About Theatre Royal, Dumfries
The Theatre Royal in Dumfries, Scotland is the oldest working theatre in Scotland. The Theatre is owned by the Guild of Players who bought it in 1959, thereby saving it from demolition. The Guild's aim is to promote the tradition of live theatre in Dumfries. It is the venue for the Guild of Players' own productions and for performances from visiting companies. In addition it is used extensively as a venue for the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival, the Dumfries Music Festival and the Dumfries Musical Theatre Company. HistoryIn 1790, actor manager George Stephen Sutherland approached interested people in Dumfries and the surrounding area with the intention of raising subscriptions for a purpose-built theatre. Among those involved was Robert Burns, then resident at Ellisland Farm, a few miles to the north of Dumfries. Completed at a cost of £800, what was then known simply as The Theatre or the New Theatre, opened on Saturday 29 September, under the management of Sutherland's partner, John Brown Williamson, from the Theatre Royal Haymarket. With a design by Thomas Boyd of Dumfries, based on that of the Theatres Royal in Bristol and Edinburgh, it seated between five and six hundred. The first reference to the theatre under its present name is to be found in an advertisement in the "Dumfries and Galloway Courier" in 1811. Improvement of the stage in 1830 and a radical renovation in 1876 by Phipps, who had worked on the Gaiety in London and the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, which increased the seating capacity to over a thousand, enhanced the amenity of the theatre for players and patrons. A vivid description of a benefit performance in the latter years of the nineteenth century is to be found in "The Greenwood Hat" by J. M. Barrie, who spent some years of his youth in Dumfries and was a keen member of the Theatre Royal's audience.
Theatre Royal, Dumfries Description
The Theatre Royal in Dumfries, Scotland is the oldest working theatre in Scotland. The Theatre is owned by the Guild of Players who bought it in 1959, thereby saving it from demolition. The Guild's aim is to promote the tradition of live theatre in Dumfries. It is the venue for the Guild of Players' own productions and for performances from visiting companies. In addition it is used extensively as a venue for the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival, the Dumfries Music Festival and the Dumfries Musical Theatre Company. HistoryIn 1790, actor manager George Stephen Sutherland approached interested people in Dumfries and the surrounding area with the intention of raising subscriptions for a purpose-built theatre. Among those involved was Robert Burns, then resident at Ellisland Farm, a few miles to the north of Dumfries. Completed at a cost of £800, what was then known simply as The Theatre or the New Theatre, opened on Saturday 29 September, under the management of Sutherland's partner, John Brown Williamson, from the Theatre Royal Haymarket. With a design by Thomas Boyd of Dumfries, based on that of the Theatres Royal in Bristol and Edinburgh, it seated between five and six hundred. The first reference to the theatre under its present name is to be found in an advertisement in the "Dumfries and Galloway Courier" in 1811. Improvement of the stage in 1830 and a radical renovation in 1876 by Phipps, who had worked on the Gaiety in London and the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, which increased the seating capacity to over a thousand, enhanced the amenity of the theatre for players and patrons. A vivid description of a benefit performance in the latter years of the nineteenth century is to be found in "The Greenwood Hat" by J. M. Barrie, who spent some years of his youth in Dumfries and was a keen member of the Theatre Royal's audience.