Tag archives for White Rock Theatre
Hastings Comes Together for Beatles Day
Hastings Beatles Day has become one of the most anticipated community celebrations in Hastings, bringing together music lovers, performers, and local supporters for a day that captures the enduring spirit…
Arnold Rimmer Comes to Comic Con
The White Rock Theatre has announced that Chris Barrie (Rimmer from Red Dwarf – those were the days)is the first confirmed celebrity guest for this year’s Hastings Comic Con, which returns…
Another Spectacular Interview
In April there will be a rehearsed public reading of Lindsay Jayne’s absurdist debut play, A Spectacular Interview. The play is a critical, comical send-up of the ‘spectacularly’ appalling mess…
Games Fest Returns to Hastings White Rock
Following a sold-out debut in 2025, Hastings Games Fest is back at the White Rock Theatre on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 February 2026 with gaming experiences for all ages. This…
Hastings Comic Con is Coming Up
There’s just under a month to go until the White Rock Theatre opens its doors for the first ever Hastings Comic Con on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June. Billed…
A Time to Shine
The Hastings Musical Festival has been captivating audiences for over 100 years. Every year, children and adults from 4 to 84 take the stage to showcase their talent in the…
The Art That Will Not Fit
EBM HUMPHREYS Home Live Art are celebrating their twenty-fifth birthday this year, so there was cake all round at an auspiciously thirteenth Salty cabaret last Thursday at the White Rock…
Digital Learning Skills Training at the White Rock
It was recently announced that the White Rock Theatre, operated by The Guildhall Trust, is to receive £25,000, awarded by East Sussex County Council from the Hastings Skills Capital Fund.…
Fat Tuesday to return ‘in full form’
Organisers of the Hastings Fat Tuesday (HFT) music festival in February/March next year have announced that it will return “in its full form” following a depleted programme in 2024. There…
A Young Person’s Guide to the Musical
MIRI (7) and RUPERT (10) enjoy an evening out It’s too late to see the musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate factory at the White Rock Theatre, but the…
Knotty
Knotty, Hastings’ celebration performance, returns following the success of 2022’s outdoor festival. For 2024, Knotty is bigger and bolder than ever, showcasing inspiring artists and events in familiar and unexpected…
The Elixir of Love
JOHN RYCROFT Opera South East are to stage a production of Donizetti’s comic opera, The Elixir of Love, at the White Rock Theatre. The story is, like that of most…
Holocaust Memorial: My Mother’s Story
DAVID TASKER Saturday 27 January is International Holocaust Memorial Day. I am putting together a commemoration service at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings. The centrepiece of the service will…
White Rock Theatre Under New Management
The Guildhall Trust, a charitable foundation which has run the Portsmouth Guildhall since 2011, is set to take over management of the White Rock Theatre from the beginning of February…
NEW ACT AT WHITE ROCK?
HUGH SULLIVAN The cabinet of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) is scheduled to debate the future of the White Rock Theatre at its meeting on Monday evening, 3 ; It appears…
Sensitivity, Passion, and Deftness
Tom Blass is enthralled with the gala piano concert Four perfectly curated pieces – plus the most charming of encores. Two young pianists whose careers we hope to follow through…
What’s on Your Mind?
We would love to hear from write to: Please be aware we may need to edit letters for reasons of space and we will only withhold names if this is…
Classical Music Special: Classic Provision
Classical music in and around Hastings is burgeoning. But for some reason and for some people it has been a secondary interest compared to the rockier, jazzier, more raucous genres.…
Arts Diary
Cavern in the Town The Sussex Studio (downstairs White Rock Theatre) becomes the Cavern Club for the day on April 2 for the annual Beatles Day. More than 300 musicians,…
Letters 219
St Mary Quite Contrary Dear HIP,Several years ago, there was a proposal to close the road behind the White Rock Theatre and extend the theatre backwards, with an opening onto…
Ordinary People, Extra-Ordinary Day
BY PAUL MCLAUGHLIN On Saturday 28 January, the people of Hastings gathered for the annual service to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The event was part of the international commemoration to…
Arts Diary
Hubbard’s Cupboard Hastings’ blues supremo Roger Hubbard will be in concert once again at the Kino-Teatr, Norman Road, St. Leonards, Friday March 3 at He’ll be playing his own songs…
Is the Theatre Really Dead?
Kent Barker, HIP’s Arts Editor, asks how theatre provision in Hastings compares with some of the other arts. We are forever hearing what a thriving artistic environment Hastings is. Yes,…
Shakespeare-on-Sea
In an interview with HIP, John Knowles, Hastings’ actor, director, producer and founder of Fetch Theatre, argues that radical action is urgently needed to revive the idea of theatre in…
Arts Diary
Bodhran Art Jazz Hastings kicks off 2023 with “a unique musical collaboration between a major star of from the Irish folk/traditional music and two of the most sought-after UK jazz…
ATY DIARY
ROSSETTIS IN LOVE A small semi-permanent exhibition entitled Rossettis in Love begins in St. Clement’s Church on Saturday, 26 March at 11 am. It will be opened by Jenny Ridd,…
Piano competitors bridge political divide
The Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition (HIPCC), being held for the first time in three years after abandonment to Covid-19 restrictions in 2021, opened on 24 February, the same day…
Art Diary
Ivory Tinkling The Hastings International Piano Competition is running at the White Rock Theatre until March 5th. The promoters say that it has quietly become one of the most prestigious…
Storytelling Festival emerges from the Zoomiverse
Hastings Storytelling Festival is back in the physical world this October with stories for all ages: it will be popping up in libraries, parks, cinemas, theatres, schools, pubs, halls and…
REVIEW: More than Revolting Children
White Rock Theatre’s Summer Youth Project returned last month for the first time since 2019 with ‘Matilda the Musical Jr.’ Ben Cornwell watched the opening night. I know Roald Dahl’s…
Matilda Junior Set to Rock Hastings
By Ben Cornwell The White Rock Theatre’s Summer Youth Project is back for its eighteenth production. This year the local theatre group will be performing a junior production of the…
Cockroach from the Ashes
By Patrick Kealey – artistic director of Theatre Nation What does a rapidly emerging Hastings theatre company do when Covid stops it dead in its tracks? Forced, last Spring, to…
Culture Recovery Fund Round 2
Music, arts and theatre venues across the country are due to hear by the end of this month whether they will receive grants under Round 2 of the Arts Council…
Hastings Musical Festival is going Virtual!
By Jenny Griffiths Hastings Musical Festival has been going since 1908 – that’s 112 years! We are certainly not going to let Covid defeat us. However, because of the ongoing…
Paying The Piper
Arts Council England (ACE) has announced funding awards totalling £257 million for 1,385 venues, theatres, museums and cultural organisations across the ; The awards are administered by ACE on behalf…
Arts Diary
Glitterbug A fundraiser screening of Derek Jarman’s Glitterbug – a lovingly compiled montage of Jarman’s Super 8 footage fused with a multitextured Brian Eno score, posthumously assembled by his friends.…
Umbrella Parade and Preservation Sunday
Families and Mardis Gras revellers are invited to join the parade on 23rd February! Muster at the Stade by and the procession will then depart at midday and head to…
Bringing Waiting For Godot To The White Rock Theatre
By Tom Daldry I asked a friend of mine if he’d come and see our production of Waiting for Godot. “I’ve seen it once. Never again,” he said. I asked…
Getting Creative With Careers Advice
Culture Shift is a local organisation with a fresh approach to careers advice through its Creative Café careers programme. Set up by Culture Shift in 2012 to bring creative professionals…
Lost Words Trail
By Alan Bolwell Families in Hastings are encouraged to get outside and practise their communication and literacy skills this summer with a new Lost Words Trail around the town. As…