“None the less given the initiatives and strategies that have come and gone, there is a danger of the initiative playing itself out as a metaphor. All chat aside, it does need to be explicitly stated that an essential part of Eclipse Theatre’s purpose is through theatre, to combat racism, a deeply insidious facet of society which exists within theatre as much as anywhere else.”

Tyrone Huggins, “The Eclipse Theatre Story”, 2006

Eclipse theatre began in 2003 as an ACE initiative in agreement with a consortium of regional theatres. The project aimed to address the absence of Black Theatre on the regional middle-scale touring network and quickly proved to have an impact. Since the appointment of its first Artistic Director, Dawn Walton, in 2008, eclipse theatre has grown in confidence in its ability to create high quality work from a Black British perspective that not only engages a regular theatre going audience, but also attracts a new audiences.

eclipse theatre has toured:  Moon on a Rainbow Shawl by Errol John, Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht, adapted by Oladipo Agboluaje, Little Sweet Thing by Roy Williams, Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Mustapha Matura, Angel House by Roy Williams, (nominated for Best Actress in a visiting production – MEN awards) The Hounding of David Oluwale by Kester Aspden, adapted by Oladipo Agboluaje (nominated for Best Director TMA awards) SUS by Barrie Keeffe (co-production with Young Vic). eclipse theatre also developed and produced Michael X by Vanessa Walters and starring Clint Dyer.

These productions have been seen by nearly 100,000 audience members with an average 29% new audience bookings per production.

During 2009/2010, after a period of consultation, the eclipse theatre initiative developed into a fully constituted arts organisation with a board of trustees, and is now known as Eclipse Theatre Company Ltd and has moved to a permanent home in the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

In March 2011 Eclipse Theatre Company Ltd was confirmed as a National Portfolio Funded Organisation

On hearing the news Artistic Director, Dawn Walton said:

“We are delighted that Eclipse Theatre Company has been awarded National Portfolio status and extremely proud that the quality and breadth of our work has been recognised by Arts Council England. The work which Eclipse produces aims to place diversity at the core of regional theatre programming and makes an invaluable contribution to the cultural landscape of the UK. From its home in Sheffield Theatres, Eclipse will go on producing work which tours to mid-scale venues across the country, supported by our unique audience development programme.”