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Traverse Theatre
The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin.
The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary playwrights, often describing itself as "Scotland’s new writing theatre".
The Traverse also presents productions from visiting companies and acts as a host venue for Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows in August. It is also the home of 'Imaginate' the Edinburgh International Children's Festival.
The Traverse Theatre Club, originally opened by Cambridge Footlights as "The Sphinx Nightclub", began at 15 James Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, on 20 August 1962. The location was a former doss-house and brothel also known as Kelly's Paradise and Hell's Kitchen.[citation needed] It was "a long, low-ceilinged first-floor room barely 15ft wide by 8ft high" with 60 seats salvaged from the Palace Cinema placed in two blocks on either side of the stage. The theatre is named because Terry Lane mistakenly believed that the staging arrangement is called "traverse"; he later realised that it is "transverse" but it was already too well known to change it. The first performance was on 2 January 1963, with the production of Orison, by Fernando Arrabal.
Following a surveyor's report in March 1969, which stated that the internal floors of James Court were unsafe, the Traverse moved to a former sailmakers's loft at 112 West Bow in the east end of the Grassmarket.[citation needed] This larger space had a 100-seat theatre with flexible seating configurations.[citation needed] The first performance in this venue was on 24 August 1969.[citation needed] In its early days, the theatre included exhibition space for the visual arts, until 1966, when the administrators for that space – including Richard Demarco – moved away to establish what became the Richard Demarco Gallery.
In 1979, Angela Wrapson joined the board of the Traverse Theatre, whose artistic director, her old friend, Chris Parr, was transforming the theatre into a leading new-writing company. In 1983, she became the first female Chair of the Traverse Theatre Committee at a difficult moment in the theatre’s transition from private club to public theatre, steering the organisation deftly through what could have been a terminal crisis. She resigned in 1989.
In 1992, the Traverse moved to its current location, 10 Cambridge Street, a £3.3 million purpose-built two theatre space with bar café created as part of Saltire Court development on Castle Terrace. The theatre's first performance at this location was on 3 July 1992.
Traverse 1 is the larger space with flexible seating that can be moved to create many different configurations (e.g. transverse, end on, in the round, etc.). The most common configuration is 'end on' and has 214 seats. Traverse 2 is the smaller studio space - with new flexible seating was installed in September 2005 to allow for different staging configurations, the standard capacity is approximately 115 seats.
Traverse Theatre
The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin.
The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary playwrights, often describing itself as "Scotland’s new writing theatre".
The Traverse also presents productions from visiting companies and acts as a host venue for Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows in August. It is also the home of 'Imaginate' the Edinburgh International Children's Festival.
The Traverse Theatre Club, originally opened by Cambridge Footlights as "The Sphinx Nightclub", began at 15 James Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, on 20 August 1962. The location was a former doss-house and brothel also known as Kelly's Paradise and Hell's Kitchen.[citation needed] It was "a long, low-ceilinged first-floor room barely 15ft wide by 8ft high" with 60 seats salvaged from the Palace Cinema placed in two blocks on either side of the stage. The theatre is named because Terry Lane mistakenly believed that the staging arrangement is called "traverse"; he later realised that it is "transverse" but it was already too well known to change it. The first performance was on 2 January 1963, with the production of Orison, by Fernando Arrabal.
Following a surveyor's report in March 1969, which stated that the internal floors of James Court were unsafe, the Traverse moved to a former sailmakers's loft at 112 West Bow in the east end of the Grassmarket.[citation needed] This larger space had a 100-seat theatre with flexible seating configurations.[citation needed] The first performance in this venue was on 24 August 1969.[citation needed] In its early days, the theatre included exhibition space for the visual arts, until 1966, when the administrators for that space – including Richard Demarco – moved away to establish what became the Richard Demarco Gallery.
In 1979, Angela Wrapson joined the board of the Traverse Theatre, whose artistic director, her old friend, Chris Parr, was transforming the theatre into a leading new-writing company. In 1983, she became the first female Chair of the Traverse Theatre Committee at a difficult moment in the theatre’s transition from private club to public theatre, steering the organisation deftly through what could have been a terminal crisis. She resigned in 1989.
In 1992, the Traverse moved to its current location, 10 Cambridge Street, a £3.3 million purpose-built two theatre space with bar café created as part of Saltire Court development on Castle Terrace. The theatre's first performance at this location was on 3 July 1992.
Traverse 1 is the larger space with flexible seating that can be moved to create many different configurations (e.g. transverse, end on, in the round, etc.). The most common configuration is 'end on' and has 214 seats. Traverse 2 is the smaller studio space - with new flexible seating was installed in September 2005 to allow for different staging configurations, the standard capacity is approximately 115 seats.
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