Greenwich Playhouse
The Greenwich Playhouse, home of Galleon Theatre Company, is a London leading producing studio theatre. It presents internationally acclaimed theatre entertainment all the year round. Annually the Greenwich Playhouse stages in excess of fourteen productions ranging from World Premieres, to quality new writing, to large cast revivals of the classics and full scale musicals.
The venue is air conditioned, fully equipped and housed within a multi-purpose building consisting of a modern bar/restaurant and a budget hotel. Although, the Greenwich Playhouse has fixed raked seating for 84 people and is amongst the largest of Off-West End London theatres; it still provides an intimate theatrical experience and a richly atmospheric and versatile performance space. The theatre is strategically located in the station forecourt at Greenwich which boasts excellent transport links.
Over the last fifteen years the Greenwich Playhouse has proved through an ambitious repertoire of work that it is one of South East London’s most dynamic and exciting of theatres. Each year the venue’s high quality and audacious programming brakes boundaries and sets new artistic standards.
The Greenwich Playhouse is available for hire by theatre companies for individual production slots and for short-seasons at very affordable weekly rates. (Please contact the Artistic Director for further information on alice@galleontheatre.co.uk or call 0208 858 9256) Visiting productions are offered an incomparable amount of advice, help, production support to ensure that the profile of their work is high and well received by audiences and the media.
The Greenwich Playhouse is one of London’s most established and reputable of venues. It enjoys considerable support from world wide audience base and in particularly from the local community who have over the years shown their commitment and affection for their local studio theatre.
The History of the Greenwich Playhouse
There has existed a theatre on this site since 1988. This venue, now known as the Greenwich Playhouse, operated under several artistic management teams until Alice de Sousa and Bruce Jamieson took over its directorship in December 1995, when it was known as The Prince Theatre. Between 1995 and September 1998 thirty eight theatre productions were staged at the venue and these provided employment for some 800 theatre practitioners and entertained in the region of 30,000 people.
The Prince Theatre became a platform for many established name actors, designers, directors and writers; and a training venue for young artists and recent drama school graduates. The Prince Theatre came to be regarded as quality employer of theatre practitioners and developed into a London leading small-scale producing theatre. Its critically acclaimed productions were consistently well received by the media and supported by the theatre industry and a substantial audience base.
In September 1998, following a very successful Iberian Theatre Season, The Prince Theatre closed in the expectation of impending major refurbishment work. On the 4th January 1999, Alice de Sousa launched a prolific campaign to prevent Greenwich’s then last surviving theatre from being permanently closed down. This campaign was championed by the national and local press and leading political figures such as Nick Raynsford MP; Peter Ainsworth, the then Shadow Secretary for Culture, and various Greenwich Councillors. The Prince Theatre’s predicament was covered by every major newspaper, television station, radio and unrelentingly in the local press. The dispute was happily resolved in April 2000 and on the 30th May the venue re-opened following major refurbishment and was renamed as - Greenwich Playhouse.
