Grimsby Auditorium

Grimsby Auditorium is a theatre situated on Cromwell Road, in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire. With a seated audience capacity of 1,200 the Grimsby Auditorium is the largest professional theatre in Lincolnshire, and one of the larger theatres in the East of England. Built in 1995, it is managed by the venues division of Ambassador Theatre Group on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council.

Overview

Grimsby Auditorium was designed as a flexible, multi-purpose venue to host a variety of live events including concerts, theatre shows, social events, conferences and television broadcasts. The main auditorium houses retractable raked seating, which also permits the use of the auditorium as an arena style venue and sports hall, with different seating formations. Grimsby Auditorium has a maximum seating capacity of up to 1,200 patrons seated and rising to 2,000 standing, the actual number varies depending on the layout and use of the main auditorium.

The auditorium stages a professional pantomime once per year, featuring both celebrities and local talent. This was previously produced by UK Productions, Pelé Productions and currently Imagine Theatre. Recent pantomimes have included Peter Pan, Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella.

Grimsby

Coordinates: 53°33′34″N 0°04′05″W / 53.5595°N 0.0680°W / 53.5595; -0.0680

Grimsby (or archaically Great Grimsby) is a large town and seaport situated on the South Bank of the Humber Estuary, in England, close to where it reaches the North Sea. The town was traditionally in Lincolnshire, until it was absorbed into the new county of Humberside in 1974. After the abolition of Humberside in 1996, the town was returned to Lincolnshire, and it now serves as the administrative centre of the North East Lincolnshire unitary authority. Grimsby developed as a major sea port on the east coast of England, hosting the largest fishing fleet in the world by the mid twentieth century. The fishing industry dramatically declined following the Cod Wars of the 1970s, and since then the town has battled with post-industrial decline. Since the 1990s the local council has encouraged food manufacturing, promoting the town as "Europe's food town". As one of the largest centres of population in Lincolnshire the Grimsby-Cleethorpes conurbation acts as the cultural, shopping and industrial centre for a large area of northern and eastern Lincolnshire.

Auditorium

An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theatres, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.

Etymology

The term is taken from Latin (from audītōrium, from audītōrius (“‘pertaining to hearing’”)); the concept is taken from the Greek auditorium, which had a series of semi-circular seating shelves in the theatre, divided by broad 'belts', called diazomata, with eleven rows of seats between each.

Modern examples

The audience in a modern theatre are usually separated from the performers by the proscenium arch, although other types of stage are common.

The price charged for seats in each part of the auditorium (known in the industry as the house) usually varies according to the quality of the view of the stage. The seating areas can include some or all of the following: