ABSTRACT
The social changes in the Britain of the 1960s, following in the wake of improved prosperity,
included a burgeoning interest in the arts, both in their professional forms and within the
education system. This interest stimulated the building of a large number of new civic theatres
and of community-based arts centres (with specialised theatre facilities). By 1970, twenty new
regional playhouses had been built, many of which broke away from the traditional, proscenium
arch architecture to deploy radically shaped stages and auditoria (thrust, in-the-round, etc.)
designed to foster a new, dynamic relationship between the actors and the audience. Also,
many extant repertory theatres added a ‘studio’ to their main houses, giving the resident
companies greater programming flexibility and the opportunity to experiment with new plays
and styles of playing.
