The Playhouse was opened in March 1990 and occupies a prime site in the centre of Leeds where it acts as the focus for a huge amount of creative and social activity in the city and the region. People go there not only to watch plays, but to use the building as a social and business centre where they can meet and talk, eat in the restaurant, and use the free cyber café. It has two theatres, the Quarry, seating 750 people (and where
Richard III will be performed) and the more intimate Courtyard Theatre seating 350. The Playhouse has always acted as a producer of new plays, and also provides a venue for touring productions. Under its current artistic director Ian Brown,
it increasingly engages in co-productions with other regional theatres such as Northern Broadsides.
Ian Brown and the staff at the Playhouse work hard to produce
a distinctive style and mission for their theatre designed to serve the many different communities found in Leeds and West Yorkshire. Sam Perkins and the staff of the
Arts development department play a significant part in raising the profile of the theatre by creating links between the creative work of the Playhouse and that of teachers and learners, including life-long learners who participate in, amongst many other initiatives, the Playhouse’s innovative and hugely popular weekly creative workshops for over 55’s: Heydays. Sam and her team provide
opportunities for young people to engage in creative activity and they also undertake
work in schools.
