A trawl of photographic negatives has produced some additions to the Little Theatre Archive, and we highlight some examples here.

Before his early death, Charlie Round, a photographer at the Halifax Courier, bequeathed a huge collection of negatives to the Birchcliffe Centre, taken by himself and his colleagues over a period of 15 years. These years, 1980-1994, were eventful in the life of the Little Theatre, so the collection includes some interesting photos.

During this time, the theatre went through repeated cycles of development, with volunteers playing a big part in the building work. The conversion of the coach garage to a theatre, was completed in 1983. It wasn’t long before ambitious plans for a larger, more permanent theatre took shape. The Garage Theatre was demolished in 1990 to make way for the new building, the theatre went on the road again, till finally the current theatre opened in 1993.

These photos capture some of these moments, as well as some of the plays we produced in that period: in the 70-seat Garage Theatre, some of our peripatetic productions, and then some in the newly opened theatre.

Little by little we are expanding the collection of images of the theatre’s work since its inception in 1924. It gets harder and harder to fill in the remaining gaps, but it feels even more rewarding when we do find missing pieces of the jigsaw, as we have done with these images.