Exciting New Community Venue Receives Planning Permission at Theatre Royal Bath

Theatre Royal Bath has received planning permission for Venue 4, a brand-new community studio theatre for the public on St John’s Place. Subject to a fundraising campaign, Venue 4 will be a new home for Theatre Royal Bath’s Engage adult participation programme and offer a range of opportunities for local people wishing to create new shows, rehearse or perform in front of an audience.

The news comes as an exciting step forward after three years work to start making dreams for a fourth venue a reality. When Theatre Royal Bath received Culture Recovery Funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2021, part of the funding was awarded to undertake a feasibility study into how the organisation could better use the building and grow opportunities for the community.

Theatre Royal Bath Director, Danny Moar says:

“Theatre Royal Bath is bursting at the seams and our growing work with the community deserves a stage of its own. This project is about opening doors to a new community theatre for Bath, to anyone keen to get started in the world of performance. This creates an exciting access point into the Theatre Royal Bath operation, our staff and the wider professional eco-system. This will be a stage where everyone’s story can be told.”

When a heritage and access survey at the Theatre Royal identified a street-facing space in need of renovation and ripe for a higher purpose, Stirling Prize-winning architects Haworth Tompkins were commissioned to create a design. Venue 4 will seat an audience of forty in an intimate, fringe-style venue with its own foyer. It will be set up for local grass-roots performers of all kinds, as well as a home to Theatre Royal Bath’s Engage adult participation programme, local festival support, and community engagement.

Katherine Lazare, Theatre Royal Bath’s Head of Community Engagement, explains:

“Following consultation and the first Elevate community festival in 2023, we realised a lack of well-resourced, accessible spaces and minimal opportunities for participants to access the theatre industry were barriers in our goal to increase work with the community. Theatre Royal Bath is well positioned to address both issues. We believe theatre can be life-enhancing and everyone deserves access to a creative space. Our plan provides a gateway for progression from amateur to professional theatre-making. We aim to provide the space and time needed to get a new show or grass-roots project off the ground - to help members of a local community organisation get in a room together and start their theatre journey with professional support and technical equipment - a combination they might otherwise struggle to afford. We are already beginning this work and now we need the right space. Venue 4 will welcome everyone.”

A long tradition of community engagement exists at the Theatre Royal Bath in many forms. Well established amateur groups in the city, including Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society, Bath.

Light Operatic Group and The Dorothy Coleborn School of Dance, continue to stage productions on the Theatre Royal’s Main House stage on a regular basis. Meanwhile, the Theatre Royal remains committed to providing a programme of in-house education and engagement opportunities for adults, in addition to the extensive participatory opportunities available to children and young people at The Egg. Adult workshops ranging from acting to stage combat and writing for radio have helped theatre loving amateurs and professionals alike to hone their skills at the Theatre Royal.

Since 2009 this work has also been supported by The Miss Beryl Billings Charitable Trust. Bath-born actor Beryl Billings (1913 - 2008), known professionally as Margot Boyd, stated in her will that she wanted to encourage local people to experience the excitement of being involved in theatre and requested a fund be set up in her memory to provide ‘opportunities for the appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of the theatrical arts in Bath’. As a result, the Theatre Royal staged a major community production of Ben Hur in 2010; giving around 120 local people the opportunity to perform on the Main House stage for the first time, working with a professional team and supported by a large company of volunteers. Soon after the Theatre Royal’s Engage programme was launched.

Over the past two years The Miss Beryl Billings Charitable Trust has continued to support the Engage programme. Highlights include the Elevate community festival, staged in 2023 and 2024, which welcomed 46 local theatre companies to perform under the Theatre Royal Bath’s roof. Engage now boasts a range of community companies, including a dedicated Elders group and a partnership with Achieve Together for adults living with learning difficulties, deafness and complex needs. Plans have recently been announced for a second large scale community play, a staging of David Copperfield, which is scheduled to take place at the Theatre Royal in 2026.

Andrew Mortimer, Trustee of The Miss Beryl Billings Charitable Trust, says:

“As demand for adult participation opportunities grows and the power of performance to improve wellbeing and community resilience is properly acknowledged, the need to give this work a proper home is evident. Miss Billings’ wish was to support the Theatre Royal, and as trustees we are very pleased to be able to make a significant financial contribution to this new development to help nurture the Theatre’s adult engagement work.”

Looking ahead to Venue 4, Theatre Royal Bath Director, Danny Moar adds:

“Further design work will now progress to a final blueprint for the space. We are keen to hear from more community groups who think they might like to use the space, and from individuals or businesses who would like to get involved in supporting this project.”

Plans for the new space and information about the campaign can be found at theatreroyal.org.uk/venue4