When the Georgian Theatre opened in 1766, English provincial theatre was a touring trade. Companies of actors moved between towns on established circuits, carrying their wardrobes and scenery. The northern circuit served Newcastle, Durham, York, and the Tees Valley towns including Stockton, with smaller venues like this one filled in between the larger Theatre Royals. The Georgian Theatre in Stockton is now one of the oldest surviving Georgian provincial theatres in the country, alongside Bath, Norwich, and Wisbech. The oldest in original working form is the Theatre Royal in Richmond, Yorkshire, about thirty miles south-west. The Stockton building's gabled roof, pantiles, and cobbled approach passage are all still recognisably the original eighteenth-century work.

Sometime in the nineteenth century the theatre fell into disuse, presumably because the touring circuits shifted or the venue became unprofitable. It was converted into a sweet factory and remained one until the late 1950s. The detail is almost too good to invent: a Georgian theatre with its tiered seating and stage-end cottage where actors once retired between scenes, now full of vats and conveyor belts producing confectionery for the working population of industrial Teesside. The building was acquired by the local council in the 1960s and refurbished, reopening in 1980 as a community building. For a while it was more of an historic monument than a working venue. In 1993 it was handed over to the Stockton Music & Arts Collective, which has since become part of the Tees Music Alliance.

A major refurbishment in 2007 brought the building back as a working music venue. Crumbling internal walls were cleaned up, new toilets and dressing rooms were built, an efficient heating system replaced the old, and a bar area was created. The following year brought exterior improvements, new lighting and signage, and environmental work on the wider Green Dragon Yard area that the theatre sits within. The capacity is now 200 standing. The interior is unpretentious, intimate, and rough in a way that suits live music. The Tees Music Alliance programs it heavily with local artists, and it also hosts the Stockton Weekender, a large outdoor music festival run in the town each summer.

The roll call of performers reads like a guide to the last two decades of British and indie music. Arctic Monkeys played here before they were Arctic Monkeys, when they were still hauling their gear into northern provincial venues for fifty quid a night. Sam Fender, North Tyneside born, played here on the way up. Self Esteem, the Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets, the Maccabees, Glasvegas, the Kooks, James Blunt, the Wedding Present, English Teacher, and Sea Power have all performed. So has Chrissie Hynde, founder of the Pretenders, and Martha and the Vandellas from the Motown era. So has John Cooper Clarke, the punk-era poet. The cobbled passage outside has carried more denim and amplifiers in the past twenty years than the original eighteenth-century theatre managers could have imagined.

The Georgian Theatre is at 54.56 N, 1.31 W in Stockton-on-Tees town centre, in the Cultural Quarter centred on Green Dragon Yard. From the air, the venue is just one small building among the dense town centre, and is best located by reference to the River Tees, which loops west and then north past the centre. Stockton lies on the river's east bank. The Transporter Bridge sits a few miles east in Middlesbrough. Teesside International Airport (EGNV) is about 8 miles south-west, closer than to any other site in this batch. Best viewing of Stockton centre is from 1,500 to 2,500 feet AGL, ideally with the late afternoon sun behind you picking up the Tees.