LOCAL THEATRE

Chipping Norton Theatre

CHIPPING NORTON, OXFORDSHIRE

In a town of just over 6,000 people, Chipping Norton Theatre brings an incredible 50,000 through its doors each year, and it's easy to see why.

Says artistic director John Terry, "We're a small, statistically improbable and slightly eccentric place. Sometimes it feels like we're at the far end of the world from the rest of the theatre industry, but other days it feels like we're an irreplaceable part of it. When the theatre was opened in the mid-1970s, the two actors who'd dreamed it up asked every resident for £1 towards the refurbishment. Now that we're making and touring our own work (this spring’s tour of Jeeves and Wooster is visiting almost 50 venues across the country) we have an even stronger sense of ourselves and our creative identity." chippingnortontheatre.com

Watford Palace Theatre

WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE

A somewhat unassuming façade gives way to a gorgeous Edwardian auditorium in this 600-seat theatre. First opened in 1908, it originally played host to variety shows and pantomimes. Says artistic director Brigid Larmour, "Watford Palace Theatre has both an Edwardian chocolate-box beauty and an incredible intimacy between stage and audience. It was built as a music hall in 1908, and you feel you could reach out and touch the audience—I often have to tell actors to speak up! Yet it suits productions like Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Jefferson's Garden, or our much loved annual pantomime perfectly." watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk

Square Chapel Arts Centre

HALIFAX, YORKSHIRE