The first ever production at a brand new theatre in Stone will be held in November – and tickets for the historic show are on sale now.

An in-house production of ‘Shakespeare in Love’, the hit stage adaptation of the 1998 Oscar-winning romantic comedy starring Judy Dench, Colin Firth and Gwyneth Paltrow, will be at Crown Wharf Theatre from Friday 8 to Saturday 16 November. 

The feel-good, toe-tapping stage adaptation has landed rave reviews over the years. The Independent said it ‘makes you feel grateful to be alive’. The Telegraph called it ‘a joyous celebration of theatre’. ‘A swooning delight,’ said the Daily Mail.

Rehearsals are already under way at Crown Wharf Theatre and tickets for the show are available now at crownwharftheatre.org.uk

Crown Wharf Theatre trustee Harri Capernaros is directing ‘Shakespeare in Love’. She said: “It’s so important to us that we kick things off at the theatre with an in-house production, and ‘Shakespeare in Love’ is just perfect. It’s a celebration of theatre and shows the ups, downs, disasters and blind optimism that’s required every time a bunch of people decide to put on a show – never mind decide to build a theatre. It’s a brilliant, feel-good show that people will love.”

Fellow trustee Rob Kenney said: “We cannot wait to open the doors now and realise all the benefits of this new community asset for Stone. Just to see people in the theatre rehearsing and getting ready for the first show is so exciting. We held some test events recently as we put the finishing touches to the theatre, and to see 165 people sitting in the space was incredible. We can’t wait to welcome people in for real from November.”

Over 50 volunteers are lined up to help run the theatre after a huge community effort that started in 2017, led by local volunteers, to deliver a professional theatre for Stone and the wider county. The 165-capacity theatre has state-of-the-art facilities for audiences and performers, with professional lighting and audio equipment, impressive changing rooms, the latest front-of-house and stage management equipment, as well as a huge screen for film nights.

The full opening programme will be revealed soon.

Tickets for ‘Shakespeare in Love’ are available now on the Crown Wharf Theatre Box Office.

Crown Wharf Theatre

The Crown Wharf Theatre charity was launched in 2017 with the mission of delivering a professional theatre for the town of Stone in Staffordshire. The shell of the theatre was gifted to the town as part of their Crown Wharf pub and handed to the charity on a peppercorn rent. Since then, the volunteer-led project raised over £300,000, and was awarded £495,000 in 2022 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, to transform the bare space into a functioning, professional theatre. Just as important as the funding has been local support, and the project has galvanised volunteers and supporters to deliver the theatre. You can find more information about Crown Wharf Theatre at crownwharftheatre.org.uk

Shakespeare in Love

‘Shakespeare in Love’ is a play with music that was adapted for the stage from the 1998 Oscar-winning movie by Tony and Olivier award-winning writer Lee Hall. A romantic comedy, this piece of historical fiction centres around a young Will Shakespeare as he struggles to find his inspiration. Enter the feisty Viola de Lesseps, who longs to be an actor. The relationship they forge serves as inspiration for Will’s greatest play, Romeo and Juliet. 

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund was a central pillar of the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda and provided £2.6bn of funding for local investment. The fund aimed to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK, investing in communities and place, supporting local business, people and skills. More information at www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus

We’re very sad to be bringing you news of a delay to the opening of Crown Wharf Theatre.

This unexpected delay is due to a technical issue related to planning. Unfortunately, we’re not yet certain how long a delay may result; however, we no longer expect to open this year. As soon as we’re given a clear path to the new opening date, we’ll ensure you’re informed as soon as possible.

Despite the delay to our plans, we’ll be cracking on and completing the internal works as planned so that we’re ready to open when the time comes. We also hope to get building the ambitious set we’ve got planned for Shakespeare in Love (our in-house opening production).

Rehearsals were well underway, but we’ve had to pause them for now until we know more. Our fabulous cast have been very understanding, so it would be great for them to continue rehearsing on the actual set once we have the green light and can get going again.

In recent weeks we’ve also been running a lot of sessions for volunteers interested in being part of Crown Wharf Theatre once we’re up and running. One advantage of the delay is the additional time available for training sessions and test events in the space to get us all up to speed, so we’ll be busy working away in the coming months to ensure we’re as ready as we can be for the big opening.

To all those who’ve attended a recent recruitment session, we’ll be in touch shortly with further details.

As ever, we’re incredibly grateful to the whole community who have rallied around this project, be that volunteering, donating, sponsoring or expressing their interest and excitement at using the facility once open.

Crown Wharf Theatre truly is a labour of love and, as we all know, “the course of true love, never did run smooth”.

Crown Wharf Theatre will be opening in October with an in-house production of ‘Shakespeare in Love’, the hit stage adaptation of the 1998 Oscar-winning romantic comedy.

Tickets for this historic production will go on sale in the summer, when we’ll also be announcing the full opening programme, featuring plays, pantomime, stand-up comedy, cinema, music and more.

Open auditions for ‘Shakespeare in Love’

We’ll be holding open auditions at the theatre for ‘Shakespeare in Love’. We’re looking for actors, singers, dancers and musicians for the first ever production at Crown Wharf Theatre. If you want to be the first to tread the boards at our professional-standard theatre. Check out the audition details here.

Get involved backstage or front of house

Training events will be held over the summer for the dozens of amazing people who’ve put their names down to volunteer at the theatre in front-of-house and backstage roles. If you want to get involved but you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time. Fill in our volunteer form here.

Want to hire Crown Wharf Theatre for your show?

As we start to put together our full opening programme, we’d love to hear from you if you want to stage your production, show or event at the theatre. There’s more information for hirers here.

Crown Wharf Theatre trustee Harri Capernaros, who’ll be directing ‘Shakespeare in Love’, says: “It’s been an epic journey getting to this point and we can’t quite believe that, from October, the theatre will be full of people enjoying local shows, music, films, touring professional productions and more.

“It was important to us that we kick things off at the theatre with an in-house production open to all, and ‘Shakespeare in Love’ is perfect. It’s a true celebration of theatre and it shows the ups, downs, disasters and blind optimism that’s required every time a bunch of people decide to put on a show, never mind decide to build a theatre. This theme suits Crown Wharf Theatre so well. It’s a project that’s always seemed so unlikely and we’ve been faced with so many hurdles and setbacks. Yet somehow, after lots of hard work, community support and unwavering persistence, we find ourselves preparing for our first production.”

We are delighted to confirm the charity has been successful in securing significant grant funding that will enable us to complete the outstanding installation works and open the doors to the Crown Wharf Theatre in 2023.

Thanks to the enthusiastic and expert support we have received from Stafford Borough Council, nearly £500,000 has been secured from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

This is part of the £4.5M of overall funding that Stafford Borough Council has secured for our region, which is one of the largest awards in the country and we are incredibly grateful that involved us in their bid from the outset.

Councillor Frances Beatty, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Planning, said: “This allocation of money was one of the highest that any district council was awarded and is further demonstration of the confidence the government has in us to deliver for our community.

“There are so many exciting things planned, starting up or ongoing, in the borough and we have drawn up a list of ways we can assist a number of projects using this money and I am confident this will support different sectors of the borough – such as the rural and visitor economy.”

The total allocation to Stafford Borough Council was £4,673,295. It covers a three-year period to 2025 and is aimed at boosting communities, supporting local businesses and improving skills as part of the government’s ‘Levelling Up’ fund.

Along with helping to kit out the auditorium at the theatre in Stone, finishing the refurbishment of the town’s scout building and supporting the £7m History Centre development in Eastgate Street, other areas the funding will be spent on include:

• £1.5 million towards the Stafford town centre transformation programme
• Around £1m to drive the visitor economy
• £250,000 on climate change projects
• £500,000 for grants to help local businesses grow and
• £1m to support business innovation

What are we going to do with the money?

Firstly, this will enable the installation of the heating ventilation and cooling system, which for some time has been the most significant outstanding challenge. Beyond that, it means the community cinema equipment can be in place from day one and the charity can kit the theatre out with excellent lighting, sound and audio-visual equipment. All this will enable the theatre to achieve its mission of bringing professional standard facilities to Stone for all to enjoy, whilst also helping to attract professional touring shows and performers to our town.

As far back as 2018 Stone Town Council and Joule’s Brewery recognised the potential in what we were trying to achieve and played key roles in getting this project up and running. For several years since, through the amazing support of volunteers, local businesses, seat sponsors and Founding Partners, the town has come together to develop an empty shell into what today, looks every bit like a theatre. It’s thanks to all the hard work, perseverance and wholehearted community support that we were able to demonstrate just how much Stone’s new theatre, cinema and community space deserved this significant funding grant to get the job done.

We’ve had some reaction from our trustees and key partners already…

Harri Capernaros – CWT Trustee: “Completing the building will be huge milestone for the charity but is in fact only the beginning when it comes to bringing this space to life. It has been a people powered project to date and its future success lies in a far great number of people getting involved, whether using the space, volunteering their time or simply enjoying the wide variety of entertainment and activities on offer.

As a volunteer run and not-for-profit organisation, we believe the Crown Wharf Theatre has every chance of becoming a self-sustaining asset to Stone that can improve our wonderful town and the lives of people living here, but to make this happen, we will all have a part to play”.

Rob Kenney – CWT Trustee: “It’s a huge cherry on top of the Crown Wharf Theatre Christmas cake that will enable the trustees to deliver an even higher quality theatre than anticipated”

Joule’s Brewery: The brewery team and the whole Joules team at Crown Wharf will be overjoyed to hear that funding has been secured to complete the theatre, this is amazing news and a profound moment for Stone which will have a dynamic and independent theatre for community use for the very long term. This is an investment in people and community, in tough times here is something that can bring us together and share a little joy.

Steve Nuttall, Managing Director, Joule’s Brewery: “I recall the initial idea of Crown Wharf and what we could do with the opportunity to create something very special right at the heart of Stone Town adjacent to the canal. The theatre felt at the time like a longshot, but the vision of excellence and engagement with so many community groups, the creative flair and passion of local groups such as Stone Revellers, the dedication to community theatre and the sheer energy of the team bowled us over, we really caught the bug and joined their mission for what could be created.

We believed so fully in the people and the idea that Joule’s constructed the purpose-built auditorium shell, the stores and back of house, all of this on spec, the idea was so powerful and team so investable that we just felt that they could make the rest of it all happen. Today they have done just that and garnered the support of the Borough Council alongside other amazing grant providers and a whole army of local supporters, private and business who have done and given so much already. It is the most heartening and rewarding project which I have been involved with, I cannot say just how pleased I am for this group of dedicated and creative people and for Stone Town as whole. We are absolutely thrilled to be part of the town and of this amazing project.”