Hope Mill Theatre was the dream of couple Joseph Houston and William Whelton. After a career in theatre and time spent living in London, they were inspired by the highly regarded Off West End Theatres and smaller producing venues which dominate the London theatre scene. With this in mind and with the growing number of creatives living in Manchester and the ever evolving theatre culture, they set out to bring a brand new theatre experience to the people of Manchester.
Joseph and William joined forces with Katy Lipson of Aria Entertainment to spear head the venue as a home for new musicals, musical premieres and musical revivals. Lipson is now Resident Producer and Co-Artistic Director for all in house productions. Past productions include; Parade, Hair (which is currently running at The Vaults Theatre, London), European Premiere of YANK! (which ran at The Charing Cross Theatre, London in July 2017), Pippin (which transfers to The Southwark Playhouse, London) and currently running The European Premiere of Little Women.
Hope Mill Theatre – A Factory of Creativity
We are proud to provide a platform for up and coming Manchester based theatre companies and recently launched ‘Powerhouse Plays’ – a programme which aims to showcase new writing from Northern writers.
We are also proud to continue to produce a strong programme of musicals, with a particular focus on musicals which have never been performed in Manchester before! Last year, our productions of ‘Parade’ and ‘Hair’ were nominated for a Manchester Theatre Award and the MEN City Life Award respectively, and we start this year with the European premiere of the Off-Broadway hit, ‘YANK!’.
Hope Studios is an exciting new collaboration between Play With Fire Productions, Hope Mill Theatre and Aria Entertainment. We saw the need for accessible, quality rehearsal space for Manchester’s thriving creative scene.
