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Theatre in South East England: KentSurprisingly, given its proximity to London (or perhaps because of it), Kent is not a major theatre area. There are a number of national touring houses (including one with the oldest stage in the country), but there are no major producing theatres. The largest concentration of theatre provision is in the three major seaside resorts: Herne Bay, Maidstone and Margate. Even then the first two have only one theatre each. Herme Bay's King's Hall (646 seats) is interested in any type of entertainment, whilst Maidstone's Hazlitt Theatre is a national touring house, seating 353. Margate, on the other hand, has three venues: the Theatre Royal, another national touring house, seating 360; the Tom Thumb Theatre, which, as its name suggests, is very small (just 60 seats) specialising in Old Time Music Hall from March to October, and panto in December and January; and the Winter Gardens (Main Hall 1400, Queen's Hall 550). The Theatre Royal boasts of being the second oldest theatre in England (built in 1787), and of possssing the oldest stage. Three other seaside towns which have some theatre provision are Birchington-on-Sea (The Centre is a concert hall, available for hire by youth and other theatre companies), Folkestone (mixed programme in both the 825-seater Lea Cliff Hall and the 200-seater Metropole Arts Centre), and Gravesend, where the Woodville Halls Theatre (800 seats) takes both touring and rep product. Ashford's Stour Centre is a multi-purpose leisure centre with three performance spaces (1300, 290 and 150) and is for hire only. Broadstairs has the Island Arts Centre (200 seats) which has a bias towards contemporary work in drama and dance, but it is Canterbury which has the most well-known nationally of the Kent theatres, the Marlowe, a national touring house seating 993. It also has the Gulbenkian Theatre, part of the University of Kent, where the programme includes small- to mid-scale tours, student work and amateur productions. It seats 343. Chatham also has two theatres. One, the Brook Theatre, is an arts centre, presenting a very mixed programme in its two spaces: the main house (400) and the studio (60). The other is a national touring house, the Central Theatre, seating 945. Two school-based theatres come next: Cobham Hall (in Cobham) is available for hire and seats 180, and the Cranbrook School Theatre (350) presents not only schools productions, but the work of amateur dramatic and operatic societies too. Dartford has two theatres: the Miskin and the Orchard. The latter is a national touring house with a flexible auditorium which will will seat 959 with the stage end-on and 1017 in in-the-round configuration. The Miskin is much smaller (the Auditorium 150 and the Studio 50). Although it has a fairly wide ranging programme, its preference is for contemporary work appealing to a youth audience. Then there's Rainham, where the very small (72 seats) Oasthouse Theatre is home to two professional companies and puts on six productions a year. Finally there are two places with very similar sounding names: Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells. The former has the Angel Leisure Centre, a civic centre which says that its programme is arranegd to "meet the needs of the local community." Its Medway theatre seats 307 and the Jim May Hall 1100. The latter has two venues: the Assembly Hall Theatre (940) presents mainly concerts and one-night stands, with some amateur work, whilst the Trinity Theatre and Arts Centre (300 seats) splits its programme evenly between amateur and professional.
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