Regional Theatre Focus: let's get out of the big smoke

Regional theatre is rarely out of the news – just this week it was the subject of a mini debate in the House of Commons. Which is great, but we tend to get a bit gloomy when we talk about theatre outside of London. The mammoth issues around funding generally seem to overshadow the fact that the UK has one of the most vibrant, evolving and dynamic nationwide theatre scenes in the world.

Don’t just take my word for it: have a look around. This year we’ll see new play The Nap from Richard Bean in Sheffield, James Graham getting typically political with his new Monster Raving Loony in Plymouth. In Stratford you can catch Hamlet starring a promising Paapa Essiedu; there’s the quirky, ever-interesting Norfolk and Norwich Festival. And let’s not forget Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville in A Long Day’s Journey into Night in Bristol. There’s the RSC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream which is visiting more venues than you can imagine. The list continues. All that before we even get close to London.

WhatsOnStage is one of the few organisations dedicated to theatre throughout the UK. We have a team of reviewers who see a huge amount up and down the country. But elsewhere, theatre outside of London often doesn’t get the exposure it needs. This is part of the reason why we decided to start our Regional Theatre Focus. We want to celebrate regional theatre, we want to open up some of the best theatre hubs around the country, connect with them, connect you with them and generally wave the flag for their greatness.

WhatsOnStage will focus each month on one theatre hub outside the big smoke. We will visit a city: an important theatre – or several – in an area in the UK and, in addition to our usual content, create a month’s worth of videos, interviews, features, podcasts and more introducing the venue and the shows there in the coming year. We’ll try to look at the wider theatre community, we’ll talk to the artistic directors and CEOs, to the actors, directors, to the stage hands and, of course, to the audiences.

We’re beginning January in Sheffield which of course is home to Sheffield Theatres – The Crucible and the Lyceum which play to over 400,000 people annually. The Lyceum first opened in 1897, while the upstart The Crucible was built in 1971. Led by artistic director Daniel Evans, the theatres have gone from strength to strength and this year’s line-up looks very exciting. All eyes will be on the venue to see who will take over when Evans heads off to run Chichester Festival Theatre (another fabulous out-of-London space) later this year.

So check out our starting pieces this week – a video of chief executive Daniel Bates introducing Sheffield Theatres and a Q&A with director Charlotte Gwinner, who will direct Waiting for Godot later this year. Got a view? Love your theatre? We want to hear from you. Haven’t been to your local theatre in a while? Maybe, shock horror, you’ve never been. Now is the time to bookmark our Regional Theatre Focus series, visit the theatre – and tell us what you think. You can follow all the pieces we create here. Follow us on Twitter for regular updates #WOSRegionalFocus and check our Facebook page for all our coverage. Some of the theatres you’ll know well, but there may be others that you don’t. It should be a bit of an adventure.