Beach Hut Theatre Company Archive
Founded by Alison Watt and John Pattison in 2007, Beach Hut Theatre Company was based in Scarborough and produced site-specific, innovative and exciting plays, musicals and multimedia events. In 2022 they celebrated their 15th anniversary. Their final production, a showcase of new writing, was performed in January 2023.
This website represents the full Beach Hut Theatre Company archive of productions and showcases produced between 2007 and 2023.
Alison Watt has had plays produced by Hull Truck Theatre Company and The Stephen Joseph Theatre and has written many episodes of EastEnders and Crossroads. Alison is a passionate champion of new writing. Under her leadership as Artistic Director, Beach Hut Theatre produced over 110 plays since its inception in 2007.
Alison was one of the winners of the 2016 Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) Olwen Wymark Theatre Encouragement Awards. This award was set up to give Writers Guild of Great Britain members the opportunity to publicly thank those who had given them a positive experience in new writing over the previous year.
John Pattison has written musicals in the past with Alan Ayckbourn and John Godber and has composed scores for many of Ayckbourn’s West End productions and worked as Musical Director at The Royal National Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company. He has also composed scores for Alain Resnais' SMOKING and NO SMOKING movies, winners of 5 Cesar Awards and 1st Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Together Alison and John wrote the successful musicals ‘Summer’s Edge’, ‘SnOwQuEeN’, ‘The Tenants of Wuthering Eyre’ and ‘The Curse of the Smuggler’s Run’ for Beach Hut Theatre Company.
Over the course of 15 years, Beach Hut Theatre Company presented over 20 original full length plays and 12 original musicals. The company also presented over 180 community-written and performed short plays, either as project specific productions or as rehearsed script-in-hand showcases. Most of the plays were dramaturged by Artistic Director Alison Watt.
Beach Hut Theatre Company also worked with 20 set and costume designers, over 500 community actors, 40 community musicians, 200 stage managers, lighting/sound technicians, 150 stewards, marshals and front of house personnel.
From 2007, the company presented many of these productions at its home in Scarborough Library in North Yorkshire (where it became the library’s resident theatre company between 2018 and 2023). Beach Hut also performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Westwood Theatre in the Round, Scarborough Spa and Woodend Creative Space. Beach Hut also presented site-specific performances in Scarborough at the Rotunda Museum, Market Hall, Market Vaults, St. Nicholas Gardens, The Shuttleworth Gardens, South Bay Beach, The Old Parcels Office, The Palm Court Hotel underground car park and most of the public green spaces in the town centre. The company also toured to venues in Pickering, Filey, Malton and York.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years and to everyone who took part, either as creatives or as audiences. You helped make Beach Hut such a joyful and rewarding experience - we could not have done it without you.
Key personnel and former Beach Hut Company CIO Trustees: Artistic Director: Alison Watt, Associate Director: John Pattison, Executive Director: Michelle Watts, Artistic Associate: Paul Beck, Artistic Associate: Lisa Ponter, Artistic Associate: Kate Woodward-Hay.