London Theatres List
London Shows List
Cheapest London Theatre tickets
London Theatre breaks
|
     London Theatre Tickets » List of London Theatres » Almeida Theatre » History
Almeida Theatre - Information & History
The Almeida Theatre is one of the newest theatres in London. Founded in 1980, the Almeida Theatre is located in Islington in North London away from the main West End Theatres.
The Almeida Theatre is actually housed in an old building which was originally opened in 1837 as the Islington Literary & Scientific Institution. It used to be used to host a lecture theatre, library, museum, reading room and a laboratory. The Building achieved early fame as the venue where the first Egyptian Mummies were publicly put on display. It closed in 1872, reopening as a music hall two years later in 1874 and then was used by the Salvation Army citadel by the turn of the century.
The Almeida building has undergone numerous transformations and over the years it has hosted Egyptian Mummies, been a Victorian Music Hall, a Salvation Army Citadel, when the balcony was probably added, and it has also been a factory for carnival novelties. What a variety performance that is.
The Almeida building fell into virtual dereliction from the early 1960's and was only rediscovered when entrepreneur Pierre Audi acquired the building in 1972, when he realised the Almeida's tremendous potential for a theatrical venue and formally renovated the building and finally opened the new Almeida Theatre some 8 years later in 1980.
Under the direction of its new owner the Almeida gained a reputation for its staging of international festivals of contemporary music, which is still staged every summer as the Almeida Opera. The Almeida also played host to numerous touring theatre companies from the UK and abroad.
The Almeida remained a Salvation Army Citadel for the majority of the twentieth century and became disused for a number of years until it was acquired by Pierre Audi. His desire and passion to convert the derelict building into a Theatre meant that finally the Almeida became a full time Theatre. When the artistic direction of the Almeida came under the control of Ian McDiarmid & Jonathan Kent, the Almeida, under its new artistic direction, became one of the world's leading producing theatres, chracterised by its ability to produce both classical and contemporary productions with some of the world's finest artists.
The Almeida Theatre underwent a major refurbishment in 2001 and the Almeida Theatre Company temporarily transferred to a former bus garage in Kings Cross and continued to stage quality performances whilst the work was being completed. In 2002 the work was completed, Michael Attenborough took over as Artistic Director and the company returned to a reborn Almeida Theatre. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength continuing to win awards and transfer productions to main stream West End Theatres.
The Almeida Theatre is non-profit making and is famous for staging its very own performances of mainly the more elective productions from the West End. The Almeida Theatre creates projects to link its theatrical work with the local community.
Almeida Theatre | Performances | Information | Directions | History
|
|
