Playbox Theatre celebrates 40 years of ongoing evolution
From a hotel room in Leek Wootton to the Dream Factory — four decades of theatre exclusively for young people
In September 1986 Mary King created Playbox Theatre in a hotel room in Leek Wootton, Warwickshire. Always designed to be unique in being a young people’s theatre, exclusively for them from very young to early twenties. By 1988 performing in Warwick and Kenilworth, by 1989 Balsall Common, the same year Stewart McGill joined as Director. Patron Michael Bogdanov joined in 1986.
In 1999 the expanding company created The Dream Factory, a purpose-built Creation and Development Centre in Warwick including a theatre for young people — the UK's first — opened by RSC Artistic Director Adrian Noble and Sir Ben Kingsley. Now in 2026 the company continues to evolve with 500,000+ young people having taken part in the journey. Playbox continues to have pivotal satellites in Stratford-upon-Avon and Kenilworth, and new vital relationships including a return to Tokyo in 2027.
For the 2026/27 season, Playbox’s 2026/27 Season opener, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is already selling out. This runs from 24 – 27 September 2026. Directed by Juliet Vankey. Music Director: Richard Norris.
As the leaves begin to fall, a modern demigod discovers ancient powers and dangerous secrets on a quest to stop a war of the gods. A thrilling, family-friendly adventure bringing modern mythology to exuberant life.
This ensemble production represents the popular musical of today and follows in a long line of landmark Playbox musicals including The Who's Tommy, The Addams Family, Cabaret and The Boy Friend.
Why Percy Jackson? Why now?
Based on Rick Riordan's best-selling series (often called 'Harry Potter lite' with 100M+ readers), the musical has become the gateway musical for a generation who might never have gone to live theatre.
Music & Style: A thrilling original rock score - PopRock / Contemporary Musical Theatre. Equal parts raucous rock musical, witty teen drama and adventure story for all ages. Loud, funny, fast-paced, wonderfully imaginative and described as a true family-pleaser where roars of adult laughter compete with children's squeals of delight. Songs include 'Good Kid', 'Strong', 'My Grand Plan' and disco-inspired 'D.O.A.' - mixing power ballads about recognising potential and owning intelligence with comedy and rock anthems.
Why it's huge with young people: At every tour stop, audiences fill with Camp Half-Blood orange t-shirts, fans lining up at the stage door. It reclaims ADHD and dyslexia as clues to being a half-blood, where outsiders find belonging. It celebrates imagination over big-budget effects - scaffolding, columns and inventive staging become worlds. Many in the audience are taking their first foray into live theatre.
Perfect For Playbox At 40 From a hotel room in Leek Wootton in 1986 to The Dream Factory (UK's first purpose-built young people's theatre, opened 1999 by Adrian Noble and Sir Ben Kingsley), Playbox has always been unique - a theatre exclusively for young people. Now with 500,000+ young people worked with, satellites in Stratford-upon-Avon and Kenilworth, and a return to Tokyo in 2027, Percy Jackson embodies that ongoing evolution: large-scale, imaginative, music-driven, ensemble storytelling carried entirely by young people.
The Season continues: October 2026 — The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe.
A rare staging of Marlowe's incendiary masterpiece. Playbox's tradition of trusting young actors with major classical texts.
December 2026 — Peter Pan
For Christmas a newly imagined revival of the company's hugely successful Peter Pan.
PLUS: Expansive programme of workshops, arts focus events, professional training, voice, musical theatre and technical programmes. Satellites in Stratford-upon-Avon and Kenilworth. Full 40th celebrations to be revealed in due course.
For tickets and more details: www.playboxtheatre.com
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