Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round: 1996

This page contains a more detailed guide to significant events concerning Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round in 1996. It also covers significant formative events at the company's present home the Stephen Joseph Theatre, during its inaugural year.

1996

  • Early 1996: It is confirmed the new theatre at the site of Scarborough's former Odeon cinema will be called the Stephen Joseph Theatre after Alan Ayckbourn pays £400,000 for the right to name the building, which is named after his most influential mentor and the founder of the UK's first professional theatre in the round company in Scarborough.
  • Early 1996: Stephen Wood is appointed General Administrator of the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
  • 5 January: Opening night of Just Between Ourselves by Alan Ayckbourn and directed by Robin Herford. This will be the final production to be staged at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round.
  • 31 January: Scarborough Evening News journalist Simon Murgatroyd reports the new Stephen Joseph Theatre will open on 24 April 1996 with By Jeeves, a revised version of Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Jeeves.
  • 17 January: It is reported in the Scarborough Evening News that Scarborough magistrates have refused to grant a bar extension from 11pm to 1am for a party following the final performance at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round on 3 February.
  • 3 February: Final night of Just Between Ourselves and the final performance at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round; the evening ends with the actor Malcolm Hebden reprising the role of Mr Whatnot from the play which opened the venue in 1976, turning off the stage-lights off at the venue.
  • March: Associate Director Malcolm Hebden steps down having been offered a full-time part on the television soap opera Coronation Street; he had been appearing irregularly as the character Norris Cole before the role became permanent.
  • Early spring: The key staff at the Stephen Joseph Theatre are confirmed as Alan Ayckbourn (Artistic Director), Stephen Wood (General Administrator), Keith McFarlane (Financial Administrator), Ian Wainwright (Education Officer), Mo McLeod (Theatre Manager), Zoe Naylor (Film / Theatre Manager), Connal Orton (Literary Manager), John Pattison (Musical Director), James Mackenzie (Senior Chef).
  • Early Spring: Full details of The Stephen Joseph Theatre facilities are revealed with two auditoria, The Round and The McCarthy (which doubles as both stage and cinema), a conference and meeting space The Boden Room, a restaurant, bar and wine bar, a shop, two rehearsal rooms, a workshop and paint room, green room, administration offices
  • 18 April: The Scarborough Evening News publishes the Stephen Joseph Theatre: Opening Night supplement, which is given away to every visitor to the Stephen Joseph Theatre during its opening week. The supplement is written and compiled by Simon Murgatroyd, who would later become Alan Ayckbourn's Archivist.
  • 24 April: The Stephen Joseph Theatre opens with the premiere of the musical By Jeeves by Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
  • April: Funding for the new theatre continued to be a three-way-parity agreement between Scarborough Council, North Yorkshire County Council and Yorkshire and Humberside Arts. The latter two providing a subsidy of £622,700 with Scarborough providing £141,000. Alan Ayckbourn at the time notes this is a recipe for disaster given the subsidy is the same as for the previous home of the company despite the SJT being twice as big and employing twice as many staff.
  • 10 May: The end-stage McCarthy auditorium opens with a production of Alan Bennett's Forty Years On.
  • 5 September: The Stephen Joseph Theatre is reported to be facing a budget crisis by The Stage with annual running costs having risen by £100,000 to £440,000. At the same time it is reported, budgetary issues means Scarborough Council is trying to save £566,000, which might mean the closure of 22 public lavatories. The two issues are conflated with reports incorrectly stating money to one will mean the loss of the other.
  • Mid-September: The BBC current affairs programme Newsnight covers the financial issues at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and coins the phrase 'Luvvies Vs Lavvies', which is then reported nationally.
  • 18 September: The first world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre opens with Vanessa Brooks's play Love Me Slender (whilst By Jeeves is considered a world premiere, it is actually a revision of an earlier work whilst Love Me Slender was the first entirety new work at the Stephen Joseph Theatre).
  • September: The first tour from the Stephen Joseph Theatre visits The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere, and Chichester Festival Theatre with Alan Ayckbourn's revised revival of It Could Be Any One Of Us.
  • Autumn: The first writer-in-residence at the Stephen Joseph Theatre is named as Vanessa Brooks from 1996 - 1997.
  • 29 November: Alan Ayckbourn's first entirely new play for the Stephen Joseph Theatre opens with The Champion of Paribanou.
  • December: Osborne Christmas Associates wins the Empty Space Peter Brooke Theatre award for the conversion of Scarborough's former Odeon cinema to the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.