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Motionhouse

Founded in Leamington Spa in 1988, Motionhouse creates and tours awe inspiring dance-circus productions across the UK and internationally. The company reaches approximately 120,000 people each year in theatres and at outdoor events with its world-class work. As well as touring the globe, Motionhouse offers fantastic cultural experiences for the local community, playing an important role in inspiring people to get involved in the arts – either by watching one of Motionhouse’s thrilling performances or by participating in its high-quality education and training programme. Regular classes, training days and holiday courses are delivered in Spencer Yard and Leamington Town Hall, where the company also develops its renowned touring work. Enhancing life in the community is a key mission, and Motionhouse is proud to deliver performances and workshops in local schools, helping children develop their creative potential, as well as in care homes and other community settings. Co-Founder and Artistic Director Kevin Finnan MBE is known for his distinctive highly physical style and his use of digital technology in his work. He was Choreographer and Movement Director of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Motionhouse is supported by Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation and is a WDC Creative Partner and a Birmingham Hippodrome Associate Company.
Website: https://www.motionhouse.co.uk

Playbox Theatre

Founded by Mary King in 1986, Playbox Theatre is one of the UK’s leading arts organisations, offering dynamic opportunities for young people aged 3 to 20. From humble beginnings, it has grown into a pioneering company with a purpose-built home, The Dream Factory, in Warwick—a vibrant hub for creativity, ambition, and performance. Playbox Theatre was founded on a vision to provide a space where young people could explore their creativity, gain confidence, and experience the transformative power of the arts. This mission came to life in 1999 with the opening of The Dream Factory, Europe’s first theatre designed specifically to nurture young talent. Here, members develop skills in acting, stagecraft, dance, music, and film. Playbox’s influence extends globally, with members participating in international collaborations, exchanges, and performances across the UK, USA, and Japan. Over its 38-year history, Playbox has worked with thousands of young people, many of whom have achieved success in diverse fields, carrying forward the confidence and creativity they developed. Proudly partnered with Warwick District Council, Clean Planet Energy, Santa Monica Playhouse (Los Angeles), and Model Language Studio (Tokyo), Playbox Theatre continues to shape compassionate, engaged individuals through transformative arts experiences.
Website: https://www.playboxtheatre.com

Live & Local

A Warwick-based, not-for-profit, Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, working with a network of voluntary groups across Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. They provide practical support and advice by helping voluntary organisations to choose professional live shows, film screenings and other participatory arts activities for rural communities, through co-ordinating the bookings, subsidising events and helping them to attract an audience. Since the launch of the Creative Framework,Live & Local has been retained in the National Portfolio with a significant funding increase. The additional investment is for a new initiative to work in five market towns in levelling up areas across the east and west midlands, inviting people living and working in these communities to work in partnership to bring arts of all kinds to their local area. It is a new way of working for the company, focussing in depth and breadth across larger communities and in consequence Live & Local has grown its team by some 40% in the last year.
Website: https://www.liveandlocal.org.uk

The Loft Theatre Company

The Loft is an independent, non-professional theatre company, occupying its own architect designed theatre building, with an outstanding reputation nationally for the professional quality of its productions. It has been producing live theatre in Royal Leamington Spa since 1922, celebrating its Centenary in 2022. It is organised and structured along the lines of a professional theatre. The Loft produces nine shows a year in its main house 200 seat auditorium and a smaller number in the 50 seat studio theatre. It has a strong commitment to classic and contemporary plays, musicals and also to new work, regularly staging world premieres, new translations/adaptations and newly devised pieces. All of these are Loft Theatre productions, sourced entirely from within the company. The Loft has also hosted youth theatre companies for over 50 years. The theatre is run almost entirely by volunteers, receives no regular funding from any external source, supporting itself almost entirely through ticket sales, which continue to increase.
Website: https://www.lofttheatrecompany.com

Heartbreak Productions

Heartbreak has been touring Open-Air Theatre across the UK and Ireland since 1991 from their base in Spencer Yard, Royal Leamington Spa. They create unique events with stories at their heart, inviting audiences into the world of the performance through collaboration with actors, designers, composers and crew. Heartbreak encourages audience interaction throughout their shows, bringing them into the centre of the action. In response to the pandemic, Heartbreak began exploring digital performance opportunities and are very proud to have won the Leamington Business Pivot Award in 2020 for their efforts in diversifying their usual Open-Air offerings. They created online concerts, ran a nationwide competition aimed at engaging young people in “Tell My Story” and produced ‘Tinsel in my Pants’, an original online pantomime for adults. Heartbreak continued exploring the connection between the live and the digital when COVID restrictions lifted, creating an Open-Air tour of Twelve Nights (Twelfth Night meets Love Island) which incorporated digital technology alongside live performance. Most recently, Heartbreak has taken the drama indoors, utilising non-traditional theatre spaces. Heartbreak’s latest collaboration with Warwickshire Libraries makes use of avatars, face-filters and even nods to the future by using an AI powered virtual assistant to enhance the drama. ‘Body in the Library’ is a brand-new mad cap murder mystery for adult audiences which tours to libraries in Warwickshire in 2024.
Website: https://www.heartbreakproductions.co.uk

Talisman Theatre and Arts Centre

The Talisman Theatre Company, Kenilworth, was founded in 1942 as a nonprofessional amateur company. In 1969 they moved from what is now Talisman Square to their present premises in Barrow Road. Their theatre seats 158 people, the foyer and bar hold regular community social events, and there’s a studio for rehearsals and small-scale productions. Since 2022 the theatre launched monthly Fringe events which have gone from strength to strength. The theatre also hosts regular cinema screenings throughout the year. The theatre is run by a dedicated team of volunteers. The company includes and welcomes a diverse range of actors, directors, designers, technicians, backstage and front of house volunteers. They also have a vibrant youth theatre. 2023 saw the completion of Phase 1 of the theatre’s development programme, with a newly extended foyer and bar area being completed, making the perfect welcome for an evening out at the theatre.
Website: https://www.talismantheatre.co.uk

Priory Theatre

A community-run theatre in Kenilworth, opened in 1946, that typically produces nine in-house shows a year. Their Youth Theatre offers younger members of the community a chance to develop their acting skills and build confidence. For over 25 years, the Priory Theatre has helped local charities and organisations use their facilities to raise funds.
Website: https://www.priorytheatre.co.uk/ 

The Royal Spa Centre

The Royal Spa Centre is the districts only professional theatre, run by Warwick District Council’s Arts Section. As a medium sized receiving house, the Arts Section delivers a programme of theatre, drama, comedy, film, and community events in a 667-seat main house and 188-seat studio theatre and cinema.
Website: https://www.warwickdc.gov.uk/royalspacentre/

Bridge House Theatre (Warwick School)

Opened by Dame Judi Dench in 2000, the theatre has grown into one of the area’s most popular venues. A mid- scale venue of 304 seats – it’s beautiful interior of wood and brick creates an attractive and intimate space for performance. Their audiences enjoy a wide-ranging repertoire of professional productions, presented alongside local community events and stunning performances from the students of Warwick School and partner schools.
Website: https://www.bridgehousetheatre.co.uk/

The Warwick District Music Promoters’ Forum

The Warwick District Music Promoters Forum was established in 1995 with the first issue of the Music To Your Ears diary being produced in 1996. The Forum now has over 100 members representing choirs, orchestras, performers, promoters and festivals, reflecting the richness of the local music scene. The Forum now produces the Music to Your Ears diary both in printed form and on the MTYE website at www.musictoyourears.org.uk. It lists details of up to a hundred concerts per issue and is produced three times a year. It is much valued by both the public and music societies. The Forum also operates an anti-clash diary to help organizations plan their concert dates reducing the risk of clashes of both programmes and venues.
Website: https://www.musictoyourears.org.uk/about-wdmpf/

Leamington Music

Leamington Music, launched in 2006, provides a varied programme of concerts bringing in musicians of international standing, mostly chamber music with an emphasis on string quartets in Royal Leamington Spa, while Warwick is nationally acknowledged for promoting early music. The winter season has some twenty concerts each year with some groups brought in specially for their flourishing Education Programme, which with Warwickshire Music Hub support takes them into schools across the county. With its flagship Leamington Music Festival in May, Leamington Music plays to an audience of some 5,500 in the year and some 4,500 children benefit from the visits to schools.
Website: https://www.leamingtonmusic.org

Leamington And Warwick Musical Society

Entertaining audiences since its beginning in 1921 has always been at the core of Leamington and Warwick Musical Society. Within local venues and with local performers, audiences have continued to be presented with professional-level amateur shows; an attribute that can only have contributed to their remarkable success across more than 100 years.
Website: https://lwms.org.uk/

Armonico Consort

Founded in 2001 by Christopher Monks, Armonico Consort is a critically acclaimed choir, period instrument ensemble and music charity based in Warwick. It is especially known for innovative concerts of choral masterpieces including Supersize Polyphony – large-scale works performed surrounding the audience – rarely heard gems and new musical discoveries from the Renaissance and Baroque period. Armonico Consort has become the world’s leading authority on the choral works of Francesco Scarlatti, described by le Figaro as “the classical music find of the century”. Through its education programme AC Academy, Armonico creates choirs in schools and trains teachers as choir leaders. Meanwhile, its Communities programme encompasses singing sessions in care homes and its first community choir, Warwick Memory Singers, for people living with dementia.

Website: https://www.armonico.org.uk

Orchestra of the Swan

Orchestra of the Swan, under the Artistic Direction of David Le Page, strives to captivate audiences through a blend of experimentation with both classical and non-classical music, embracing their role as storytellers. Their commitment to being distinctive drives them to push creative boundaries, offering performances that are both innovative and unique. They work with outstanding collaborators and international soloists, focussing on melding their unique orchestral sound with folk, jazz and world music, making ‘orchestral’ music more accessible to a wider audience whilst celebrating the art of storytelling with fabulous world-class narrators. To mitigate the appalling state of music education in our regional state schools, The Swan have set up a Swan Youth Orchestra, delivered an extensive programme of over 300 annual workshops within the regional community, released 32 albums, been in the Top 40 Classical Charts for their last 5 cross-genre albums, were nominated for a Grammy award in 2022, and enjoy a 14 million global audio streaming audience.
Website: https://orchestraoftheswan.org/

Warwick A Singing Town
Warwick - A Singing Town started in September 2021 as a unique three-year community singing project. Three years later and the journey has been fantastic - but the really good news is that the journey is going to continue! The generous funding from King Henry VIII Endowed Trust is guaranteed and thier health strand is set to develop enormously due the exciting new funding from the charity of Thomas Oken and Nicholas Eyffler. The wonderful benefits of singing are spreading and their second Singing Town programme in Bedworth is well under way, again due to additional new funding from the Nicholas Chamberlaine Trust in Bedworth.
Website: https://warwicksingingtown.co.uk/