The first record of a theatre at Stourbridge come's from Aris's Birmingham Gazette of 1752, with the announcement that the playhouse 'would shortly be open by Mr Ward'. This was the grandfather of Sarah Siddons, of the Ward Company of Comedians that played at Worcester, and on the West Midland circuit. Called The Theatre, it stood on a site near the Bell Inn Yard in Bell Street. It was more substantial than the barn playhouse at Worcester, but the accommodation and the stage seems to have been similar, both having apron stages though hardly more than six feet square.
