BIOGRAPHY
West Yorkshire Playhouse
Welcome to the home of incredible stories. There has been a Playhouse in Leeds for almost fifty years, from 1968 to 1990 as Leeds Playhouse and then with the opening of a brand new theater on its current Quarry Hill site it became West Yorkshire Playhouse.
West Yorkshire Playhouse is a leading UK producing theater; a cultural hub, a place where people gather to tell and share stories and to engage in world class theater. We make work which is pioneering and relevant, seeking out the best companies and artists to create inspirational theater in the heart of Yorkshire. From large scale spectacle to intimate performance, we develop and make work for our stages, for found spaces, for touring, for schools and community centers. Our 2015/16 production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang played to over 500,000 people across the country—our production of Beryl played to 100 in a village hall in Wickenby, Lincolnshire. We create work to entertain and inspire. As dedicated collaborators, we work regularly with other theaters from across the UK, independent producers, and some of the most distinctive, original voices in theater today. We develop work with established practitioners and find, nurture, and support new voices that ought to be heard. We cultivate new talent by providing creative space for new writers, emerging directors, companies, and individual theater makers to refine their practice.
Alongside our work for the stage, we are dedicated to providing creative engagement opportunities that excite and stimulate. We build, run, and sustain projects which reach out to everyone from refugee communities, to young people and students, to older communities and people with learning disabilities. At the Playhouse there is always a way to get involved.