Blog

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!

Julian Cound from DarlingtonOS explains some of the practicalities behind finding a suitable venue for the company during the restoration period.

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

It's not too late to audition for A Tale Of Two Cities

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.

In 1990/91 we introduced a ‘sponsor a seat’ programme where patrons could name a seat to show their support for the theatre and have a personalised plaque attached to a particular seat. Now, 25 years on, we're keen to reunite these plaques with their owners.

Katherine Williamson, Local Studies & Reference Librarian at Darlington's Crown Street Library, writes about the wealth of materials relating to the history of this theatre, which are preserved at the library.

Julian Cound of DarlingtonOS tells us how the current name of the theatre came about.

Anna Pavlova was born in 1881 in St Petersburg on this day, February 12. In commemoration of her birthday, our latest blog post tells you all about her appearance here at Darlington Civic Theatre on what turned out, for more than one reason, to be a momentous day.

Theatre Director Lynda Winstanley writes of her daughter's first, memorable trip to the pantomime here at Darlington Civic Theatre...

A message from Phil Corbitt and Danny Potts, who played the ugly sisters Mel and Sue in the 2015/2016 pantomime Cinderella.

New year, new blog!