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Orange Tree Theatre

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Coordinates: 51°30′08″N 0°23′15″W / 51.5022°N 0.3875°W / 51.5022; -0.3875
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Orange Tree Theatre
Map
Address1 Clarence Street, Richmond,
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
England, UK
Coordinates51°30′08″N 0°23′15″W / 51.5022°N 0.3875°W / 51.5022; -0.3875
Public transitLondon Underground London Overground National Rail Richmond
TypeFringe theatre
Capacity180
Construction
Opened1971 (in previous venue)
Rebuilt1991
Years active1971–present
Architectbelieved to be Arthur Blomfield (original 1867 building)
Website
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk

The Orange Tree Theatre is a 180-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south-west London, which was built specifically as a theatre in the round.[1] It is housed within a disused 1867 primary school, built in Victorian Gothic style.

The theatre was founded in 1971 by its first artistic director, Sam Walters, and his actress wife Auriol Smith in a small room above the Orange Tree pub opposite the present building, which opened in 1991.[2]

Walters, the UK's longest-serving theatre director, retired from the Orange Tree Theatre in June 2014 and was succeeded as artistic director by Paul Miller, previously associate director at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.[3] Tom Littler, previously artistic director at the Jermyn Street Theatre, took over from Miller in December 2022.[4]

The Orange Tree Theatre specialises in staging new plays and rediscovering classics.[5] It has an education and participation programme that reaches over 10,000 people every year.

Since 2014 the theatre has won ten Offies (Off West End Awards), five UK Theatre Awards and the Alfred Fagon Audience Award. It won the Empty Space Peter Brook Award in 2006 and 2015.

The first Orange Tree Theatre

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As a company the Orange Tree Theatre, then known as the Richmond Fringe, was founded on 31 December 1971 by Sam Walters and Auriol Smith in a small room above The Orange Tree pub,[2] close to Richmond railway station. Six former church pews, arranged around the performing area, were used to seat an audience of up to 80 in number. Initially productions were staged in daylight and at lunchtimes. However, when theatre lighting and window-blinds were installed, matinee and evening performances of full-length plays also became possible. The London critics regularly reviewed its productions and the venue gained a reputation for quality and innovation, with theatregoers queuing on the stairs, waiting to purchase tickets.

The new Orange Tree Theatre

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As audience numbers increased there was pressure to find a more accommodating space, both front and backstage. On 14 February 1991, the company opened its first production across the road in the current premises, the new Orange Tree Theatre. The theatre is housed within a converted primary school, St John's, which had been built in 1867 and had become derelict; the school was in Victorian Gothic style and the architect is likely to have been Arthur Blomfield.[6]

Meanwhile, the original theatre, renamed The Room (above the pub), continued to function as a second stage for shorter runs and works in translation until 1997.

Design and conversion

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The school conversion and construction design were undertaken by Iain Mackintosh as head of the Theatre Projects Consultants team. The design intent was to retain the same sense of intimacy as the old theatre, thus calling for an unusually small acting area.[7]

The solution was to create, at stage level, no more than three rows of shallow raked seating on any side of the acting area, plus an irregular, timber-clad gallery above of only one row (which helps to "paper the wall with people") under which actors could circulate on two sides to reach the stage entrances at all four corners of the playing space. Foyers and dressing rooms were sited in the rebuilt house of the former headmaster, while the theatre space itself is built where once were the assembly hall and school playground.

Any fears that the special atmosphere of the old theatre would be lost proved unfounded, and close links were formed with the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, also founded as an in-the-round theatre by Sir Alan Ayckbourn.

£750,000 was raised by an appeal, launched in 1988 by Richmond residents Sir Richard and Lady Attenborough.

2003 extension

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In 2003 the former Royal Bank of Scotland building next door to the new theatre was modified and re-opened as a dedicated space for rehearsals, set-building and costume storage, significantly expanding and improving the Orange Tree Theatre's operation.[8]

Arts Council funding

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In July 2014, Arts Council England removed the theatre from its list of National Portfolio Organisations from 2015, which means the theatre has to bridge the funding gap with that from external sources.[9] In July 2016, Arts Council England announced that it would be awarding £75,000 to the Orange Tree Theatre over the next three years as part of the Catalyst: Evolve fund which matches fundraised income.[10]

Repertory

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As well as producing the first six plays by Martin Crimp, plays by Susan Glaspell and developing a reputation for theatrical rediscoveries, the Orange Tree repertory has also included many special seasons for the work of James Saunders, Michel Vinaver, Rodney Ackland, Václav Havel, Harley Granville Barker and Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries, including John Galsworthy. In Paul Miller's first season he presented revivals of plays by George Bernard Shaw, DH Lawrence and Doris Lessing as well as premiering plays by Alistair McDowall, Deborah Bruce and Alice Birch. The theatre's 2014 production of Alistair McDowall's Pomona was well received by the critics[11][12][13] and it transferred to the National Theatre and Royal Exchange Theatre in autumn 2015.[14][15] Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears played two sell-out runs at the theatre then went on a UK tour with English Touring Theatre. Other rediscoveries include work by Robert Holman, Sharman Macdonald, Clare McIntyre and Caryl Churchill. New plays have included the world premieres of Jess and Joe Forever by Zoe Cooper and The Brink by Brad Birch, the UK premiere of Winter Solstice by Roland Schimmelpfennig and the European premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Training directors

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From 1986 to 2014 the theatre ran a trainee director scheme, each year appointing two young assistant directors. Graduates of this scheme included Rachel Kavanaugh, Timothy Sheader, Sean Holmes, Dominic Hill, and Anthony Clark. This was replaced by a Resident Director position in 2014/15. The Orange Tree currently runs an MA in Theatre Directing with St Mary's University, Twickenham which started in 2016–17.

Awards

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Since 2014 the theatre has won ten Offies (Off West End Awards), five UK Theatre Awards and the Alfred Fagon Audience Award. The Orange Tree Theatre won the Empty Space Peter Brook Award in 2006 and 2015.[16] In 2017 it was the London regional winner for UK's Most Welcoming Theatre Award 2017.[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Orange Tree Theatre". VisitRichmond. London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Richmond's Theatres" (PDF). Local History Notes. London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Orange Tree appoints Paul Miller as artistic director". BBC News. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  4. ^ Alex Wood (17 May 2022). "Tom Littler announced as Orange Tree Theatre's new artistic director". WhatsOnStage.com. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  5. ^ David Jays (15 June 2017). "How to build a theatre season: something old, new – and a bolt from the blue". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  6. ^ Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner (1983). The Buildings of England – London 2: South. London: Penguin Books. p. 528. ISBN 0-14-0710-47-7.
  7. ^ Ronnie Mulryne and Margaret Shewring (1995). Making Space for Theatre. Stratford-upon-Avon: Mulryne & Shewring Ltd. ISBN 978-1900065009.
  8. ^ Neil Dowden (21 September 2011). "Sam Walters". Exeunt Magazine. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  9. ^ Ben Clare (1 July 2014). "Paul Miller reacts to loss of Arts Council NPO funding for the Orange Tree". Orange Tree Theatre. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  10. ^ "Orange Tree Theatre awarded £75,000 in Arts Council England funding over 3 years" (Press release). Orange Tree Theatre. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  11. ^ Henry Hitchings (10 December 2014). "Pomona, Orange Tree – theatre review: 'this dark new play from Alistair McDowall has the power to suck us in'". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  12. ^ Susannah Clapp (23 November 2014). "Pomona review – fierce dystopian drama with terrific comic edge". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  13. ^ Paul Taylor (18 November 2014). "Pomona, Orange Tree Theatre, review: Brilliantly creepy and compelling". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  14. ^ Chris Wiegand (10 March 2015). "Alistair McDowall's Pomona transfers to National Theatre and Royal Exchange". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  15. ^ Tom Ambrose (22 March 2015). "National Theatre success for Orange Tree Theatre's Pomona". Richmond and Twickenham Times. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  16. ^ Daisy Bowie-Sell (3 November 2015). "Orange Tree Theatre wins the Empty Space Peter Brook Award". What's On Stage. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  17. ^ Giverny Masso (26 September 2017). "Regional winners of UK's most welcoming theatre 2017 announced". The Stage. Retrieved 26 September 2017.

Sources

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