Orange Tree Theatre
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| Address | 1 Clarence Street, Richmond, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames  United Kingdom
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| Coordinates | 51°30′08″N 0°23′15″W / 51.5022°N 0.3875°W |
| Type | Fringe theatre |
| Capacity | 172 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1971 (in previous venue) |
| Rebuilt | 1991 |
| Years active | 1971–present |
| Architect | believed to be Arthur Blomfield (original 1867 building) |
| Website | |
| www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk | |
The Orange Tree Theatre is a 172-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south west London, which was built specifically as a theatre in the round. It is housed within a disused 1867 primary school, built in Victorian Gothic style.
The theatre was founded in 1971 by its previous artistic director, Sam Walters, and his actress wife Auriol Smith in a small room above the Orange Tree pub opposite the present building, which opened in 1991.
Paul Miller, previously associate director at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, is the artistic director. He succeeded Walters, the UK's longest-serving theatre director, who retired from the Orange Tree Theatre in June 2014.
The Orange Tree Theatre specialises in staging new plays and neglected classics. It has a community and education programme that reaches over 20,000 young people every year.
The theatre won the Empty Space Peter Brook Award in 2006 and 2015.
As a company the Orange Tree Theatre, then known as the Richmond Fringe, was founded on 31 December 1971 by Sam Walters and Auriol Smith in a small room above The Orange Tree pub, close to Richmond railway station.
Six former church pews, arranged around the performing area, were used to seat an audience of up to 80 in number.
Initially productions were staged in daylight and at lunchtimes. But when theatre lighting and window-blinds were installed, matinee and evening performances of full-length plays also became possible. The London critics regularly reviewed its productions and the venue gained a reputation for quality and innovation, with theatregoers queuing on the stairs, waiting to purchase tickets.
As audience numbers increased there was pressure to find a more accommodating space, both front and backstage. On 14 February 1991, the company opened its first production across the road in the current premises, the new Orange Tree Theatre. The theatre is housed within a converted primary school, St John's, which had been built in 1867 and had become derelict; the school was in Victorian Gothic style and the architect is likely to have been Arthur Blomfield.
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