The Company was formed to provide a place in Barrow-in-Furness for people, especially young people, to come and make original, new drama based on their own ideas, through improvising, playing, writing and generally messing around. As part of the original Company, we ran Barrow Youth Theatre, which over the years involved hundreds of young Barrow people. 

In 2020 we changed our name to Theatre Factory because it was much easier for everyone to remember and ‘does what it says on the tin’. 

Theatre Factory has been based in many different buildings around Barrow, but finally we came to rest in the Cooke’s Arts and Media Centre next door to the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel, where we have a fully equipped theatre studio and room to act, improvise, make things, move around, puppet, bang drums, animate, perform and film. Hundreds of Barrow people have been involved with us over the years, some for fun, some to learn and some for work. After several years of being a one-woman band the company now has a core team of 5, and every year we work with a wide range of Freelance Artists from all over the country. You can meet us on the ‘Team’ page.

Theatre Factory works in many forms: theatre (indoors, outdoors and online), animation, writing, digital and sound. We make stories in collaboration with children, young people and the occasional adult. Their ideas, your ideas, are at the heart of everything we do. We share those stories locally and regionally from our home in Barrow-in-Furness. You can read about this in Projects.

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Our work starts in the community, moves up through Youth Theatre and on into professional practice. A big part of our role is to nurture emerging local Artists, to help them to develop careers in the Creative Industries. The Company has assisted a growing number of young people to enter the Performing Arts Industry. Have a look at the Apprentices, Community Influencers and Gen Z Artists pages in Projects to read more about how we do that.

However, Theatre Factory is more than a Theatre Company. 

We are interested in how the Performing and Associated Arts can help people and communities grow stronger. So we work closely with other organisations in Barrow whose work shares similar aims to ours. We add our skills to theirs to help our community to thrive. You can read about these partnerships in Theatre Factory Community under the Projects tab

In short, we work with people to build resilience and happiness for all. We hope that you enjoy the website and find it interesting. Check out the Events tab and come and see us soon.