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The Citizens Theatre is based in Glasgow, Scotland and is the major producing theatre for the west of Scotland. The theatre includes a 500-seat Main Auditorium, and two studio theatres, the Circle Studio (90 seats, a theatre in the round space) and the Stalls Studio (50 seats, an alley theater space).
[edit] Background The Citizens Theatre is based in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland and produces a breadth of work from professional productions for its main auditorium and studio spaces through to an ongoing commitment to creative learning and engaging with the community. The company is headed by two Joint Artistic Directors, Jeremy Raison and Guy Hollands. While the Citizens Theatre building retains some of the original Victorian architectural features it has undergone additional renovations and expansions over the years and now includes the 500-seat Main Auditorium, and two studio theatres, the Circle Studio (90 seats, a theatre in the round space) and the Stalls Studio (50 seats, an alley theater space). The Main Auditorium contains the original (1878) Proscenium Arch stage which is raked (slopes down towards the auditorium) and has three seating levels, the stalls, the dress circle and the upper circle (or "gods"). The theatre building contains the oldest original (1878) working understage machinery and paint frame in a working theatre in the United Kingdom. The paint frame is still used for scenic painting and its original glass roof remains. As part of the theatre's ongoing commitment to remain accessible the Citizens endeavors to keep tickets reasonably priced and schedules GB£4 preview performances and "bargain night" GB£7 performances on Tuesdays. Tickets for students and children are GB£7 for any seat, any performance and those living locally in the Gorbals are eligible for GB£4/5 tickets for all performances. In 2008 over 900 children from the Gorbals and surrounding schools will participate in a free workshop in their school and come to see The Wizard of Oz at the subsidised ticket price of GB£2. The theatre's main auditorium also plays home to the annual production of The Dance School Of Scotland's Musical Theatre Course. Usually performed in June, the students stage a production, led by a guest director, to a professional standard. Recent productions include "Suessical; The Musical", "Bat Boy" and "All Shook Up", all of which were UK Premiers. The Musical Theatre Course will return to The Citizens Theatre in 2010, with the show due to be announced in March/April 2010. [edit] Citizens Theatre and TAGTAG Theatre Company is one of the major players in the children and young people's theatre sector in Scotland. The Citizens Theatre and TAG Theatre Company came together as one company in April 2007. Together, the new company offers a substantial programme of work each year, from professional productions on the Citizens' stages to participatory work with people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures. The new Citizens Learning and TAG department now coordinates all outreach work for the company. Within the new company, TAG encompasses all of the work for children and young people. Citizens Learning focuses on developing links between the Citizens Theatre and people of all ages living and working in Glasgow and the surrounding area, by encouraging them to engage with the theatre's work and participate in drama. During the Citizens Theatre production of Hamlet in September 2007 TAG Theatre accompanied the production with an extensive selection of workshops in schools, pre-show lectures and CPD sessions for teachers. [edit] Artistic directors [edit] Jeremy RaisonJeremy Raison has been Artistic Director of the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow since 2003. In Autumn 2009 he will direct the Citizens Christmas Show Cinderella and run a series of writing workshops. Previous Citizens productions directed by Raison include Therese Raquin, Baby Doll, A Handful of Dust and Desire Under the Elms as well as Scottish classics The Bevellers, No Mean City and his own adaptation of The Sound of My Voice based on the novel by Ron Butlin. Raison’s work for children and families in the Citizens includes The Borrowers, Charlotte’s Web, James and the Giant Peach, Peter Pan and Wee Fairy Tales. [edit] Guy HollandsGuy Hollands became Artistic Director of the Citizens' Theatre in 2006. In Autumn 2009 he will co-direct Museum of Dreams and direct a mainstage adaptation of Othello. Previous Citizens productions directed by Hollands include Hamlet and Ice Cream Dreams, a ground breaking work which used community actors, recovering addicts and professional actors to explore Glasgow's history during the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars. Hollands’ work for children and families in the Citizens and on tour includes Liar and Yellow Moon, a new work by David Greig (dramatist) aimed specifically at teenage audiences. [edit] Producing theatre The Citizens Theatre is the west of Scotland's major producing theatre. Approximately 30 members of staff work backstage during the run up to a production in addition to which up to 12 actors for a main auditorium production and a director may be rehearsing in one of the theatre's three rehearsal rooms. The production team includes stage management, lighting, sound, workshop, wardrobe and technicians. Costumes, sets, lighting and sound are prepared by the Citizens backstage crew and the company produces several shows each year in the main auditorium, studio spaces and for touring. Specialist training may be provided for actors on stage fighting, ballroom dancing, singing and even glass bevelling depending on the requirements of the production. The Citizens Theatre is the only theatre in Scotland still to have the original Victorian machinery under the stage and the original Victorian paint frame is still used today to paint the backcloths for shows. Welding, carpentry, sewing, painting and paper-mache may be used to create sets for productions. The Christmas show is always adapted from a classic text and is offered as an alternative to pantomime. [edit] Citizens Community Company and Citizens YOUNG Co. The concept of forming a Citizens Community Company began to take shape in 1999 with the first Community Performance Project "Driving Out The Devil", short plays by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Guy Hollands. Since this first evening the company has presented twenty different productions, performing over ninety shows and growing into a more or less permanent ensemble of around thirty people. Among projects the Community Company creates and performs is it is now annual performance A Wicked Christmas, showcasing the group's writing and acting talents and an irreverent look at all things festive. The Citizens YOUNG Co. launched in 2005. The company is drawn from young people aged 16-21 in Glasgow and across the West of Scotland. No prior experience is required. Attendance is free and participants work on professional productions performed as part of the Citizens Theatre Season. YOUNG Co. members may study writing, performing, design or stage management and have the opportunity to work with theatre professionals to create highly skilled and powerful works. [edit] Kids@Citz and Teenagers@Citz TAG and the Citizens Theatre run a programme of weekend drama classes for children and young people which sees over 250 participants attending the theatre most weekends. The classes are run by qualified drama tutors and are available for ages 4-15. At the end of each ten week term participants perform in one of the theatre's studio spaces for family and friends. Kids@Citz (for ages 4-12) focuses on confidence building, social skills, encouraging children to use their creativity and fun. Participants learn an array of drama games which build upon these skills and devise work to perform for family and friends. In 2008 Kids@Citz participants will perform as munchkins alongside professional actors in the Citizens Christmas show The Wizard of Oz. The production will be directed by Artistic Director Guy Hollands and designed by Jason Southgate. Teenagers@Citz (ages 13-15) introduces participants to voice, movement and stagecraft and encourages participants to take the lead in devising work for performance. Teenagers@Citz have the opportunity to move on to the Citizens YOUNG Co. on turning 16 and thus to work on main stage and studio shows within the theatre. [edit] Citizens Theatre history
Iain MacIntosh, Theatre Specialist November 2007  The theatre was built in 1878 (née Her Majesty’s then The Royal Princess’s) and designed by Campbell Douglas, a friend and contemporary of Alexander Thomson (Alexander "Greek" Thomson). It was one of 18 theatres built in Glasgow between 1862 and the outbreak of World War one in 1914 (during the same period 7 were built in Edinburgh). There were four theatres built in this area: The Palace (demolished) The Princess’s Royal (the Citizens), the Coliseum (now empty) and the theatre that is now the Carling Academy Glasgow. The remaining theatres built in this period still operating in Glasgow are Pavilion Theatre (Glasgow), King's Theatre, Glasgow, The Theatre Royal, Glasgow and The Citizens Theatre. The theatre when it opened seated 1,200, presenting melodrama, variety and pantomimes. By the 1880s the Royal Princess’s and its neighbour The Palace Theatre was surrounded by the acknowledged worst slum in Europe. In the 1930s the Palace became a cinema and the advent of television further affected audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. By the time the slums had been cleared, The Palace had become a bingo hall and along with the Citizens Theatre and the swimming baths and tenement opposite, was the only building that remained from the Victorian age. The Citizens Theatre Company was formed in 1943 by a group of theatre minded men led by Tom Honeyman and James Bridie, Scotland’s best known playwright of the date. The name of the new company was taken from the manifesto drawn up in 1909 by Alfred Wareing of the newly formed Scottish Playgoers Co Ltd for their Repertory Company, which was to provide live theatre for the citizens of Glasgow, staging new Scottish and international drama, opening at the Royalty Theatre. The 1909 Manifesto of the Glasgow Repertory Theatre expressed these tenets: "The Repertory Theatre is Glasgow's own theatre. It is a citizens' theatre in the fullest sense of the term. Established to make Glasgow independent from London for its dramatic supplies, it produces plays which the Glasgow playgoers would otherwise not have the opportunity of seeing." Such were the tenets that inspired James Bridie's vision when he led the efforts to found his repertory group, the Citizens Company, in 1943. Originally based in the Athenaeum theatre (now the Old Athenaeum), Bridie's Citizens Company relocated to the Victorian-era Royal Princess's Theatre in the Gorbals in 1945. The Royal Princess's was designed by Campbell Douglas, a contemporary of Alexander 'Greek' Thompson, seated 1,200 people and was opened in 1878. In 1945 Harry McKelvie "The Pantomime King" made the generous offer of tenancy to James Bridie. The theatre was renamed the Citizens' Theatre and the Citizens Company opened there on September 11, 1945. The Citizens Company was originally based at the Old Athenaeum in Buchanan Street and moved to the Royal Princess's theatre in 1945 when its name was changed from The Royal Princess’s to the Citizens Theatre. [edit] James BridieJames Bridie, the pseudonym used by Osborne Henry Mavor (January 3, 1888, in Glasgow - January 29, 1951 in Edinburgh), was a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and surgeon and is now considered to be a founding father of modern Scottish theatre following his involvement with both the establishment of the Citizens Theatre, and the founding of Scotland's first college of drama, now known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, then he served as a military doctor during World War I, seeing time in France and Mesopotamia. His comedic plays saw success in London, and he became a fulltime writer in 1938. The Bridie Library in Glasgow University Union, an organisation of which he was President, is named for him. [edit] The 1969 - 2003 triumverateDuring the long period from the 1970s to the 1990s, the Citizens was associated with innovative play selections and stagings by Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald. The three were responsible for the Citizens Theatre being recognized as one of the leading theatres in Britain. Havergal and Prowse came up to Glasgow from the Watford Palace Theatre in 1969. By 1971 Robert David MacDonald completed the triumvirate. Their internationalist approach was some distance from the original vision of a national theatre but did meet the access aspirations of the 1909 Manifesto, not least in a commitment to low pricing. Havergal, Prowse and MacDonald remained at the Citizens for over 30 years. [edit] Giles HavergalGiles Havergal was Director of Watford Palace Theatre (1965-69) and director of the Citizens Theatre from 1969 to 2003. He directed over 80 plays in Glasgow including works by Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht. He has also directed over 20 children and family Christmas productions. Havergal's production of Travels with My Aunt adaptated from the Graham Greene novel of the same title, was first presented in Glasgow in 1989 and then played in the West End where it won an Laurence Olivier Award in 1993, and off Broadway in 1995. His production of his and Robert David Macdonald's adaptation of Death in Venice by Thomas Mann was first presented in Glasgow in 2000. It played at the Manhattan Ensemble Theater, New York in 2002. [edit] Philip ProwsePhilip Prowse was trained at the Slade School of Art and since 1970 was a Co-Director of the Citizens Company with Havergal and Robert David MacDonald. In 2003 both Havergal and MacDonald stepped down from their posts as Directors of the Company. Prowse however, continued his role as artistic collaborator with newly appointed Artistic Director, Jeremy Raison, until 2004. He directed and designed over 70 plays with the Citizens Theatre and has worked throughout the world designing and directing for opera, ballet and drama. [edit] Robert David MacDonaldRobert David MacDonald became a Co-Director of the Citizens Company with Havergal and Philip Prowse in 1971 and retired in June 2003. In that time he wrote and adapted fourteen plays for the Company: Dracula (1972); Camille (1974); De Sade Show (1975); Chinchilla (1977); No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1978); Summit Conference (1978); A Waste of Time (1980); Don Juan (1980); Webster (1983); Anna Karenina (1987); Conundrum (1992); In Quest of Conscience (1994); Persons Unknown (1995); The Ice House (1998), Britannicus (2002), Cheri (2003) and Snow White (2003) As an actor with the Citizens Company he played leading roles in more than twenty productions. He translated over sixty plays and operas from ten languages and as a director with the company he directed fifty productions including ten British or world premieres. [edit] 1970s controversiesDuring the 1970s the Citizens attracted much controversy with its productions and advertising.  In December 1970 City Councillors called for an end to the GB£12,000 annual grant the Glasgow Corporation gave annually to the theatre after it was announced that anyone presenting a trade union card on 8 December would be granted free entry to the theatre. The Evening Times reported "The free tickets were suggested as a gesture of the actors' solidarity with the trade unionists' strike protest against the Industrial Relations Bill" (Evening Times, 7 December 1970). This was the first of many altercations between the theatre and the City Council throughout the decade. Earlier in the Autumn season of 1970 a controversial new staging of Hamlet caused outrage in the press for the nudity and alternative acting styles of the Company. The Scotsman headline reported "Hamlet Depicted As A Gibbering Oaf" (7 September 1970) but the public flocked to the production and the theatre discovered an all new audience. Cordelia Oliver, a longterm supporter of the Citizens in her reviews, noted in The Guardian "Schoolchildren en masse rarely sit "Hamlet" out in silence, nor are they often roused to cheering as they did at the end last Friday. If Havergal has set his sights on a predominately youthful audience for the Citizens this reception suggest he may not be so wide off the mark" (10 September 1970). In 1975 a flier advertising the spring season was condemned by Labour councillor Laurence McGarry for its depiction of "Shakespeare, in drag with large cleavage, painted lips, corsets, suspenders and hand on hip". The councilor felt the theatre was guilty of "playing to an intellectual minority rather than the great mass of the public". In 1977 the Lord Provost Mr Peter McCann called for the sacking of theatre bosses after a performance of Dracula which featured nude scenes he described as "kinky claptrap appealing only to mentally ill weirdos" (Sunday Express, 13 March 1977). The Provost's calls were not supported by his councillors and his attempts to gain city council control of programming at the Citizens failed. The entire run of Dracula at the Citizens was a sell-out. Throughout its existence the Citizens has been both criticized and acclaimed for its insistence on producing works which are not specifically populist. While many have claimed that a citizen's theatre should deliberately appeal to a mass audience the theatre has a history of experimental works which have proved immensely popular despite rather than because of their subject matter. [edit] Ghost StoriesOver time, many patrons and staff members have reported sightings of ghosts. One long term staff member, trapped in the Upper Circle during a blackout, was led to safety by the distinctive outline of a monk. Customers seated in the Dress Circle during shows in the 1970s often inquired about the costumed "actor" who sat boldly on the balcony and stared back at them. Current staff members have caught glimpses of a "white lady" dressed in Victorian costume and flitting (moving) from the Dress Circle bar towards the Circle Studio dressing rooms. Backstage Dressing Room 7 is thought to be haunted by some of its past inhabitants and the Upper Circle has occasional visits from a strawberry seller girl, one of the most sighted of the Citizens ghosts. [edit] Foyer Statues Some much loved members of the Citizens' foyer are the theatre's Victorian era statues. Inside the Citizens foyer are four elephant statues and four Nautch girls statues, all in the baroque Anglo-Indian style, a reminder of the re-design of the Palace Theatre in 1907 by Bertie Crewe. An order was made with little warning for the destruction of the Palace in 1977. Staff of the Citizens arranged a stay of execution to rescue the best of the Victorian fittings, including the statues. The remaining two elephants and two more nautch girls (or goddesses) can now be found in the Theatre Museum in London. The foyer's repainting in bright pink in the summer of 2004 included the statues and the entrance to the main auditorium is now guarded by four pink elephants. The foyer also features statues representing William Shakespeare, Robert Burns and four muses, music, dance, tragedy and comedy, which were originally placed on the roof of the Royal Princess's Theatre and are the work of Victorian Glasgow sculptor John Mossman. The four muses are Music (Euterpe), Comedy (Thalia), Tragedy (Melpomene) and Dance (Terpsichore). The six pillars on which they sat were once the front of the Union Bank on Ingram Street. The statues were brought down from the building after nearly a hundred years on 12 July 1977 in order to protect them from demolition work taking place at the nearby Gorbals Cross. At the time the Glasgow Herald reported the statues weighed around three tons each and newspaper articles from the period reveal that the allegorically named "music" muse also had the nickname Highland Mary. Smaller replicas of the four muses statues can be seen in gold above the main stage itself. [edit] Citizens Theatre alumniAmongst those who have trodden the boards at the Citizens Theatre or worked backstage are Ciarán Hinds, Rupert Everett, Helen Baxendale, Tim Roth, Celia Imrie, Mark Rylance, Laurance Rudic,Lorcan Cranich, Tim Curry, Sean Bean, Una McLean, Pierce Brosnan, Ann Mitchell, Alan Rickman, Glenda Jackson, Greg Hicks, David Hayman, Iain Robertson, Henry Ian Cusick, Robbie Coltrane, Stanley Baxter,Allison McKenzie, Duncan Macrae, Gary Oldman, Leonard Maguire, Moira Shearer, Julie Le Grand, Andrew Keir, Sophie Ward, Roberta Taylor and Trisha Biggar (who designed the costumes for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith), was for very many years, wardrobe mistress. Renowned designer/directors, as well as Philip Prowse ,include Kenny Miller, Stewart Laing, Nigel Lowery,Tom Cairns,Antony McDonald and designers Sue Blain, Michael Levine ,Maria Bjornson, David Fielding etc etc etc. Rae Smith worked as a scene painter . [edit] TAG Theatre Company alumniA number of high-profile actors have worked for TAG Theatre Company, including Robert Carlyle, Bill Paterson, Alex Norton, Alan Cumming, Blythe Duff, Forbes Masson, Caroline Paterson and Billy Boyd. [edit] External links
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