Story of battle to build Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre wins Theatre Book Prize 2022

A study of how the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield was built has been awarded the Society for Theatre Researcher’s 2022 Theatre Book Prize.

Stirring up Sheffield: An Insider’s Account of the Battle to Build the Crucible Theatre (Wordville) by its first artistic director Colin George and his son Tedd was hailed as “a stirring story of our times” by judge Jatinder Verma. 

With a foreword by Sir Ian McKellan, the book follows a group of visionaries who came together to build the theatre. The radical design they proposed for the auditorium—which redefined the actor/audience relationship—aroused fierce opposition from Sheffield’s conservative quarters and several of the era’s theatrical luminaries, the synopsis continues. But it also galvanised a new generation of Britain’s actors, directors, designers and playwrights who launched a passionate defence of the thrust stage and its theatrical potential.

Verma, a British theatre director and activist who co-founded the British Asian theatre company Tara Arts in 1977, said: “Colin and Tedd George recall the remarkable adventure that became the creation of the revolutionary new Sheffield Crucible Theatre. 

“Their story is replete with the bureaucratic and artistic opposition aroused by the radical design Colin George proposed for the theatre, while revelling in the excitement of giving a new shape to the physical relationship between audiences and artists. How a seemingly unassuming director of a regional theatre led the creation of the visionary stage that is the Sheffield Crucible— leaving an iconic legacy in his wake— is a stirring story for our times.”

Also on the judging panel was National Theatre archivist Erin Lee, theatre critic Paul Vale and STR committee member and chair of judges Howard Loxton.

The winner was selected from a shortlist featuring Eileen Atkins’ Will She Do? Act One of a Life on Stage (Virago), Stephen Bourne’s Deep Are the Roots: Trailblazers Who Changed Black British Theatre (History Press), David Bratchpiece and Kirstin Innes’ Brickwork: A Biography of the Arches (Salamander Street), Dan Hutton’s Towards a Civic Theatre (Salamander Street) and David Storey’s A Stinging Delight: A Memoir (Faber)

In his acceptance speech Tedd George, who edited and completed the material begun by his father Colin, said: “Few people know nowadays that the Crucible’s thrust stage design [that typically extends into the audience on three sides]  aroused concern, confusion even anger and that the theatre was built against huge opposition. 

“My father struggled for nearly 40 years to write about his experience of this enterprise to build a radical thrust stage in Sheffield. From writing the first manuscript I think he was able to come to terms with his creation and once again feel gratitude for the opportunity Sheffield had given him."

This year marks the 24th STR Theatre Book Prize, which was established in 1998 to celebrate the society’s Golden Jubilee. The aim of the prize is to encourage the writing and publication of books on British-related theatre history and practice.