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Articles
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Articles |
Theatre in Eastern England: HertfordshireThe Rhodes Memorial Museum and Commonwealth Centre - which, being a bit of a mouthful, is usually abbreviated to the Rhodes Centre, is the arts centre for Bishop's Stortford (another of those lovely East England names!) and presents a mixed programme of events. It seats 370. Hatfield has the Prince Edward Hall, seating 400, which is part of the University of Hertfordshire but is open to the public. It presents a broad range of shows, both amateur and professional. Hertford itself has the Castle Hall, a multi-purpose venue with a varied and very mixed programme, which seats 500. Other mixed venues are found in Hoddesdon (the 566-seater Broxbourne Civic Hall), Potters Bar (the Wyllotts Centre with 420 seats), Watford (the Colosseum: much bigger, with 1440 seats) and Welwyn Garden City (the Campus West Theatre with 326). Welwyn, by the way, is one of those new towns which sprang up across the country in a wave of post-War optimism in the 1950s. In Hitchin there is the Queen Mother Theatre, which is run by an amateur company and presents its own productions but also takes small-scale professional touring shows. It has a main house which seats 170, as well as a 40-seater studio. Rickmansworth has its Watersmeet civic centre which has three performance spaces: Gade seats 481, Colne 80 and Chess 100. It, too, has a mixed programme. St Alban's has three theatrical venues: the Abbey Theatre is amateur with a main house seating 244 and a studio seating 70, whilst the Alban Arena, with 858 seats, takes touring productions as well as mountng a season of amateur opera and community events. Then there is the Maltings Ats Theatre, which is a studio venue seating 140. It takes small-scale tours and is also available for hire. Stevenage has the only national touring house in the county, the Gordon Craig Theatre, a 506-seater, whilst Ware's Arts Centre has a small studio space which seats just 80 people and is used by an amateur operatic society. Finally, returning to Watford, we have the Palace Theatre, a producing house, which presents eight or nine plays a year. It has a special interest in new work and new adaptations, and does accept some tours. It seats 643.
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