History
The original East Sussex Hospital was replaced with the White Rock Pavilion which was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales in April 1927. It was built for the Hastings Municipal Orchestra. The pavilion underwent a further re-modification in 1937 and again in 1985 when it was renamed the White Rock Theatre.
The auditorium is split on two levels – The Stalls and The Circle with an overall capacity of 1,066 seats. The Stalls is also split into flat and raked seating areas. The stage is 47 feet (14 m) wide and 31.6 feet (9.6 m) deep, with a 1/28 rake.
From its very beginning Hastings Borough Council ran the Theatre. As the years went by and the Theatre continued to run at a loss, the council decided to close the Theatre down. This announcement was met with the fierce opposition from local people and groups rallied round in support of the White Rock. In May 2002 Clear Channel Entertainment, a huge American organisation, took over management of the venue. In December 2005 Clear Channel Entertainment was spun off from the main body of Clear Channel and became Live Nation.
On February 1, 2009, HQ Theatres took over as operator of the White Rock in partnership with Hastings Borough Council.
Read more about this topic: White Rock Theatre
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“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
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