York Theatre Royal

York Theatre Royal has been producing great drama in the beautiful city of York for over 250 years and is one of the country's leading producing theatres. Each year the theatre entertains over 200, 000 people with its wide variety of performances, events and activities including the much loved annual pantomime starring Berwick Kaler, the UK's longest running Dame. York Theatre Royal houses two main theatre spaces, the main house seating up to 840 people and the intimate studio setting seating just over 100. Each space is full of character and offers a variety of shows including drama, music, comedy, dance and musical theatre. Over the last ten years York Theatre Royal's work has expanded to include collaborations with the wider community and school groups both on and off stage. The theatre has seen an increase in the number of young people wanting to get involved and as a result they now have one of the largest youth theatre groups in the country with over 300 members. In recent years, the theatre has had huge success in terms of number of attendees and various awards recognising their work for The Railway Children hosted at the National Railway Museum and then transferred to the Old Eurostar terminal at Warterloo, and the large scale production The York Mystery Plays 2012 involving over 1, 000 members of the community. The Future York Theatre Royal is in the planning stages of a radical redesign project that will see the Theatre transformed by the end of 2015 into a space that is more accessible, more useable and provides a better experience for our community. This will see the building transformed into a space that celebrates its heritage whilst also offering a modern, comfortable and exciting theatre experience. The redesign project will improve the seating, atmosphere and accessibility and will make the building more environmentally friendly.