Announcing our pop-up theatre!

The Mill Arts Centre announces temporary pop-up theatre at Woodgreen Leisure Centre

As you may be aware, our auditorium has sadly been out of action for the last few weeks due to recently discovered water damage, meaning that unfortunately we have had to make other arrangements to reschedule, relocate or cancel our programme of live performances until 14^th April 2024.

As we shared last week, over time further inspections have revealed that more extensive works are required, not only to fix the damage to the auditorium floor but to future-proof against the issue happening again. We are grateful for the support of our landlords Oxfordshire County Council whose insurers are progressing the repairs, and we are working with them to ensure the repairs are completed as soon as possible. In the meantime, we now have an exciting new update to share which enables us to continue our programme of live performances during this time.

We are delighted to announce that we will be launching a full professional pop-up theatre at Woodgreen Leisure Centre in Banbury from 25^th April until 30^th June, enabling us to continue our programme of live performances. We will transform the Leisure Centre’s vast indoor bowls hall into a dedicated purpose-built space for magical live performances to take place, with full professional staging, sound and lighting, an extensive bar offer and free parking onsite at Woodgreen.

We are immensely grateful to the Woodgreen team and Cherwell District Council for their support in making this possible, and we expect to be able to transfer the vast majority of our programme of live events across to “The Mill at Woodgreen” from 25^th April until 30^th June. Currently all events from 1^st July onwards are scheduled to take place at The Mill.

Our Box Office team will contact ticket holders as soon as possible to confirm arrangements for each individual performance, and updates will be shared on our website and social media. Meanwhile, despite the challenges with the auditorium floor, we are pleased that the rest of our building remains open, including our Café Bar and our programme of creative classes and workshops taking place throughout the building.

Live performance is our lifeblood, and while we are of course disappointed that the auditorium floor repairs will take longer than initially expected, we are delighted to have found a solution to continue welcoming audiences to see live performances. We hope you will consider supporting us by coming to see a performance at The Mill at Woodgreen or booking ahead for a performance at The Mill later in the year, and we look forward to welcoming you back to The Mill very soon.

Emma Hiorns, Creative Director at The Mill Arts Centre, said:

“We are enormously grateful for the patience and support of our audiences whilst our team are undertaking the mammoth task of creating a full professional pop-up theatre in Woodgreen Leisure Centre. Our auditorium may be temporarily out of action, but we are thrilled to be able to go ahead with as many performances as possible at The Mill at Woodgreen and keep bringing world-class live performance to Banbury. Furthermore we are working closely with our landlords to ensure that we have the auditorium back up and running so we can welcome audiences back through our doors and enjoying live performance at The Mill again just as soon as possible.”