We’re proud to announce that our Performance Calendar Database is now live on on our website. The database is a catalogue of every performance during the theatre’s first incarnation under that name, from 23 September 1867 to 1 March 1919.
This was the heyday of touring theatre and opera companies, many of whom made the Tyne Theatre & Opera House their home for a week or a fortnight year after year, but the Theatre also staged its own productions, and the database documents some curious phenomena too, including the Theatre’s occasional summertime transformations into a roller-skating rink or a cinema.
Entries for every production include the dates of every performance of that production, along with information on the type of performance (including the genre), writers, composers, cast, crew, and things that we found interesting. We hope in time to include images too, along with the text of contemporary reviews. The database allows you to filter results and search by performance type, title, cast, crew, writers, composers etc. You can also browse by month and year.
These thousands of performances were catalogued by a team of local volunteers in 2022-23, with the help of academics from Newcastle University and Northumbria University. We used advertisements and reviews in Newcastle newspapers, along with surviving programmes and posters. We are indebted to Newcastle City Library and Tyne & Wear Archives for letting us acquire the tens of thousands of scans and photographs from which this information was compiled. This database was created as one part of a year-long project funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund.
