Manchester Theatres, , Terry Wyke, Bibliography of North West England, 1994, 0947969187, 9780947969189, . .

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Right Royal Wakefield Theatre, 1776-1994, Coral M. P. Taylor, 1995, , 308 pages. .

"The Four Seasons": Op. 8, Issues 1-4 Op. 8, Eleanor Selfridge-Field, 1999, Music, 73 pages. Baroque masterpiece of "program" music, composed as musical illustration of four sonnets. Painstakingly researched by Dr. Eleanor Selfridge-Field, this authoritative, up-to ....

The Theatre Royal, Brighton, Volume 5 , Antony Dale, 1980, Performing Arts, 169 pages. .

Theatre un-royal or, They called them comedians : a history of the theatre, sometime royal, Marefair, Northampton (1809-84 and 1887), Lou Warwick, 1974, Literary Criticism, 279 pages. .

Antonio Vivaldi The Violin Sonatas, Antonio Vivaldi, 1976, , 125 pages. .

Manfred, a dramatic poem, Baron George Gordon Byron Byron, 1817, , 73 pages. .

Playbill a history of the theatre in the West Country, Harvey Crane, 1980, Performing Arts, 290 pages. .

History of the Manchester Ship Canal: from its inception to its ..., Volume 1 from its inception to its completion; with personal reminiscences, Sir Bosdin Thomas Leech, 1907, , . .

Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies , Zygmunt Bauman, 1992, Social Science, 215 pages. Forfatteren opstiller den hypotese,at menneskets viden om, at det skal dГё, har dybtgГҕende indflydelse pГҕ den sociale opbygning i alle samfund..

Shakespeare & his plays from a woman's point of view , Rosa E. Grindon, 1930, Drama, 144 pages. .

The Theatre Royal, Leicester, 1856-1958 , Richard Leacroft, 1958, Architecture, 16 pages. .

Manchester Libraries hold this collection of theatre material which is unique to Manchester. The collection aims to cover Manchester's theatres from the mid 18th century to the present day. It has been built up from the beginnings of the public library service in Manchester and continues to this day. It contains:

Material from most theatres past and present is available, with long runs of playbills and programmes for the Theatre Royal, Prince's Theatre, Palace Theatre, Opera House, the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Library Theatre. Music hall is less well represented but material is available on the Broadhead Circuit. Manchester was also the location of the first English repertory company founded by Annie Horniman at the Gaiety Theatre and there is a substantial collection of material on this including correspondence from Annie Horniman. Amateur theatre groups and theatrical societies such as the Unnamed Society are also included.

Manchester Theatres by Terry Wyke and Nigel Rudyard. 1994. Contains a general history of theatre in Manchester, an alphabetical list of theatres and a brief history of each, and a detailed guide to the contents of the collection. (Copies of this are still available from the Arts Library at a cost of £6.95).

The collection is in a special storage area which is not open to the public, so you will need to use our catalogues to select what you want to see. Material acquired prior to 1995 is listed in the card catalogues and in the book Manchester Theatres by Wyke and Rudyard. Material acquired after this date is listed on the computer catalogue.

Knowles's theatrical career began at the time when the theatre in Manchester was at its lowest ebb.[4] Knowles took over the management of the second Theatre Royal in Fountain Street; he set up a strong stock company and proved himself a very capable, though somewhat authoritarian, theatre manager. However, due to a fire in 1844, it was destroyed. The proprietors of the theatre in Fountain Street refused to rebuild it. At a public dinner, Knowles stated that if they could get no one else to build a theatre then he would do it himself. As a result, Knowles bought the patent rights and set about finding a site for the new theatre.[5] Knowles had always been an admirer of theatrical performances and he was anxious to see their renovation in this, his native town. He desired to see the revival of the legitimate drama, and the plays represented in a manner duly worthy of them.[3]

The theatre, which stands on an island site on the south side of Peter Street, is constructed in sandstone ashlar. It is in two storeys, with an attic, and is in Neoclassical style. Around the building, between the upper storey and the attic, is a modillioned cornice.[10] Its entrance front facing Peter Street is symmetrical with three bays, the central bay being wider than the lateral bays. The central bay is in the form of a portico, with Corinthian columns and pilasters. Its entablature contains a central semicircular arch breaking through to the gable. Steps lead up to entrances in each bay. Above the central entrance is a pedimented niche containing a statue of William Shakespeare, which is based on the statue by Peter Scheemakers in Westminster Abbey. The lateral bays contain windows with balconies in the upper storey.[11] Along the sides of the theatre are alternating rectangular windows and panels, with a blank semicircular arch above each window. The interior of the theatre has been altered, but retains its 1875 gallery. The theatre was designed on 3 October 1974 by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[10] The authors of the Buildings of England series describe it as a "splendid classical composition in stone, one of the best examples of theatre architecture surviving anywhere in England from the first half of the 19th century".[11]

As of 2012 the theatre is unoccupied, although in the years since its closure there have been many proposals to bring the building back into use. The Theatres Trust has said that the internal conversions for its past usage in various guises appear to have obscured – rather than destroyed – the Trust classify the original interior work as "restorable as a theatre".[1]

Despite the promise of investment, Benmore sold the building in November 2012 to Edwardian London - owners of the Radisson Edwardian hotel adjacent to the theatre in the .[13] The building could potentially be restored as a theatre or banqueting hall as a complimentary extension for the hotel.[14]

1 New York Street · · · Arndale Tower · Civil Justice Centre · Great Northern Tower · · Maths & Social Sciences Building · No. 1 Deansgate · · · One St Peter's Square · · Palace Hotel · · Town Hall · Town Hall Extension

The Prince's Theatre in Oxford Street, Manchester, England, was built at a cost of £20,000 in 1864. Under the artistic and managerial leadership of Charles Calvert, "Manchester's most celebrated actor-manager", it soon became a great popular success. The theatre's first production, Shakespeare's The Tempest, took place on 15 October 1864;[1] Calvert himself played Prospero and his wife took the role of Miranda. The Times newspaper of 18 October reported that the 1,590-seat theatre "was exceedingly well filled", and declared the evening "a brilliant success".[2] The theatre subsequently became synonymous with Calvert's elaborate and historically accurate Shakespearian productions.[1]

The theatre's interior was extensively rebuilt by Alfred Darbyshire in 1869. The work included the addition of 300 seats,[1] and featured a frieze over the proscenium painted by Henry Stacy Marks showing Shakespeare flanked by muses and his principal characters. The Prince's was the first theatre to introduce tip-up seats and "early doors" tickets, which for a premium allowed patrons to enter the theatre early, to avoid the usual opening-time crush.[1]

The years after the First World War saw a decline in the theatre's fortunes, and by the 1930s the increasing competition from cinema was threatening its viability. The final performance took place in April 1940, after which the building was sold to the ABC cinema company, who intended to replace it with a large cinema complex. Although the theatre was demolished shortly afterwards, the intervention of the Second World War meant that the cinema was never built; the site is now occupied by Peter House, a large office complex completed in 1958.[1][3]

The building opened as a cinema in 1931, but was badly damaged by fire in April 1932 and was closed for repairs until August 1933. The cinema was equipped for the production of live shows, and was used for occasional pantomimes and amateur theatrical performances. In 1956 it was converted into television studios for ABC Weekend Television.[1] Early episodes of The Avengers and programmes such as Opportunity Knocks were made in the studios. After ABC ceased to exist in 1968 the studios were closed.[2] In 1971 Manchester Polytechnic acquired the building for its School of Theatre. Renamed the Horniman Theatre, it staged performances by students of the college, including early performances by Julie Walters, Bernard Hill, and David Threlfall.[1]

As part of the university restructuring in 1997, the building was sold to a development company and demolished to make way for blocks of flats.[2] The School of Theatre moved its faculty and performance space to the All Saints campus on Oxford Road, where there is now a new Capitol Theatre, a 140-seat studio space.[3]

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Not really. The pair were from London, but they did design another classic Manchester building, Lancashire Independent College, in Whalley Range. Given that architectural commissions often come in pairs you have to wonder whether the theatre got them the college or the other way round. The college is presently an Islamic Cultural Centre.

Theatre Royal is Classical, presenting a glorious and towering projecting central bay, sporting a recessed (set-back) portico of giant columns. With those Corinthian capitals, the whole thing is magnificently stagey. It’s a facade that already hints of the grand proscenium arch within, in other words Theatre Royal is already putting on a show, already giving a performance before the audience even gets in. A couple of other details worth noting are the Royal Coat of Arms (the theatre had a proper royal licence) and the statue of Shakespeare, more of the latter shortly.

It’s always been appreciated. Hartwell and Hyde in their updated Buildings of England, Manchester, call it, ‘one of the best examples of theatre architecture surviving anywhere in England from the first half of the nineteenth century’. They also wonder if Irwin and Chester were inspired by Charles Cockerell’s Bank of England on King Street and contemporary with the theatre. There is a resemblance. This wasn’t the first Theatre Royal by the way. The first Theatre Royal opened in 1775 at the junction of Spring Gardens and York Street and was Manchester’s first permanent theatre. It burned down in 1779. Another opened and closed in 1807. As Wyke and Rudyard describe in their excellent book, Manchester Theatres, it all ended in farce. Favourite Manchester actor Frederick Cooke ‘had been engaged for six nights but noted for his drunkenness Cooke spent his advance without appearing’.

The licence was transferred to a new building at the junction of Fountain Street and Sackville Street. Despite several alterations this theatre in various forms entertained the top actors of the day as they toured the country, including, Joseph Grimaldi, the famous clown. It flourished under the management of John Knowles from 1842, but then during the early morning of 7 May 1844 it burned down. Again.

Knowles decided to relocate to the up and coming Peter Street, next to the temporary pavilion of the Free Trade Hall. As an aside Manchester was the focus of national and international political attention at the time as to the Anti-Corn Law League and the Free Trade Movement and the effective headquarters of Chartism. The 1840s was some decade for the city.

Shortly after opening in July 1847 Charles Dickens appeared in Every Man In His Humour which also included one of the country’s greatest ever caricaturist’s, George Cruickshank. Other players included the aforementioned Henry Irving plus Sarah Bernhardt, Lily Langtry, and in 1897, Giacomo Puccini arrived for the UK’s first ever production of La Boheme. The theatre provided, as you can see, an eclectic programme. Despite grand successes, money was always tight. In 1921 Theatre Royal closed as a theatre.

Gary BarlowIt became, as with so many others, a cinema and struggled on offering entertainment for another fifty one years. It was never really viable though, and in 1972 it became a bingo hall. That failed also and the building eventually became a night club, Discotheque Royale, and then just Royales and now just empty.

As Discotheque Royale it had a brief moment of fame when, in October 1990, late-night dance show The Hitman and Her, arrived, hosted by well-known steam train fanatic Pete Waterman, and the nature-botherer, Michaela Strachan. At the beginning of the show Strachan announced a performance from "A brand new band called Take That." This was their first TV performance - click here. Charles Dickens and Gary Barlow. In the same building performing. Funny.

The company that owns the Free Trade Hall next door, now the Radisson Blu Edwardian, have said: ‘Edwardian London will work with Manchester City Council and English Heritage in developing plans for the commercial use of the site which will include restoring elements of this fine building and enhancing the experience for customers of Manchester's five-star hotel.’

Well it’s all out of whack. The head’s too big for the weedy body and legs just don’t work like that. The story goes that John Knowles also owned a marble and stone works down the road, where Churchgate House is now, and he thought let's get one of the masons to knock up a statue of the Bard. And it turned out bad.

The artist's name has been forgotten. Our friend from the Manchester Theatres book mentioned above, Terry Wyke, reproduced in his magnificent tome Public Sculptures of Greater Manchester a 150 year-old satirical poem that was written about Manchester's misshapen Shakespeare. It's been called the ugliest statue of Shakespeare in the world. http://eduln.org/109.pdf http://eduln.org/386.pdf http://eduln.org/223.pdf http://eduln.org/382.pdf http://eduln.org/295.pdf http://eduln.org/385.pdf http://eduln.org/8.pdf http://eduln.org/190.pdf http://eduln.org/166.pdf http://eduln.org/225.pdf http://eduln.org/296.pdf http://eduln.org/99.pdf http://eduln.org/211.pdf http://eduln.org/305.pdf http://eduln.org/214.pdf http://eduln.org/5.pdf http://eduln.org/57.pdf