At the approach to Peebles High Street, The Eastgate Theatre is the busiest arts venue in the Scottish Borders, staging more than 200 events and performances every year as well as a range of weekly creative classes. An independent venue, it provides a rich and varied year-round programme of performances, films, exhibitions, talks and creative activities, attracting people of all ages and backgrounds from across the Borders and beyond. As well as being a vibrant creative centre for the local community, this touring venue plays a crucial part in the artistic and creative life of Scotland.
Originally a church, the creation of the theatre resulted from a desire by the local community to establish a creative space. By the early 2000s they had lobbied and started a huge fundraising drive to transform the existing Eastgate community hall into a professional arts centre. Award-winning architect Richard Murphy was appointed, the building opened in spring 2004 and, shortly afterwards, was nominated as a finalist for the BBC design awards. The imposing former church is on the edge of the town’s High Street, with a large, free car park a couple of minutes walk from the front door.
It has two performance spaces: The auditorium on the first floor is the main space and can be set up as a traditional raked theatre space with 200+ seats, as a mixed space with partially retracted theatre seats plus tables and chairs in a cabaret style, or as a clear space for dancing or workshops.
The other creative space is the ground floor Anne Younger Studio. This adaptable space is in use every day for classes, workshops, rehearsals and meetings, and often displays exhibitions by artists from the Scottish Borders and further afield.
At the heart of the ground floor is the welcoming Eastgate cafe bar. The café is open from 10am every day (except Sundays) serving a selection of coffees, teas and cold drinks as well as scrumptious cakes and mouth-watering bacon rolls. At lunchtime it majors on soup and sandwiches, paninis and toasties and in the evening offers a wide selection of local beers, wines and spirits as well as non-alcoholic drinks.
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