Gallery Studio Theatre
St George's St Ipswich Suffolk
The Gallery Players was formed in 1985 by Pat Taplin to produce rarely performed plays and musicals that larger companies would find uneconomic or which only use a few actors. The company quickly established a reputation for quality and excellence. The Groups aims are broadly speaking:
- To exploit a niche for staging productions that are progressive and exciting in both content and execution.
- To embrace both new and established works
- To act as vehicle for engaging new talent as well as established members
- To foster a group of actors and technicians that are truly a community
- To foster links with schools and colleges
We now generally stage four or five productions a year, a mixture of plays and musicals.
Performing lesser known shows is always difficult, particularly when it comes to building an audience and balancing the books, but by sticking to our aims we have grown an audience, that, hopefully, trust us to produce interesting work.
Although we have a strong pool of performers & technicians new blood and talent, on & off stage, is always welcome.
The Gallery Players founder was Pat Taplin, who sadly passed away in 2012; she had great vision and this will be carried forward by the steering group. That steering group is Wade Ablitt, Dave Borthwick, Helen Clarke, Will Dowe, Steve Taplin and Steve Wooldridge.
We encourage other directors to take the reins of their own pet projects, allowing them to cast freely and create individual shows with the backing of our excellent technical and production crew. Our only insistence is that the final show should entertain and stimulate our discerning audience and should exude that sense of professionalism we strive for.
We’re proud to say that Gallery Players/Gallery Studio Theatre receive no grants or funding for our day to day running and apart from peoples kind donations we rely on ticket sales to do what we do!
Gallery Players have won several awards including the NODA Eastern Area Shield for Best Production with ‘Carnival’ and the Councillors Cup for ‘The Baker’s Wife’ and ‘Kiss Me Like You Mean It’.
All at Gallery Players are passionate about theatre in all it’s different forms and guises and intend to keep producing exceptional theatre in our wonderful studio theatre for you, our lovely audience!
PARKING
Although you can drop off in front of the Studio, there is very limited on street parking outside the theatre so it is recommended you use William Street Car Park in William Street IP1 3HX, which is only a couple of minutes walk. It is ‘Pay & Display’. Park after 2pm Mon – Fri and its only £2.50. The Wolsey Car Park, IP1 2DX, again only a couple of minutes walk is also an option at £2.50 after 6pm any day (and is the cheapest for Saturday evenings). For Saturday matinees Crown Street Car Park, IP1 3HS is the most reasonable @ £4.50 for up to 3 hours. **
(** prices correct at time of writing, Feb 2023, please check the relevant websites for up to date prices)
PAT'S BAR
The Foyer Bar is fully licensed and will be open at least 30 minutes before a performance and during any interval. We recommend pre ordering interval drinks so that you can relax! We sell a good selection of alcoholic and ‘soft’ drinks as well as coffee and tea, and also a couple of lo/no alcohol beers. While we don’t serve food we do sell ice creams and pouches of chocolates & sweets.
ACCESIBILITY
Wheelchair users can be reassured that there is a level threshold into the Studio from the street. This takes you into the foyer/bar area which is where our modern accessible wc is found.
There is a modern lift to the first floor auditorium for wheelchair users and those less mobile.
We always have 2 wheelchair spaces available for each performance when booking opens. (If these are not sold and a performance is close to selling out they will be converted back to standard seating, if you find this is the case please contact us and we’ll do our best to accommodate you).
