Venue: Orange Tree Theatre
Address: 1 Clarence Street, London, Richmond, TW9 2SA, England
Town: London, GB
Capacity: 180

The Orange Tree Theatre is a 180-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in southwest London, which was built specifically as a theatre in the round. It is housed within a disused 1867 primary school, built in Victorian Gothic style. The theatre was founded in 1971 by its first artistic director, Sam Walters, and his actress wife Auriol Smith in a small room above the Orange Tree pub opposite the present building, which opened in 1991. Walters, the UK's longest-serving theatre director, retired from the Orange Tree Theatre in June 2014 and was succeeded as artistic director by Paul Miller, previously associate director at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Tom Littler, previously artistic director at the Jermyn Street Theatre, took over from Miller in December 2022. The Orange Tree Theatre specialises in staging new plays and rediscovering classics. It has an education and participation programme that reaches over 10,000 people every year. Since 2014 the theatre has won ten Offies, five UK Theatre Awards and the Alfred Fagon Audience Award. It won the Empty Space Peter Brook Award in 2006 and 2015. As a company the Orange Tree Theatre, then known as the Richmond Fringe, was founded on 31 December 1971 by Sam Walters and Auriol Smith in a small room above The Orange Tree pub, close to Richmond railway station. Six former church pews, arranged around the performing area, were used to seat an audience of up to 80 in number. Initially productions were staged in daylight and at lunchtimes. However, when theatre lighting and window-blinds were installed, matinee and evening performances of full-length plays also became possible. The London critics regularly reviewed its productions and the venue gained a reputation for quality and innovation, with theatregoers queuing on the stairs, waiting to purchase tickets. As audience numbers increased there was pressure to find a more accommodating space, both front and backstage. On 14 February 1991, the company opened its firs