Little Theatre, Leicester

The Little Theatre is a small professional venue in Leicester run by the Leicester Drama Society. It has a main hall with 349 seats and a studio space for smaller shows. The building also contains a bar, two rehearsal rooms, a library and a costume hire department. Around 200 productions take place each year, attracting about 50,000 visitors annually. The theatre is equipped to provide audio description for visually impaired patrons. The theatre specialises in plays by its resident amateur company, which produces twelve plays and one pantomime every season. Each production usually has six evening performances and one matinee. Professional acts and community groups also hire the space, including performers such as Prunella Scales, William Roache and Charles Dance. A youth theatre group works with children aged eight to twelve and teenagers aged thirteen to eighteen. Former members include playwright Joe Orton and actor Richard Attenborough. The building began life as the upper floor of the old Rechabite Chapel on Dover Street. The society bought the whole chapel in 1932 and renamed it The Little Theatre. After a fire in 1955 parts of the theatre were rebuilt. In 2011 the venue celebrated its thousandth production. A major expansion project was planned to add new rehearsal rooms, a studio, a workshop and improved disabled access, though funding delays pushed completion past the theatre’s centenary.