About us

The Bear Pit Theatre is Stratford-upon-Avon’s first and only ‘little’ theatre in heart of Shakespeare’s historic Warwickshire town. The venue is part of the Little Theatre Guild, which represents and works with a number of amateur and community venues across Great Britain.
 
Built in 1888, and funded by Fred Winter, this Victorian building used to host badminton and other Congregational church activites. Now in 2014, the hall has been converted into a unique 100 seat ‘little’ theatre with all the technical equipment needed to run such a venue. The charm of this building and the work that it produces, is rustic, minimal, fresh and challenging. Our audiences support The Bear Pit Theatre because they find our work engaging but more importantly they enjoy the uniqueness of the building. Our ‘little’ theatre is inspired by the pop up fringe venues of the Edinburgh festival and has a familiar feel to what was once the RSC’s rusty tin shed, The Other Place.
 
The Bear Pit Theatre Company are seat by your pants, shoe string theatre makers, producing engaging theatre throughout the year. This is Poor Theatre and Brook’s Empty Space at it’s best and all run by volunteers – something no one has ever achieved in Stratford-upon-Avon.
 
The Bear Pit Theatre Company has a number of Associate Artists who perform or direct with the company and who support our work. We also have an equal number of volunteers and Friends of The Bear Pit to help run our theatre. These creatives and volunteers are at the heart of our venue and who keep the blood pumping to allow us to continue to develop the building and our creative work.
 
The Bear Pit Theatre is a sustainable and unique building and it is very much a permanent home for all amateur theatre makers in Stratford-upon-Avon and beyond.
 
We look forward to welcoming you to one of The Bear Pit Theatre company’s productions.