Repertory theatre

Repertory theatres, also called producing houses, have their own resident theatre companies, but may also receive touring productions. They rarely have their own company of players, but many have in-house technical and production staff, all of which is added to with freelancers or part-time people as needed.

The repertory theatre movement was forged out of the passion and conviction of two individuals, Barry Jackson and Annie Horniman, who believed that a wide variety of theatrical experience should be made available to people at a price they could afford.

Horniman believed that by subsidising theatres you could both raise the standards of performance and broaden the programme a theatre could offer to its community.

The repertory movement in Britain played an important role for local writers and as a training ground for actors to experiment and expand their repertoire. Other important repertory theatres included the Belgrade in Coventry which was the first purpose built post-war theatre; the Citizens’ in Glasgow and Liverpool Playhouse.

Birmingham Rep

Birmingham Repertory Theatre is one of Britain’s first reps, and opened in 1913 with a production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Its founder Barry Jackson had started to produce plays in 1907 on an amateur basis, playing in small venues such as local halls. Jackson, like Horniman was passionate about the need to offer the people of Birmingham a wide variety of theatrical experience, and personally subsidised the building of the Rep Theatre as a base for his company.

Some repertory theatres

• The Rep–Birmingham Repertory Theatre
• Belgrade Theatre Coventry
• Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse
• Northern Stage
• West Yorkshire Playhouse
• Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough
• Clywd Theatr Cymru
• Globe Theatre
• Southwark Playhouse
• Donmar Warehouse
• Citizens Theatre Glasgow
• Northcott Theatre Exeter
• Dundee Rep Theatre

The national theatres

• National Theatre
• Royal Shakespeare Company
• Royal Opera House