A Round Town: Theatre in the Round in Scarborough
The history of professional theatre-in-the-round in the UK begins, perhaps surprisingly, in the North Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough.It is home to the UK's first - and longest running - professional theatre-in-the-round company, home to the globally renowned playwright Alan Ayckbourn, has one of the longest new playwriting traditions in the UK and was a proving ground for the theatre pioneer Stephen Joseph's influential ideas on theatre.
Since 1955, theatre in the round has played a hugely significant part in the cultural heritage and development of Scarborough and this website celebrates the company's first two and, arguably, most significant homes Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre (1955 - 1976) and the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round (1976 - 1996) as well as the plays, people and achievements.
This is a complementary site to Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website and, inarguably, to understand Alan Ayckbourn's career in a wider context, you have to examine and understand his inextricable connection with theatre-in-the-round in Scarborough.
This website, created by Alan Ayckbourn's archivist and theatre historian, Simon Murgatroyd, celebrates the cultural contribution and legacy of theatre in the round, Stephen Joseph and Alan Ayckbourn to Scarborough and how theatre history was made.
All research & original material for this website
© Simon Murgatroyd, all rights reserved. Contact the website.
A Round Town is dedicated to the memory of Albert-Reiner Glaap for his passion and knowledge
with regard to Alan Ayckbourn and theatre in the round and many joyful hours spent with him in Scarborough.
Header image: a postcard promoting Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, circa. 1955. © Studio Theatre Ltd and held in the Ayckbourn Archive at the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.