| Octagon Profile Opened in November 1967 as a Bolton Council initiative, with financial
support from businesses as well as money from highly popular community
schemes Buy A Seat and Buy A Brick, Bolton’s Octagon Theatre broke
the mould of regional theatre design with an innovative, fully flexible
auditorium where audiences are never more than 30 feet from the stage
and actors.
The Octagon Theatre usually has two seasons of shows per year, running roughly from January to July and from September to January, as well as, the best of the UK’s touring companies, including children’s theatre and stand-up comedy, and exhibits art installations in the Bar throughout the year. Each season features home-produced professional theatre productions, including musical theatre, classic drama, contemporary classics and comedies. To celebrate 40 years of the Octagon our 40th Anniversary season will run from September 2007 to July 2008. For more information on our current and anniversary visit our What’s On pages. activ8, the participatory wing of the Octagon Theatre, provides a stimulating, challenging, culturally relevant educational resource for people of all ages and backgrounds through a range of projects, some of which operate within the Octagon Theatre and some within schools and community venues in Bolton. The activ8 brand is well recognised as a mark of excellence throughout Bolton, Greater Manchester and the North West, and department is always in demand. Mark Babych, Artistic Director Mark is the Artistic Director of the Octagon Theatre. Since joining the Octagon in 1999, he has received and been nominated for several Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards. His numerous productions at the Octagon include: Death of a Salesman, Blonde Bombshells Of 1943 (Best Production MEN 2006), Blue/Orange (Nominated for Best Production MEN 2006), A View From the Bridge, I Just Stopped By To See the Man, Eight Miles High, Four Nights in Knaresborough (Nominated for Best Production MEN 2004) and Neville’s Island (Best Production MEN 2000) to name a few. Prior to the Octagon, Mark was Associate Director of the Worcester Theatre Company, and his freelance directing work includes productions for the Vanemuine Theatre, Estonia; Childers St Theatre, Canberra; the Oldham Coliseum Theatre and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Mark is also an Associate Artist of Coventry-based new writing company, Theatre Absolute, whose productions include CAR (Fringe First winner Edinburgh Festival 1999), RAW (Fringe First winner Edinburgh Festival 2001) and KID. His production of Blonde Bombshells Of 1943 is currently touring to packed houses throughout the UK. Theatre Auditoria Although the theatre building is actually hexagonal, the Octagon’s Main Auditorium is an elongated octagon. This unique design offers complete flexibility and is capable of being configured into four different configurations - the round, end-on, thrust and horseshoe - and provides the best possible sight lines for the audience when any of the four auditorium shapes are used. The auditorium seats up to 380, which allows for a sense of intimacy between actor and audience - no seat is further than nine rows from the stage and actors are acutely aware of the closeness of the audience. The Octagon also boasts a studio theatre, the BNT (Bill Naughton Theatre), an 85-seat adaptable studio theatre, which is mainly used for education and youth theatre workshops, small scale music events and children’s theatre. |
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