fit in with the new theme at the theatre.
For example in 2010:
From 2006 to Mid 2007 an Associate Director Post was created and was held by Simon Godwin (Former Associate Director at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton - now Freelance Director).
Each year, since opening, The Castle has traditionally staged its own in-house Christmas Production. these include:
(Staged in December unless stated)
Easter Show
The Castle Community Theatre
Each year in the summer The Castle stages a show for local people by local people. Past community shows at The Castle have included Annie (1995), Oliver,Our Country's Good, Treasure Island (1999), 12 Angry Men (2000),
The Youth Theatre
The Castle's Youth Theatre was formed in April 1999 by Daniel Austin who was the Artistic Director between April 1999 and June 2001. The groups were named Youth Theatre and The People. The Castle's Youth Theatre was restarted in September 2006 with all classes being called Castle Youth Theatre (then age group). Castle Youth groups are aged from 7 - 19 and producing an increasing number of shows. The company has produced a New Connections play The Book of Everything, and performed the show on the Olivier stage at the National Theatre in London as part of the New Connections Festival in July 2008.
CYT productions:
Other Productions:
Wellingborough
Wellingborough is a market town and borough in Northamptonshire, England, situated some from the county town of Northampton. The town is situated on the north side of the River Nene, most of the older town is sited on the flanks of the hills above the river's current flood plain...
, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The theatre's main house can hold up to 503 people and hosts many productions through the year. The Castle was opened in 1995 as a community resource organisation on the site of Wellingborough's old cattle market. Its facilities include a Main House with 503 variable seats, an 89-seat studio theatre, dance and rehearsal space), a youth theatre studio for rehearsals and workshops, an Artist Residency space, a small art room, an art gallery and separate exhibition space, a meeting room and lounge space, and a bar-restaurant.Spaces are also available for business meetings and functions, wedding receptions, lectures, conferences, Christmas parties, dinners, talks, workshops, classes, and seminars,
Programming is a balanced mix of amateur and professional work as well as a home-produced professional Christmas show and a summer community production.
The Castle Theatre is also the current host of RYTF (Youth Theatre Festival "EAST MIDLANDS") from 2009. The festival celebrates all the hard work with youth theatre groups across the midlands. The festival includes professional workshops (from musical theatre - to script weighting) performances from professional performers as well as the attending youth theatres. Past and present CYT members help run the festival as the "buddy team"
In the summer of 2010 the castle re-branded itself with a new logo, changing its first logo of the castle itself to a more modern style to fit in with the new theme at the theatre.
Famous People Who Have Appeared at the Castle
Despite the Castle being considered by many locals who don't really use the theatre, and consider it to be only for amateur productions, it has managed to pull in a number of famous people in their own productions and plays.For example in 2010:
- Victoria WoodVictoria WoodVictoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
- Jenny Eclair
- Claire SweeneyClaire SweeneyClaire Jane Sweeney is an English actress, singer and television personality best known for playing the role of Lindsey Corkhill in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside and her appearance on the first series of the Reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother.-Early Life:Sweeney was born in Walton, Liverpool...
- Julian ClaryJulian ClaryJulian Peter McDonald Clary is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.-Early life and education:...
Artistic Directors
Former and present Artistic Directors.- 1994-1998 Dominic BarberDominic BarberDominic Anthony Barber was an English Theatre Director.- Biography :Barber trained at Dartington College of Arts. In 1979, aged 24 and early in his career, he became an outspoken advocate of arts council funding and theatre in education...
- 1999-2001 Daniel Austin (now the Director, joint Executive and Artistic, at the Jersey Arts Centre)
- 2001-2004 David Bown (Chief Executive of Harrogate Theatre)
- 2004-2007 Bart Lee (now Artistic Director at Blackeyed Theatre, Bracknell)
- 2007-2008 Karl Wallace (appointed to National Folk Theatre of Ireland)
- 2009–2011 Nik Ashton (No longer based at the Castle, but is set to return for Christmas 2011 production.)
From 2006 to Mid 2007 an Associate Director Post was created and was held by Simon Godwin (Former Associate Director at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton - now Freelance Director).
Friends of The Castle
The Castle has an active 'Friends' scheme with a membership consisting of over 1,200 theatre enthusiasts and supporters. The volunteer committee organise events and fundraisers to help raise funds for The Castle, having donated over £150,000 since their inception. The Friends of the Castle are a separately constituted organisation with three representatives who sit on the Board of Management of the Castle. The Friends fundraising for The Castle has funded and helped fund projects including the development of the Dominic Barber Dance Studio and the funding of the Technical Internship Scheme.Board of Management
The theatre is managed by three representatives from the Borough Council of Wellingborough, three from the Friends of The Castle, and 12 other members. Board meetings are regularly attended by a representative from Arts Council England.Productions
ChristmasEach year, since opening, The Castle has traditionally staged its own in-house Christmas Production. these include:
(Staged in December unless stated)
- Christmas Cat And The Pudding Pirates (1995)
- The Adventures Of Mr Toad (1996)
- The Gingerbread Man (1997)
- When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney (1998)
- The Wizard of Oz (1999)
- Alice in Wonderland (2000)
- The Snow Queen (2001)
- The Emperors New Clothes (2002)
- The Ideal Gnome Expedition (2003)
- Big Bad Wolf (2004)
- A Christmas Carol (Dec 2005 - Jan 2006)
- The Princess and the Pea (2006)
- Beauty and the Beast (Nov-Dec 2007)
- Alice in Wonderland (Alice the musical) (2008)
- The Jungle Book (2009)
- Robin Hood (2010)
- Peter Pan (2011)
Easter Show
- The World Goes Round (2010)
The Castle Community Theatre
Each year in the summer The Castle stages a show for local people by local people. Past community shows at The Castle have included Annie (1995), Oliver,Our Country's Good, Treasure Island (1999), 12 Angry Men (2000),
- The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005),
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2006),
- The Pied Piper (2007),
- The Emperor's new clothes (2008),
- Whistle Down The Wind (2009),
- A Midsummer Night Dream (2010)
- Home (2011) (Part of the Children and Families Festival)
The Youth Theatre
The Castle's Youth Theatre was formed in April 1999 by Daniel Austin who was the Artistic Director between April 1999 and June 2001. The groups were named Youth Theatre and The People. The Castle's Youth Theatre was restarted in September 2006 with all classes being called Castle Youth Theatre (then age group). Castle Youth groups are aged from 7 - 19 and producing an increasing number of shows. The company has produced a New Connections play The Book of Everything, and performed the show on the Olivier stage at the National Theatre in London as part of the New Connections Festival in July 2008.
CYT productions:
- The Trial
- HUSH
- Vampire Story
- BLACKOUT
- Just
- Take-away
- Oh! What a lovely war
- Ramblers
- The Book of Everything (New Connections 2008)
- Mr Gumpey's Outing
- The Remarkable Rocket
- Under the Hood
- The Hunting of the Snark
- Birthdays
- On the way home.....
- Charlie Cook's favorite book
- The Selfish Giant
- Through the Looking Glass
- No Time to Talk
- HUBBUB
- The Hare and the Tortoise
- DeoxyriboNucleic Acid
- The Black Remote
- The Flour Babies
- Johnny and the Dead
- Adventures in Wonderland
Other Productions:
- Spring Awakening (September 1999);
- The Ghosts Dinner (September 1999);
- Haroun and the Sea of Stories (March 2000);
- Road (September 2000);
- The Good Woman of Setzuan (April 2001);
- Bill's new frock (September 2001);
- The Jungle Book (January 2006)