Rotherham The Unofficial Website An unofficial website about the Town and Borough of Rotherham

Rotherham Theatres

Rotherham in the 21st Century is hardly a hotbed of theatre culture, but then I don't think that it ever was. Having said that Rotherham Civic Theatre and the Arts Centre Studio try very hard to produce a balanced programme with something for everybody. No large scale professional productions come to Rotherham any more other than the annual pantomime which is very popular and successful. The Lyric, Dinnington run by Dinnington Parish Council is used for a variety of purposes including amateur theatricals.

In addition to these there is a theatre in Rotherham College of Arts and Technology. Very occasionally I see something on show there, usually the student's end of term performance, but it seems little used otherwise for public performance. There are theatres in some of Rotherham's schools but once again, these seem to be little used.

Although not strictly in the Borough of Rotherham there is a new theatre opened in 2006 at Goldthorpe. Goldthorpe has a Rotherham postal address so I thought I'd just mention it here. I believe that it is called the Dearne Valley Theatre.

There are several amateur theatre groups that regularly present plays at Rotherham Civic Theatre or Rotherham Arts Centre Studio. A number of operatic societies also present shows at the Civic - see Music. There are no well known professional theatre companies based in the borough. Those that are based here seem to belong to the category I call 'Social Theatre'.

From time to time the Royal Shakespeare Touring Company pay a visit to the barren minefields of South Yorkshire. The last performance we saw was 'A Comedy of Errors' at Rawmarsh Comprehensive School about 10 or twelve years ago and very good it was too. I'll keep my eyes peeled to see if there are any local performances.

I've just sort of juggled Circus Studies onto this page as it is without a doubt performing art. But is it theatre?

Various halls, like the Montgomery Hall at Wath, Leisure in Rotherham centres etc. are used for concerts, recitals and shows. Whenever I have found them they appear in the month by month listings are included in the Recreation in Rotherham >> Rotherham Events >> Events Diary.

There are loads of Theatre Schools. Many of these teach dance as well theatrical arts. I think that most of them are probably aimed at children.

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