Blog

Over the last 18 months our Heritage Learning and Engagement Officer Cait Barratt has been working with the Darlington Culture Volunteers to develop the Hippodrome’s archive. The archive is made up of various theatre-related material; there are programmes, posters, leaflets, brochures, photographs, newspaper articles, buildings plans and lots of information about the 100s of productions staged in the building over the last 111 years. Find out how you can get involved!

After a £12.3 million restoration, Darlington Hippodrome opens its doors on Saturday 18 November.

Able UK confirms £200,000 donation to boost Darlington Hippodrome’s capital fundraising.

Heritage consultant David Wilmore, founder of Theatresearch, will give a talk on the history of Darlington Hippodrome on Friday 1 September at 11am in the Crown Street Art Gallery, Crown Street Library.

The fundraising team is pleased to announce another substantial donation to the restoration fund. The Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust, a north east based grant making organisation, has awarded the theatre £50,000 as a contribution towards the on-going restoration work.

Darlington Civic Theatre officially launches its new name, Darlington Hippodrome

A quest for family history has ice cream at its core

The Friends of Darlington Civic Theatre support their local theatre as well as enjoying a host of benefits such as advance information and priority booking, ticket discounts, and social events including meet-and-greet opportunities with the stars. Soon to be named The Friends of the Hippodrome to reflect the theatre's return to a version of its original name, the group looks forward to continuing this relationship in the new and improved venue. In this blog post, Secretary Rodney Burges tells us why he decided to name a seat at the Hippodrome.

New Twitter handle and Facebook name for Darlington's theatre

The latest news and photos from the team on-site at the Hippodrome.

Darlington Hippodrome awarded £15,000 in Spend a Penny campaign

Did you know the team at Willmott Dixon have their own Twitter account, @DarloHippSite, especially for the Civic Theatre - soon to be Hippodrome - site? If you're not on Twitter, don't despair - there's a link to their Twitter feed in our latest blog post.

Tony Winward is part of the A Tale of Two Cities ensemble, playing a member of the Jury, Mob, a Victim and the Priest in Darlington Civic Theatre's production. He tells us about his experiences on the show so far.

Graham R. Rispin, who plays Stryver, Defarge, Gabelle, and French Aristocrat 2, tells us about his experience on A Tale of Two Cities so far...

On Tuesday last week, the Civic Theatre team (now based at Hippodrome HQ on the Horsemarket) was lucky enough to be given a tour of the Hippodrome site by Sean McNicholas, Operations Manager for Willmott Dixon. The construction company are also running these tours for members of the public. Indeed the first tours proved so popular they were fully booked within a week – so watch this space for news of more!

Contractors Willmott Dixon are holding hard hat tours where you can see the progress of the development, including the heritage restoration works.

May has been a fantastic month for The Darlington Civic Theatre Foundation (the Theatre’s charitable fund). The team has been celebrating being awarded two major financial grants.

A personal account of the final performance at Darlington Civic Theatre before it closed for restoration on 31 May 2016.

Christopher Biggins made his first panto appearance here at the Civic Theatre in the 1970s, and returns to compere Live at the Hippodrome on Tuesday 31 May.

Darlington Civic Theatre has received a confirmed £4.5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to transform and regenerate the Grade II Listed building to its former glory.