Blog

An artistic interpretation of the Hippodrome!

An artistic interpretation of the Hippodrome!
An artist from the Community Art Project based at The Bridge in Darlington has created a lovely artwork depicting the exterior of the theatre. We learnt more about the artist, Jennifer Smith, and the project.

Queen Elizabeth’s Sixth Form Work Experience Week at the Hippodrome

Queen Elizabeth’s Sixth Form Work Experience Week at the Hippodrome
In the first week of July, six first year students from Queen Elizabeth’s Sixth Form completed a week long work experience placement, learning about Darlington Hippodrome and researching the theatre’s heritage for a presentation to the staff at the end of the week.

A blast from the past: introducing our archive

A blast from the past: introducing our archive
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!

Rehearsals begin for Anywhere

Rehearsals begin for Anywhere
Kat Brown is part of the cast of Anywhere, an exciting, immersive new production in partnership with one of the town's most exciting and contemporary theatre companies, ODDMANOUT, and performed by the community cast behind last year's A Tale of Two Cities.

Are you Sitting Comfortably?

Are you Sitting Comfortably?
Able UK confirms £200,000 donation to boost Darlington Hippodrome’s capital fundraising.

Art of glass

Art of glass
Marketing Officer Rebecca Howarth recently attended a workshop in Leaded Stained Glass, part of our series of Heritage Skills Workshops. Read all about it here.

Going for gold

Going for gold
Systems and Data Officer Jonny Lancaster recently attended a workshop in Illumination in Watercolour and Gold Leaf, part of our series of Heritage Skills Workshops. Read all about it here.

Take a Seat

Take a Seat
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.

Sweet Memories

Sweet Memories
The team from Willmott Dixon have uncovered several bundles of old paperwork relating to Darlington Hippodrome, some if not most or all of it dating from the mid-1920s. The papers - invoices and receipts - detail transactions between the Hippodrome and suppliers of electricity, drinks, maintenance, and confectionery.

Scaffolding our future

Scaffolding our future
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!