and the theatre was wired for electric light. The Theatre Royal reopened on 31 October 1900 with a performance of Florodora. However, it burnt down on 18 February 1908 with only a small section of the auditorium surviving. Second Theatre Royal, 1910 The rebuilt Theatre Royal opened on 13 December 1910. Built for Sir William Shipley and Captain Reginald Shipley, it was designed by Frank Verity, the son of the theatre architect Thomas Verity.The new theatre's facade was designed in the early English Renaissance style. The auditorium could seat 850 people: 164 in the stalls; 110 in the dress circle; 130 in the upper circle, and 380 in the gallery. In 1921 Sir William Shipley leased the theatre to a Mr Collins and Jack Gladwin; but when Collins died Gladwin became the sole lessee and launched a successful scheme to accommodate touring companies of every kind. The arrival of talking pictures affected theatre attendance numbers severely and in about 1929 Jack Gladwin converted the Theatre Royal into a cinema. In 1930 John Counsell served as an apprentice at the Theatre Royal when it reopened as a theatre. In 1933 he took over managing the theatre; the venture lasted only a few months before it went bankrupt, but the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended one of the last performances, coming from nearby Windsor Castle. Counsell re-opened the theatre in 1938 and was able to establish a viable company that ran without government subsidies. He and his actress wife Mary Kerridge ran the theatre until his retirement in 1986, the year before his death. In 1965 the theatre received a major refurbishment and redecoration at a cost in excess of £75,000 undertaken by Carl Toms with the assistance of Sir Anthony Denny, who had been a member of Frank Verity's company, the original architect of the theatre in 1910. Under the management of John Counsell the theatre ran a weekly repertory schedule, changing to fortnightly in the late 1950s and with three-week productions becoming more prevalent in 1963-64. Today the theatre is usually a venue for touring productions, but in addition it produces summer repertory seasons that usually run for about three weeks. The theatre also features an annual pantomime performed in traditional style. The Theatre Royal in Windsor is a Grade II listed building and since 1997 has been managed by Bill Kenwright, who performed at the theatre