Repertory Theatres

Repertory Theatres. After the disappearance in the late 19th century of the old stock companies in England and Scotland, a movement was set on foot to bring back the ‘true’ repertory system as practised on the Continent. It was begun by such pioneers as Frank Benson at Stratford-upon-Avon, Lena Ashwell and Charles Frohman in London, and Alfred Wareing at the Glasgow Repertory Theatre. The strongest impetus to its development outside London, however, was given by Miss Horniman in Manchester. Attempts to re-create ‘true’ repertory met with little success, theatre staffs and audiences having become accustomed to the continuous run of one play at a time, and the term ‘repertory theatre’ has now come to signify merely that a theatre puts on its own productions for a series of short runs instead of housing touring companies.

The oldest surviving repertory theatre in Britain is the Liverpool Playhouse, where repertory was introduced in 1911. Two years later came the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. The success of these two theatres led to others, mostly presenting twice-nightly productions for a week at a time, gradually changing to once-nightly. By the early 1950s there were over 100 repertory companies, but the general standard was not high. The spread of television in the 1950s destroyed many of the weakest companies, and by 1960 only 44 were left. At its best the old repertory theatre was an excellent training ground for young actors. A weekly change of bill, with the strain of rehearsing one play while acting in another and learning lines for a third, and the added tension of frequent first nights, could do harm, and most actors remained in repertory only for a year or two. Yet it made for versatility and resourcefulness, was excellent for training the memory, and soon gave beginners self-confidence; many excellent players graduated from weekly rep.

A new era was ushered in by the opening of the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry in 1958, in which the civic theatre, founded by and run in close co-operation with the local authority, was to predominate. Fine new subsidized theatres, tending to be called ‘regional’ rather than ‘repertory’, were built, with bars and restaurants, spacious foyers which housed art and other exhibitions, and often with a small studio theatre. More money, better working conditions, and longer runs (three or four weeks is now usual) led to a rise in standards, and the best repertory theatres can challenge comparison with the West End, to which some of their productions have been transferred. The old bond between the local theatre and its audience, impossible in the changing world of the commercial theatre, is being forged anew, though performers are more transient now that casting is normally done for individual plays rather than the season. The number of repertory theatres has greatly increased since 1960, and now exceeds the number used by touring companies. Among them are the Bristol Old Vic; the Crucible, Sheffield; the Everyman, Liverpool; the Haymarket, Leicester; the Library, Manchester; the New Victoria, Newcastle-under-Lyme; the Northcott, Exeter; Nottingham Playhouse; the Octagon, Bolton; the Palace, Watford; the Royal Exchange, Manchester; the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough; the Theatre Royal, York; and West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds. In London are the Greenwich Theatre, the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and the Royal Court Theatre.

The USA saw a similar development of regional theatres in the 1960s and 1970s, though the first of them, the Cleveland Play House, has been a professional theatre since 1921. In 1977 there were non-commercial professional theatres in 34 states plus Washington, DC, and touring companies from these groups visited 13 more states. See entries for ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE; ALLEY THEATRE; AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATRE; ARENA STAGE; ASOLO THEATRE COMPANY; CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK; DALLAS THEATER CENTER; GOODMAN THEATRE; GUTHRIE THEATER; HARVARD UNIVERSITY; LONG WHARF THEATRE; MARK TAPER FORUM; MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER; SEATTLE REPERTORY THEATRE; STUDIO ARENA THEATRE; TRINITY REPERTORY COMPANY.