Newbury theatre guide

Find out about theatre events coming up in and around Newbury and West Berkshire, reaching out to Oxford, Basingstoke and Reading. This site is updated very frequently - see What's new below.

In the spotlight Colder Than Here: Progress Theatre (Mon 20 May to Sat 25 May). A Flea in Her Ear: Overton Dramatic Society (Tue 21 May to Sat 25 May). The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Watermill Theatre (Tue 21 May to Sat 1 Jun). The Gut Girls: Sinodun Players (Wed 22 May to Sat 25 May). How to Catch a Star: Arlington Arts Centre (Mon 27 May). Pinocchio: The Corn Exchange (Wed 29 May). The Odd Couple: New Greenham Arts (Thu 30 May to Sat 1 Jun). Calendar Girls: Mortimer Dramatic Society (Fri 31 May to Sat 1 Jun). ODN Drama Festival of One Act Plays: Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon (Sun 3 Jun to Sat 8 Jun).

Summer open air productions

From June to August, they're here: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Pride and Prejudice, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Tom's Midnight Garden.

News and special events

Silchester Players are holding auditions for their autumn production of Curtain Up on Murder at the Silchester Village Hall on Tuesday 11th June at 19:30.

Abingdon Operatic Society are holding auditions for their October production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers in Radley Village Hall on Sunday 19th May.

Thanks to Graham Jerome of Aldermaston Players for pointing me at Crash Test Drama UK, a Reading-based group with a monthly meeting for developing and trying out ten minute plays. This is from their Facebook page:

It is an opportunity to
-get your acting fix if you're not currently cast in anything,
-meet and network,
-direct if you fancy having a go or are between plays,
-have your writing performed,
-win some cash if you are really good.

Evening goes as follows: Once a month meet up at 6pm on a Sunday. Actors have a police line up style audition.
Directors, having received and chosen their scripts a few days earlier, try to cast their plays.

Once cast there is a little over an hour to rehearse, with (on-book) performances from 7:30 - no set, no line learning.

Plays are voted for by the cast and the audience. The winner goes through to the final.

Plays are penalised for going over 10 mins.

Everyone (cast, directors, audience) pays £3 and the winning two plays get their share of the pot to be split between cast and director.

iPad users: annoyed by the poster popups in 'Coming soon' not going away? It's a bug in the iPad software, but I've got round it by not doing poster popups (on the iPad only). Tell me if you think this is better.

Digital Theatre have now got downloads or online rentals of Globe Theatre productions of Henry VIII, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 and The Merry Wives of Windsor for sale.

There's an interesting article by the Watermill's Tei Williams about the process in staging a Watermill production, from choosing the play through to the opening night. It's here.

If you're under 25, you can get Watermill tickets for £10 from the box office. This is for performances from Monday to Thursday. You can also get Student Standby tickets on the day for £3.

Now you can get Newbury Theatre updates on Twitter. Follow us @NewburyTheatre for all the latest news. Click here to follow:

What's new

You can get the latest updates via RSS or Twitter (@NewburyTheatre). If you don't know what RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is, this may not be for you (find out more here), but if you're using an RSS reader already, this is a good way to keep up to date with the changes to this site.