York Theatre Royal has been producing great drama in the beautiful city of York for over 250 years and is one of the country’s leading producing theatres. Each year the theatre entertains over 200,000 people with its wide variety of performances, events and activities including the much loved annual pantomime starring Berwick Kaler, the UK’s longest-running Dame.

Over the last ten years York Theatre Royal’s work has expanded to include collaborations with the wider community and school groups both on and off stage. The theatre has seen an increase in the number of young people wanting to get involved and as a result they now have one of the largest youth theatre groups in the country with over 300 members.

In recent years, the theatre has had huge success in terms of number of attendees and various awards recognising their work for The Railway Children hosted at the National Railway Museum and then transferred to the old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo, and the large scale production of the York Mystery Plays 2012 involving over 1,000 members of the community.

The theatre will re-openned on Friday 22 April following a £6million redevelopment, with a new roof, an extended and re-modelled front of house area, a refurbished and redecorated main auditorium and with major improvements to access and environmental impact. It is intended that York Theatre Royal will be a building fit for a 21st century audience that will be sustainable and able to thrive into the future.