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Conference 09 Report
Experiencing Theatres
9 June 2009
Protecting theatres for everyone
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Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
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Conference 09 Report
Experiencing Theatres
Contents
Mhora Samuel Director, The Theatres Trust................ David Benedict Conference 09 Chair........................... Introduction.......................................................................... Transformation.................................................................... Consultation........................................................................ Conference Address......................................................... Hosting.................................................................................. Influencing............................................................................ Audience Design Principles........................................... Attenders.............................................................................. Conference Chairs
David Benedict
Andrew Dickson
Bonnie Greer
John E McGrath Artistic Director, National Theatre Wales
Contributors
Rt Hon Barbara Follett MP Minister for Culture, Creative Industries & Tourism
Vikki Heywood Executive Director, Royal Shakespeare Company
Tom Piper Associate Designer, Royal Shakespeare Company
Dominic Fraser Production Manager, The Old Vic
Chris Honer Artistic Director, Manchester Library Theatre Company
Emma Rice Artistic Director, Kneehigh Theatre
Christina Seilern Principal, Studio Seilern Architects LLP
Ruth Eastwood Chief Executive, Leicester Theatre Trust
Selene Burn Community Engagement Officer, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Steve Ball Associate Director, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Matt Little Co-Director, Real Ideas Organisation CIC
Keith Williams Director, Keith Williams Architects
Rob Dickins CBE Chairman, The Theatres Trust
Adam Kenwright Managing Director, aka
Morag Myerscough Director, Studio Myerscough
Leonie Wallace Head of Visitor Services, Wales Millennium Centre
John Botteley Theatre Director, Grand Opera House, Belfast
Nicky & Lee Caulfield Save Waltham Forest Theatre
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
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Colin Blumenau Artistic Director, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds
Jenny Sealey MBE Artistic Director/CEO, Graeae Theatre
Steve Tompkins Director, Haworth Tompkins
Conference 09 Reporter
Jonathan Meth Executive Director, Theatre Is…
Conference 09 Photographer
Edward Webb
Conference 09 Production Manager
Petrus Bertschinger
Conference 09 Development Consultant
Caz Williamson
Theatres Trust Conference 09 Staff
Mhora Samuel Director
Suzanne McDougall Assistant to the Director
Kate Carmichael Resources Officer
Damian Le Sueur Website & Design Creative
Fran Birch Records Officer
Paul Connolly Administrator
Mark Price Architecture and Planning Adviser
Rose Freeman Planning Assistant
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Mhora Samuel
Director, The Theatres Trust
Theatres attract audiences by providing
live theatre and entertainment experiences
that appeal and stir the emotions. As a
consequence theatres become part of
individual and collective memories and shape
individuals’ lives, long after the experience
of a particular show or performer is over.
Theatres are places where we live those
experiences and where we recall those special
memories; triggered by passing the outside of
a building, remembering what it was like to
sit in a particular seat, or the emotions shared
with the people we were with, the actors on
stage, and the theatre staff who looked after us.
We discovered at this year’s conference that
it’s this social capital that ensures theatres
punch above their weight in the influence
they have on our lives. We looked at the
responsibility theatre designers have for
delivering this social capital and ensuring
access through enabling respect. And we
discovered how the ongoing process of
theatre design and the facilities offered by
a theatre are integral to audience loyalty
and development. Throughout the day
contributors and attenders eloquently
talked of the importance of engaging with
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and listening to audiences. My thanks go
to the many contributors and sponsors, the
Unicorn, conference staff, and volunteers
who helped make the conference happen.
We also returned to the ways in which
we engage with audiences, pull them into
the process of improving the theatres
experience, and the importance of
ongoing conversations to inform and
manage expectations, and having those
conversations with young people.
So, for Conference 2010, Designing School
Theatres, we want to take this design
conversation into the area of education. It
will take place slightly earlier in the year
on the 26 April 2010 in Leeds, and look at
the design of theatres co-located or within
schools, colleges and higher education
institutions; the challenges of designing
theatres that feel and work like theatres
whilst also serving a range of educational,
learning and community needs; their
relationship to other theatres in their cities
and towns; and the role they play in shaping
the next generation of theatre activists,
artists and audiences.
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
David Benedict
Conference 09 Chair
It’s good to talk…
I opened the Trust’s Conference 09 by saying
that the day was about sharing information
and inspiring each other, and reminding us
all of two quotes. From Richard Eyre: ‘Theatre
is an art form which can never dissolve the
scale of the human figure, the sound of the
human voice, and our desire to tell each other
stories’. And from playwright Bryony Lavery:
‘Theatre is about everybody breathing the
same air, so they have the same experience,
at the same time. A play is called a play
because it’s a divine game between you and
the audience, played out with actors’. Those
quotes emphasise the same thing: whether it’s
an intimate drama in a black box studio, or the
grand passions of opera on a vast lyric stage,
theatre is about human interaction.
Building a theatre is, at root, about creating
a space where narratives are shared.
Throughout the day, we kept returning to
the role of the audience and the inescapable
fact that with regard to the design and build
of a theatre, the audience cannot simply be
an add-on. They are not simply spectators.
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
Theatre is a two-way communication and
this must be the guiding design principle.
The creation of the most fully energised
spaces and buildings can only be achieved
via a truly collaborative process between
the architect, the artist and the audience.
We had more than our share of inspiring
moments, from Nicky and Lee Caulfield’s
passion for saving their theatre in
Waltham Forest, to Ruth Eastwood’s true
commitment to her audiences at the Curve,
to Vikki Heywood’s vision for the RSC to
perform in a theatre that physically reaches
out into its audience.
What became strikingly clear was that
theatre design needs to be more sensitive
to audiences’ expectations. Factoring in
enough time to build upon a properly
developed understanding of the subtle
relationship between a theatre’s purpose
and its audiences is crucial. We can – and
must – be better at engaging with and
listening to audiences. That dialogue is a
defining element of the story and an abiding
influence on good design.
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Introduction
Theatre makers, architects, designers, chief
executives, impresarios, industry specialists
and young activists came together at The
Unicorn Theatre in London in June 2009
to explore different approaches to theatre
architecture and design, and how these
approaches affect and involve audiences.
The day was shaped around four
conversations: transformation, consultation,
hosting and influencing, punctuated at the
mid point by our conference address from
Barbara Follett.
This doesn’t mean that we are all now
specialists, rather that architects, theatre
makers and audiences come together to
negotiate the space. The building process
becomes a conversation. A conversation which
continues and evolves long after the building
is (re)opened. That young people are crucial to
this process permeated the day, from the live
passionate conviction of Waltham Forest’s Lee
and Nicky Caulfield to the articulate two young
consultants, Cleo Olukane and Charlie Taylor
from the Unicorn on film.
This report offers selected highlights
from the impressive array of speakers and
the lively engagement arising from their
high quality and diverse presentations. It
concludes with a number of audience design
principles drawn from the day.
The Conference acknowledged that the
process of commissioning and procuring
buildings is something which can all too easily
derail this conversation. But can we take
the opportunity to go beyond the minimum?
So when everyone wants to go the toilet at
the same time, in the West End 68% of them
women, they can. When hosting a group of
disabled people, who have varying individual
needs, but might also want to experience
theatres as a group, they can. Let’s move the
horizon beyond basic level compliance.
Through successive generations coming
anew to buildings, audiences shape the
history of theatres. The recent shift in the
perception of the place of audiences within
the design process is akin to the shift online
from a www 1.0 world to a 2.0 one: specialists
provide content and gatekeepers control,
shifts to the experience being co-created.
It’s well worth our collective investment. As
Theatres Trust Chair Rob Dickins said, “We
must make the experience better, but let’s
not think that that’s going to make or break
it. Because we have the one experience
that people cannot get. They can download
computer games, they can download almost
anything - except live music and live theatre”.
We were guided effortlessly through the day
by Conference chair David Benedict, who
was ably supported by session chairs Andrew
Dickson, Bonnie Greer and John E. McGrath.
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Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
David Benedict asked five leading
theatre practitioners to consider how
auditoria designs affect audiences and
audience development
Chair, David Benedict
Vikki Heywood
Executive Director, Royal Shakespeare Company
Tom Piper
Associate Designer, Royal Shakespeare Company
Dominic Fraser
Production Manager, The Old Vic
Chris Honer
Artistic Director, Manchester Library Theatre Company
Emma Rice
Artistic Director, Kneehigh Theatre
Transformation
Intimacy
Vikki Heywood talked about the proportions of intimacy in
relation to the RSC’s Courtyard and new Royal Shakespeare
Theatre space: the RSC had quantified 1,050 seats as its limit.
She spoke of ”a democratic theatre” and then contrasted “an
endlessly flexible space” with a “thrust design for audiences
and actors to share the same space”, and set one of the central
questions for the day: does real engagement with audience
come through a flexible, mutable space which might also be
neutral – or from a signature design which will need to stand the
renegotiation of several different generations of audience?
“Good seats are not always where the audience expects”,
Heywood reminded us - which foreshadowed Emma Rice’s
subsequent assertion that “people will tell you what they think
they want, which is not necessarily what they actually want…”
Tom Piper gave us a more visual index of intimacy by contrasting
photographs taken of the relative sizes of the RST stage space
to that of the audience space: from 15% in the old theatre to
45% in the new.
Attachment to the design, the building or the idea of the
building?
Testing emerged as another important recurrent theme for the
day. Piper cited Charcoalblue and their virtual modelling tools for
such facets as the sightlines of individual seats.
“The Swan Theatre has a huge personality. But
when we looked at our audience surveys it
actually came out quite badly on things like
sightlines and seat comfort, yet somehow it is the
theatre that people love the most… And so I
think one of the things that we’ve learnt from the
theatre architecture of the 50s and 60s is that
actually comfort, good sightlines and all of those
things, aren’t necessarily what make great
theatre spaces…. I think more and more people
are engaging with buildings with personality.”
Tom Piper
Dominic Fraser gave us a very detailed account of the
transformation of the Old Vic in just three weeks in August/
September 2008 for their ‘In The Round ‘Project: taking out the
circle and stalls boxes, resulting in the upper circle being much
less distant, the slip seats having better sightlines and the stalls
opened up. The three minute time lapse film demonstrated the
invention and scale of the transformation into the CQS space.
Fraser also explained that some things did not emerge until the
public arrived: the accessibility of the seating in relation to the
ages of the audience and the need for acoustic enhancement.
The need for real people in the mix was unequivocal.
Chris Honer has been on a 10 year journey – and still has a
way to go. The Library Theatre in Manchester is part of the
local authority: it has no Trust, no board and Chris reports
directly to the Assistant Chief Executive of Manchester
City Council. Despite all the limitations of space, facilities
and public access, Honer feels its saving grace is that The
Library is a great place to watch a play. Over the last decade
successive consultants have been brought in to consult and
make recommendations, often as part of a wider programme
of changes to the Library itself. Honer realised that they
needed a group of a dozen or so people to both act as
advocates for the theatre and also to give feedback. This then
developed into a consultation body to engage with audiences,
artists, community and education practitioners.
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Work is formed by where it sits
In 1980 Kneehigh inherited the Cornish audience legacy of
Footsbarn as the latter left for France. Back then there were
no theatres in Cornwall, so performances happened wherever.
When Emma Rice arrived in 1992 she found “a barn, a beach
and a group of weather-beaten, mad, sexy people”. The barn
is a creative space in which the company cooks, chops wood,
plays instruments, eats, drinks and parties, as well as making
theatre. There is no mobile phone coverage. Work is formed
by where it sits; it is visual as there is so little control over
the acoustics. In Restornwall Castle, the audience sat on
hay bails. Brief Encounter took Kneehigh principles into the
West End: exciting, unexpected, welcoming – in this case the
temporary communion, in the old Carlton Cinema – of eating
popcorn, snogging and the magic of that particular barn…
“We’re going to build it individually for each
show, and let the work lead and let the story
lead, because really that’s the way sometimes a
show wants to be, in the round… you can feel the
mechanics of the theatre happening around you.”
Just do it?
Benedict asked at what point in the process the audience
is involved. Heywood was very clear, once the team had
decided on the thrust stage, the audience was then
consulted. The Old Vic, under the time pressures of a three
week turnaround and as a temporary experiment, didn’t
engage with audiences until the first performance. The
Library Theatre framed its consultation in terms of “we’d
like to do this because…what do you think?” Honer was
surprised by the vehemence of the reaction to proposed
changes from older audience members. From the floor
Sandy Wright, the architect of the new Hull Truck Theatre
turned this into a strength as they “looked at other places,
learnt what worked, and ended up using the old theatre
template, capitalising on what their audiences liked”. Mark
Foley raised the question of the aesthetics underpinning
Black Box theatre design – and their impact on audiences.
Jason Barnes made a plea for colour and texture: changing
the “temperature” of a building, letting the story lead and
gave us Breughel to populate our thinking and our modelling
with real people.
Emma Rice
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Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
Andrew Dickson invited panellists to look
at why we should engage audiences
in theatres design and how best to go
about it
Chair, Andrew Dickson
Christina Seilern
Principal, Studio Seilern Architects LLP
Ruth Eastwood
Chief Executive, Leicester Theatre Trust
Selene Burn
Community Engagement Officer, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Steve Ball
Associate Director, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Matt Little
Co-Director, Real Ideas Organisation CIC
Keith Williams
Director, Keith Williams Architects
Consultation
Changing spaces
Andrew Dickson introduced the session with his recollection
of a visit to Brasilia and his attempts to access a Niemeyer
theatre, which was almost impossible as it was closed during
the day, foreshadowing the final presentation of the day by
Steve Tompkins
Christina Seilern principal architect on the Curve spoke of the
theatre turned inside out, a phrase employed by the user group
The new vision was to create two flexible people platforms with
a grid running across the top of the whole building, seamlessly
integrating street, stage and foyer. The concept was for the
whole site to be public space. For Seilern, the Curve is about
interpretation and possibilities. It embraces three key levels of
theatre. stage performance; followed by theatre outside the
building and on the street; and finally giving the public sight
of the processes by which theatre is made. The street was
pedestrianised and the idea was to have an open theatre, with
an open extension on to the street. The built environment context
changed with the advent of the credit crunch and the planned
regeneration of surrounding buildings has halted for now.
Inevitably how the building will be read will change over time.
Understanding the language
Ruth Eastwood, Chief Executive of Leicester Theatres Trust
came on board just as the Curve was due to open, so for her,
consultation started from the day they opened the doors. The
building has customer service staff (not ushers) as it needs
people in the building to explain it. She spoke prosaically about
their love and understanding of the venue, and its capacity to
confound expectations, whilst pointing out that value engineering
had resulted in a completed building with a lack of finish, lack
of signage, and lack of seating. There is a huge curiosity to
understand. And her Saturday theatre tours are all sold out.
“If you don’t understand the language, it
doesn’t matter what the signage is.” 45% of the
audience left at the interval of the initial
performance of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin,
because they didn’t know it hadn’t finished….
The building forces those working in it to
constantly rethink.”
Ruth Eastwood
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
Consultation, engagement, participation
Matt Little runs the Real Ideas Organisation whose mission is
to help children realise their potential and to design a better
future. He gave us some practical tips on how to involve
young people meaningfully in the conversation. With the
Building Schools For the Future programme in particular,
it’s of paramount importance to stipulate in briefs and
tender documents how you want to involve young people at
the key stages in the design and construction process, so
that the successful bidder’s response then becomes part of
the contract.
Selene Burn and Steve Ball reflected on two consultation
exercises for the new project to join up Birmingham
Rep and the proposed Library of Birmingham to create
a shared foyer and new studio theatre. Ball outlined how
building projects have been shown to engender civic pride
in Birmingham, so there is confidence in the big picture. In
one exercise undergraduate and postgraduate architecture
students are acting as trainee architects as a way of placing
young people very practically in the process. The Rep has
a dozen satellite youth theatres, as a way of engaging with
young people in the suburbs who seldom come into the city
centre. Burn also explained The Rep is just a small part in a
big project, so their options are predetermined. That said,
she prefers to use the work “engagement” to “consultation”.
The joint exercise with the Library has focused on listening
to children and families to make the environment more
family-friendly throughout. Feedback was still being
analysed, but had highlighted areas such as toilet provision,
wayfinding, and the need for changing facilities for adults
and children.
Keith Williams talked about his work with pupils, begun
in 2002, from Tower Bridge Primary School as part of the
process of involving young people in the creation of The
Unicorn. Around 50 young consultants, many of whom had
never experienced theatres before, brought “intelligent,
humourous and wildly extravagant” suggestions. The most
famous of which was that the floors should be made of
chocolate. Health and safety notwithstanding, in preparation
for the Trust’s Conference 09, Williams met up with two of
the young consultants, Cleo Olukane and Charlie Taylor, four
years on. We saw a short film of their conversation as they
walked around the Unicorn. They remembered what it was like
to be unencumbered by practicalities and ‘think as a child’
again, and reflected on what they had learnt.
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“Memories are what bring people back… I
would love to see different children from
different countries, a universal theatre….
Something I haven’t seen before.”
Cleo Olukane and Charlie Taylor
Panellists round up
Andrew Dickson posed the question “when do you shut
people out, when do you say: ‘we’re going to do something
different’?” Selene Burn was very clear – you keep the
conversation going. It’s helpful to be transparent all the time.
This of course has budgetary implications, but as Matt Little
stressed it’s not a bolt-on, the money needs to be spread
across the design development and construction process.
“I think your night at the theatre begins the
moment you miss the bus because your
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babysitter’s late. The entire experience has to
be the best it can. Now we are very creative
people, we have theatre lighting and we can
make a difference in terms of lighting foyers,
but actually it’s not about talking to people,
it’s about listening. What we’ve been doing
since we opened is collating everything,
everything our customers are telling us and
doing our best to respond to it.”
Ruth Eastwood
Last word to Ruth Eastwood for whom a better term than
either consultation or engagement was partnership, between
theatre companies and architects. Later this relationship was
reformulated as a 3-circle Venn diagram, courtesy of Colin
Blumenau, with the inclusion of audiences.
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
Chair, David Benedict
Rob Dickins CBE
Chairman, The Theatres Trust
Rt Hon Barbara Follett MP
Minister for Culture, Creative Industries & Tourism
Conference Address
Rob Dickins CBE, as Chairman, welcomed all the delegates
on behalf of The Theatres Trust. He introduced Barbara
Follett MP and thanked her for stepping in at the last minute
following a Cabinet reshuffle where Ben Bradshaw replaced
Andy Burnham as Culture Secretary.
the level of ambition. 10 million visitors, 3.5 million of whom
were first time, have opened up new opportunities for tourism
and the life of the city.
She concluded saying that ‘the play’s the thing’ and that
buildings can either enable this engagement or not.
He offered us an anecdote of the producer who assured him:
“no-one bought a ticket for my play because of the building
it was in.” But of course experiencing theatres does matter.
Dickins stressed that The Theatres Trust’s mission is about
protecting theatres – for everyone, so that people continue to
have access to live theatre.
Barbara Follett started by saying that with five children, she
was well qualified to speak about theatres being ‘family
friendly’ and she gave voice to two ‘gripes’ in relation to older
theatres - the lack of leg room between seats and the paucity
of women’s toilets. Her comments became almost an index
throughout the day, on the one hand of flexibility in response
to audience’s perceived needs and on the other the capacity
to make changes.
That said, she spoke of a renaissance over the past decade
in terms of government investment in the arts, and people
making theatre buildings relevant, accessible and less
frightening. ‘A Night Less Ordinary’ is a Government with the
Arts Council England initiative to get 18-26 year olds into the
theatre, especially those who may not previously have gone,
by offering free tickets.
She championed the importance of theatres providing
aspiration among their communities, and in particular her local
theatre, the Gordon Craig in Stevenage. ”Used all the time,
beloved by the community, valued as an asset.”
Within Hertfordshire, often perceived as a wealthy county,
Stevenage has a significant proportion of C2, D and E young
people – many of whom have never been to London just down
the road. The Gordon Craig enables these young people to
be more outward looking and engage with experiences they
would never otherwise have.
She also spoke about how one of the benefits of Liverpool
being Capital of Culture was that it had demonstrably raised
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
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The first afternoon session looked at
how we design theatres to welcome
audiences and provide the facilities
they need
Chair, Bonnie Greer
Adam Kenwright
Managing Director, aka
Morag Myerscough
Director, Studio Myerscough
Leonie Wallace
Head of Visitor Services, Wales Millennium Centre
John Botteley
Theatre Director, Grand Opera House, Belfast
Hosting
New York, London (Paris, Munich)
Session Chair Bonnie Greer reminded us that experiencing
theatre(s) begins in our heads: we move to buildings later on….
“I have been writing theatre since I was eight. The first time I
walked into the theatre I was 21 years old.”
Adam Kenwright was just off a plane from New York, he pointed
out that in the West End we charge £3.50 for a programme: in
New York the playbill is given free; there is air conditioning and
free iced water readily available.
“I think we have an obligation to our theatregoing community, and particularly those people
whom we are trying to attract to become theatre
goers - to work much harder at making the
theatre-going experience more pleasurable.”
Adam Kenwright
Kenwright wanted a real effort put into the whole theatre-going
experience: no booking / transaction fees; weekly focus groups.
Picking up on Follett’s earlier theme, he pointed out that 68% of
all theatre goers in the West End are women.
“Why are we shut on Sundays? It is
inconceivable to me that we are the only city in
the world that closes our major theatres on a
Sunday. The reason is because we pay our staff
more than twice what they would earn on a
Saturday. It’s a problem for us and we need to
make a greater commitment to give audiences
what they want when they want. Why are our
theatres only used for 21/2 hours a day? Why
aren’t we making more effort to make them
available and make them open to the
communities, to schoolchildren, to young
people, to old people, to people who have a
desire to learn more during the day?”
Signifier and signified
Morag Myerscough’s redesign of the wayfinding at the Barbican
was all about making better use of the venue.
When the Barbican was first built the assumption was that
everybody was going to arrive in cars, there was no natural
entrance. So until the redesign, as an audience member you had
no sense of arrival. There were no landmarks to meet people. The
brutalism was looking sad. Organisationally, each department
had put up posters and signage ad hoc and piecemeal. There
was no overall cohesion.
So Myerscough made an entrance… deployed motorway style
signage, based on a need to know. She identified the building’s
key areas, such as the places where people move up and down
and created “signage that works with the brutalism”, designing
large floor level signs with the use of silhouette and light, which
incorporated and showed off the concrete.
Giving voice – buildings which speak
The Wales Millennium Centre, Leonie Wallace informed us, was
the first new national cultural institution in 50 years. Inspired
by Welsh traditions and the landscape it has a poem in Welsh
and English carved into its fabric. The building is designed
“from the street to the seat” to make an emotional connection.
As the audience comes through the front door they enter into
the concourse, and their eye is drawn to the ticket counter (the
Adam Kenwright
Kenwright was unequivocal to the end. ”We need to make use of
the extraordinary buildings we have.”
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Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
longest in the world). In such an open, expansive and tranquil
space, the challenge is to create intimacy. Wallace noted that
buildings drive behaviour.
or toilets on the ground floor; a box office fit just for selling boxes;
dark, dingy and narrow bars with huge serving counters; the
theatre was closed during the day and office staff were either off
site or in a portacabin.
“The architect’s vision is still relevant today
In 2003 the theatre appointed architects, RHWL Arts Team to
but the centre has evolved an awful lot over
look at providing increased public space; full access for people
the last five years and continually presents us
with disabilities; catering facilities for all-day opening; a studio
with customer and operational challenges. The
theatre; dressing rooms; offices on site and three times the
biggest challenge for myself and my team is
number of ladies toilets. As well as a new dressing room and
office block, behind the theatre, this produced a new signature
to find solutions to those problems of working
building facing the street adjacent to the existing theatre, with big
within the original premise and design and the
original intention of Jonathan’s concept or ideas open foyers and a more usable box office; balconies with bar and
restaurant facilities where people could look down from above;
The main auditorium requires about 35 staff
and a new studio theatre which opens up into the foyer.
on a sell-out night and this is partly due to the
design of the auditorium. There is not one single “It’s not only about the audience experience, but
staircase, but two different staircases and it
keeping the building alive. Our earned income
instantly doubles staff numbers.”
from our foyers has tripled since we’ve done that
Leonie Wallace
extension. Because we’re open all day tourists
are flooding in to have a cup of coffee during
Public space
the morning so that they can see the Matcham
John Botteley is Theatre Manager of The Grand Opera House,
auditorium. It is not one or the other it really is
Belfast. Built by Matcham in 1895, by the 1960s it was derelict.
In the 1970s the Arts Council of Northern Ireland saved it. It was
about both.”
reopened in 1980, when the architect Robert McKinstry restored
it. Next to the most bombed hotel in Europe, there were no bars
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
John Botteley
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John E McGrath invited contributors to
speak about the relationship between
theatre architecture and the influence
theatres have on our lives
Chair, John E McGrath
Artistic Director, National Theatre Wales
Nicky & Lee Caulfield
Save Waltham Forest Theatre
Colin Blumenau
Artistic Director, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds
Jenny Sealey MBE
Artistic Director/CEO, Graeae Theatre
Steve Tompkins
Director, Haworth Tompkins
Influencing
John E McGrath introduced this session as all about
influencing: how theatre people hopefully influence artists
to do extraordinary things; how architects influence theatre
people to re-imagine what they can do and crucially how
audiences influence space and space influences audiences.
Another part of the Waltham Forest: Young cultural
entrepreneurs
Nicky and Lee Caulfield are 16-year-old twin boys from the
Waltham Forest Theatre campaign to save the only theatre
in Waltham Forest under the slogan ‘One community one
theatre’. They currently attend college in Walthamstow and
are studying business studies, performance studies, theatre
technology and media studies.
They started the campaign because Waltham Forest Council
and the friends of Lloyd’s Park have plans to refurbish Lloyd’s
Park, and part of their plan is to demolish the theatre. The
Council applied for Lottery funding from the Heritage Lottery
Fund for £3.6 million and so far they’ve got through to their
stage one bid. The theatre was built in the 1930s and means a
lot to the community.
Inclusivity
Colin Blumenau spoke with a very cogent contemporary vision
about the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. He had been
responsible for restoring one of the oldest theatres in the
country built in 1819. A Regency period theatre, designed by
William Wilkins, Blumenau praised him for understanding that
the three parts to a theatre: the auditorium, the performance
space and what goes on behind, are all united and deliver an
experience that is ‘inclusive rather than observational’. It is this
ability to be inclusive that influences audiences.
Jenny Sealey felt that it was important that every single
member of staff from the cleaner to the chair of the board can
describe the experience of walking through the front doors.
It’s important to know where everything is because you might
have a blind audience member who wants a description
of the theatre they are about to enter. This was contrasted
with a workshop in which she had participated. For the first
“Our borough has no cinema and no longer
has a dog track. Our dream is to refurbish the
theatre and create it into a multi use venue.
We wanted to get the community involved
so that we had everyone’s views. Memories
of performing at the theatre are extremely
important to people, youngsters performing at
the theatre for the first time.”
Nicky and Lee Caulfield
The twins decided to set up an organisation called Stage
Services to benefit Waltham Forest, Dagenham and Redbridge,
Hackney in London. They want to give young people their age
and older the opportunity to work with theatrical equipment,
because at present in their borough they have no theatre.
“We decided instead of not having a theatre we
would bring a theatre to them.”
Nicky and Lee Caulfield
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Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
exercise participants were asked to take their shoes off,
and put their feet on the floor. Not everyone was wearing
shoes; not everyone could put their feet on the floor - and not
everyone had feet. So there were some assumptions being
made. Sealey pointed out that disability is a very individual
experience, but access and equal engagement is a collective
experience. So how to bridge this apparent gap?
Sealey then gave some positive examples of access and
inclusion. She thought her biggest influence had been
in her working relationship with Birmingham Rep, which
she described as her second home. Because it’s been a
collaborative engagement – they go back all the time - the
attitude to access is simply can do.
The previous day, Sealey had got the keys to Graeae’s new
building.
“Now sadly under used and cripplingly
expensive to maintain the building is revealed
as an exotic dinosaur, fossilised in a moment
of history unable to adapt to changing tastes
and changing priorities, but because it fails
to connect the gaps between civic ambition,
architectural single-mindedness, theatrical
adaptability of human nature it is now iconic
for all the wrong reasons”.
Steve Tompkins
In another district of San Paolo across the city is the second
space - which Tompkins described as “unremarkable from the
street and breaks nearly every rule in the theatre design guide
and would never survive an Arts Council review”.
The 400 seat Teatro Oficina is the wrong shape - it’s 42
“It is not a theatre but it will be a place where
x 8 m long. According to Tompkins, the seats are not that
theatre is made. A place where we don’t have to comfortable, but nobody complains. There are no daytime
worry about access because it really is all there. catering facilities apart from the street itself where there are
dozens of coffee bars. The foyer in the evening is mostly under
Access is not only about loops, ramps, disabled
toilets; it’s a word that is rooted in an emotional, the flyover across the road where market stalls make way for
a bar. There’s no rehearsal room, conference room, bookshop,
attitudinal, practical and functional engagement. or fly tower. The dressing rooms, offices and wardrobes
The foundation of access is the quality of
perch above the stage, connecting with the auditorium and
respect and diversity…. CARE is a funny word
each other by ladders, spirals and long ramps’. There is a
tree growing through one wall, a roof that retracts to see
to be associated with Graeae (given the history
the stars, a fireplace and scaffold seating structure on three
of disabled people and their institutional
interconnecting levels.
treatment). CARE means creating artistic
rigourous engagement, and that’s what has
“But for all its apparent informality this
gone into our building. I hope that our ongoing
is no accidental or haphazard space.
collaboration and influence can carry on, and
Painstakingly designed on a shoestring
people will come and visit our building and ask
budget by the inspirational Italian Brazilian
questions to know how access can work.”
architect Lina Do Bardi, it can be seen as the
Jenny Sealey
missing link between found space and new
build theatres. In the evenings it acts as the
Oscar and Oficina
Steve Tompkins used slides to illustrate two contrasting
perfect host to its audiences despite its lack
Sao Paolo theatres. The first was the auditorium of the Latin
of facilities, making them feel comfortable
American Memorial campus by Oscar Niemeyer, a student
both as a group and in their own skins.
of Le Corbusier and architect of international repute. It was
The architectural sincerity of this theatre
much praised and much photographed upon its completion,
is breathtaking. It’s done all the things that
but when Tompkins visited a generation later the building was
almost completely moribund.
local authorities, architects and practitioners
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
15
here in the UK dream about. It ordered the
map of its neighbourhood at grassroots
level, brought cultural focus and local
pride to a diverse working class community
and established a profile far beyond San
Paolo because it is an authentic, rigourous
theatre space producing extraordinary life
enhancing work.”
Steve Tompkins
For Tompkins’ studio it’s one of the most influential buildings
as much for its ethical implications as for its aesthetic
language. All of their theatre projects concentrate on the idea
of a more active engagement between the theatre, the city and
the community.
“I think to some extent we need to fall in love
with each other and that means trusting each
other; being vulnerable to stupid ideas; being
shot down in flames. I think it means spending
enough time with each other. It means learning
what each other’s particular dialect… all
of this, I think, can only happen (like any
relationship) given enough time and space and
freedom to discover what the relationship is
going to be”.
Steve Tompkins
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Who designs the theatre?
In the discussion Andrew Todd, architect of the CQS space
at the Old Vic, reiterated that all of these examples arise only
from a relationship of a certain ethical and emotional maturity
between the designer and client - and that relationship can only
work when the client brings a lot to the table, is demanding and
also extremely wise in the way that they run their institution.
Architect Mark Foley has been involved with the designing
many types of theatre spaces. For him, underpinning the many
approaches to designing good theatre spaces, was the craft
of the architect involved.
Ben Todd had another view on the ideas of specialist craft,
and space…
“I wanted to ask all the expertise in this room - how
far can we stretch the kind of Steve (Tompkins)
approach where you don’t just take a building and
start to adapt it, you literally just take a space and
start to work? The stuff that Jenny (Sealey) was
talking about, can we actually have community
build a theatre - don’t consult them on it, just invite
them to build it? Come along in your wheelchair
and if that bar’s too high tell the guy to chop 6
inches off the bottom of it. How far can we really
seriously push these boundaries?”
Dr Ben Todd, Arcola Theatre
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
Audience design principles
The following principles emerged during the course of
the day and are drawn directly from the proceedings.
They are intended to be an aide memoire, a potential set
of references to guide further action and complement the
design principles from the Trust’s Conferences in 2007
and 2008.
reflect audiences different sizes, eye levels, and heights to
appreciate what relationships the audience will have to the stage.
Transformation
Consultation
Audiences are not add-ons in the design process. They are
not simply spectators or consumers. What quality of theatre
experience will audiences have? Understanding that theatre is
a process of two-way communication is essential to designing
a successful auditorium.
What you call your process matters. Is it consultation,
engagement, partnership, collaboration or something else?
Above all it is a conversation, often ongoing, which involves and
responds to existing and potential audiences and is about
creating the spaces they want to love.
An intimate-feeling auditorium helps to energise the space, but
the scale, and the comfort and number of seats will not
necessarily be the main factors in achieving this. The closer
audience members are to the stage and their capacity to
sense each other are both important in focusing the energy in
the space.
Think carefully about how you want to engage with users,
managing expectations of audiences involvement and being
clear with them about potential outcomes. Consider the
need for humility over professional prowess. Try not to allow
the requirements of the capital project management to derail
the conversation.
Ambiance builds anticipation and helps the audience to locate
themselves in the space ready for the performance. This can
be enhanced with careful consideration of decoration, texture,
colour, acoustics, sight-lines and other factors in the spatial
and interior design of the auditorium.
Factor in enough time in the design process to build a developed
understanding of the subtle relationship between a theatre’s
purpose and its audiences.
Instil a sense of expectation. The making and remaking of the
“contract” between the audience and the actors is part of the
experience of returning again and again to the same theatre.
Being able to reconfigure the auditorium to accommodate
production requirements and new seating layouts introduces the
unexpected and can make it feel as if it is a newly ‘found’ space.
Carefully consider the aesthetic of the auditorium in relation to
how it will be used and viewed. Design neutrality doesn’t exist.
Even a plain Black Box auditorium has a personality which tells
an audience what to feel. The auditorium also provides the
creative production team with a canvas within which it paints the
performance. Some may be blank, as in the Black Box, others will
come with their own decoration which needs to be worked in.
Design in the audience using the tools of the set designer
including 1:25 scale models and CAD modelling techniques to
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
Aim to accommodate everyone. Audiences may come in groups
of similar and different ages, disabilities, and experiences of
being a theatre audience. Consider how the auditorium will
deliver a sense of respect and inclusion for everyone and enable
those responsible for managing the space to achieve this.
Accept anger or apparent negativity towards change and use it
as a pretext to continue and develop the conversation.
Enable audiences to discover the theatre and they will become
advocates. Explain and guide people through designs, sites and
theatres, help them to understand the language. Involve theatre
staff in the process as they should be able to describe the
theatre to audiences.
Write your consultation process into your design brief and
construction contracts. If the local authority, architect and
contractor are not contractually signed up to consulting it will
be much harder to introduce further down the line.
Enable young people to play a meaningful part in the
consultation process. Identify very early on in tender
documents, especially in Building for Schools projects, that the
supplier must be prepared to work with young people. Timing is
crucial to be able to write this into contracts.
17
Value young people’s ideas and give them access to big
decisions. Find young people who are genuinely interested,
connect them to the right people and listen directly to their
views. Ensure they can see specific and concrete
consequences. Create depth of engagement: it’s better to
do something small and significant, than many things that
have no impact. Support them and be prepared to change
your behaviour to accommodate their needs. Put in a
programme of support.
Design and re-design front of house facilities to cater for
everyone. Train staff to anticipate and respond to customer
needs, and feed customers views back into the way the building
is used and can be improved.
Hosting
The audience’s experience starts with the journey to the
theatre. The experience of the theatre starts well before arriving at the venue: booking tickets, possibly arranging care
for children, and travelling. The theatre has to be prepared.
Can audiences easily locate the theatre, intuitively find the
entrance, then know where to go to find facilities. Can they sit
down? Will they have places to change and cloakrooms? Will
your theatre make them feel at ease?
It should be straight forward to describe the route from the
front door to the auditorium. It’s important to understand
how visitors might experience the building. Is there a sense
of arrival? Way-finding and signage should be thought about
during the design stage, potentially reflected as part of the
architecture, not laid on afterwards.
Incorporate the senses in foyer design. Visitors can be led
instinctively to areas by the smell of coffee, the sound of performances, or the use of light.
In new theatres go beyond the minimum requirements for
facilities. For example, work out how many toilets you’ll need
for those using them in the 20 minute interval without queues
forming. Also remember that groups of disabled people with
varying individual needs go to the theatre together.
Explore ways to tell people on the outside what’s going on in
the inside. Websites, backstage tours, and special events all
help audiences to engage with every aspect of your building,
before and during their visits. Consider the narrative of the
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building, its story in physical space, its history, its design and
layout, its ambience and intimacy, its present and its future
possibilities, and how these are communicated to audiences.
Are the ancillary spaces only ancillary? See your theatre in its
totality. The design, usability, and design aesthetic of restaurants,
bars, lounges, VIP areas, event spaces, outside areas, wifi points,
and education spaces all help to develop the personality of the
theatre. Creating great spaces where social interactions can take
place helps to drive revenue streams, and enrich the conversations
with your audiences. They are part of the story you tell.
Influencing
Successful theatres are part of a city and part of community,
and should be viewed as ‘social capital’. Understand what
makes a theatre loved by the people that use and work in it,
the memories a theatre holds, why these are important, and
build on them. Theatres are about communities as well as
bricks and mortar.
Encourage and support young advocates. Young people want to
make a difference to the community and other young people’s
lives. Listen to their passion, activism, and entrepreneurship.
Theatre buildings have the capacity to drive the behaviour of
audiences. The challenge is to make a space feel owned by its
audiences: offering artistic risk, excitement, anticipation,
subversion, and the unexpectedly expected; whilst enabling
confidence, respect, and emotional security.
Make the theatre inclusive and accessible. In a theatre access
and human engagement should be an equal and collective
experience; creating artistic rigorous engagement, or CARE.
Existing constraints can lead to creativity if the artistic
influence is clear, particularly in the process of designing and
building a theatre. Create artistic narratives which illustrate
and incorporate contemporary connections that audiences can
make with historic buildings.
A theatre’s influence can be measured by a three circle Venn
diagram. Each of the circles represents the artist, the architect
and the audience; the greater the commonality of interests,
the greater their cross over. Strong relationships between the
three are the key to a successful, influential theatre. Stay
focused on the dymanic exchange throughout.
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
Attenders
Katy Alexander Charcoalblue Ltd
John Allen Northern Light
Peter Angier Carr & Angier Theatre Consultants
Cany Ash Ash Sakula
Deborah Aydon Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse
Matthew Baker Tim Foster Architects
Chris Baldwin ACT Consultant Services
Steve Ball Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Lalayn Baluch The Stage
Andrew Barker
Darren Barker Great Yarmouth Borough Council
Jason Barnes The Theatres Trust
Daniel Bates York Theatre Royal
David Beidas New Stages Ltd
David Benedict Conference 09 Chair
Ken Bennett-Hunter
Petrus Bertschinger Conference 09 Production
Peter Bingham Central School of Speech & Drama
Fran Birch The Theatres Trust
John Bishop Carr & Angier Theatre Consultants
James Blackman Lyric Hammersmith
Andrzej Blonski LCE Andrzej Blonski Architects
Colin Blumenau Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds
David Blyth Ambassador Theatre Group
Rick Bond The Complete Works
John Botteley Grand Opera House, Belfast
Mike Bradford Birmingham Hippodrome
Richard Brett Theatreplan LLP
Matt Britton Carr & Angier Theatre Consultants
Richard Bunn Arup Acoustics
Selene Burn Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Liz Bury AMPC Ltd
Olivia Campbell Stadia and Auditoria Magazine
Kate Carmichael The Theatres Trust
Jill Caulfield
Lee Caulfield Save Waltham Forest Theatre
Nicky Caulfield Save Waltham Forest Theatre
Simon Chaplin Cheetham’s School of Music
Lesley Chenery Octagon Theatre, Bolton
Colin Chester Ambassador Theatre Group
David Clark Max Fordham LLP
John Clark Acuity Management Solutions
Wil Cleary The Circus Space
Adam Coleman Lyric Hammersmith
Paul Connolly The Theatres Trust
Isaac Conroy Rose Bruford College
Paul Covell Paul Covell Consultants
Ted Craig Warehouse Theatre
Paul Crosbie Charcoalblue Ltd
Colin Cuthbert Northern Light
Chris Daniel Charcoalblue Ltd
Roxy Daniells Sheffield Theatres Trust
Paul Davies
Richard De Boise Tim Foster Architects
Andrew Decarteret Burrell Foley Fischer
Rob Dickins CBE The Theatres Trust
Andrew Dickson The Guardian
Russell Duly Live Nation (Venues) UK Ltd
Christopher Durham The Point, Eastleigh
Ruth Eastwood Leicester Theatre Trust
Barbara Eifler Stage Management Association
Simon Erridge Bennetts Associates
Alistair Fair Alan Baxter & Associates
Andrew Filmer Aberystwyth University
Sonya Flynn Charcoalblue Ltd
Mark Foley Burrell Foley Fischer
Rt Hon Barbara Follet MP Minister for Culture,
Creative Industries & Tourism
Tim Foster Tim Foster Architects
Paul Franklin Carr & Angier Theatre Consultants
Dominic Fraser The Old Vic
Rose Freeman The Theatres Trust
Allegra Galvin Cambridge University
Mrs Gee
Gavin Green Charcoalblue Ltd
Bonnie Greer
Simon Harper Royal Shakespeare Company
Marie Hartley Great Yarmouth Borough Council
Martin Hawthorn Hawthorns
Andy Hayles Charcoalblue Ltd
Luke Haywood Rose Bruford College
Nick Helm Octagon Theatre, Bolton
Duncan Hendry His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen
Roger Hennigan White Light Ltd
Vikki Heywood Royal Shakespeare Company
Judith Hibberd Arts Council England
Nigel Hinds
Stephen Hing Drivers Jonas
Chris Honer Manchester Library Theatre
Peter Hooper University College Falmouth
Arnot Hughes Lawray Architects
Jeff Hyatt Delfont Mackintosh Theatres
Tony Jay Wales Millennium Centre
Innes Johnston Max Fordham LLP
Stephen Jolly Buro Happold Ltd
Paul Jozefowski NT Future
David Jubb Battersea Arts Centre
Adam Kenwright aka
Noel Kirby John O’Neill & Partners
Ian Knowles Arup Acoustics
Pauleen Lane CBE The Theatres Trust
John Langley National Theatre
May Lee Hawthorns
Allan Leiper John O’Neill & Partners
Jane Lemon Ambassador Theatre Group
Mark Lewis Levitt Bernstein
Graham Lister
Matt Little Real Ideas Organisation CIC
Robert Longthorne Liverpool Everyman and
Playhouse
Brian Loudon Festival City Theatres Trust
Charles MacKeith Research Design
Barbara Matthews Arts Council England
Gillian McCutcheon
Suzanne McDougall The Theatres Trust
Alex McGowan Unicorn Theatre
John E McGrath National Theatre Wales
Keith McLaren Carr & Angier Theatre Consultants
Jonathan Meth Conference 09 Reporter
Stephen Midlane Polka Theatre
Russell Miller Ambassador Theatre Group
Anne Minors AMPC Ltd
Alison Minto Arts Council England
Martin Moore
James Morse Light and Design Associates
Chris Moxon Unicorn Theatre
Joan Moynihan Nimax Theatres
John Muir
John Murphy Murphy Design
Conference 09 Report Experiencing Theatres 9 June 2009
Morag Myerscough Studio Myerscough
John Nicholls Arts Quarter LLP
Rachel Nicholson Rose Bruford College
Caroline Noteboom Theateradvies BV
Rory Olcayto The Architects’ Journal
Jason Osterman Theatre Projects Consultants
Gavin Owen Charcoalblue Ltd
Mark Owen Buro Happold Ltd
Tom Piper Royal Shakespeare Company
Matthew Pitman Martin Professional
Mark Price The Theatres Trust
Barry Pritchard Arts Team @ RHWL
Juliet Quintero LCE Andrzej Blonski Architects
Scott Ramsay Harlow Playhouse
Emma Rice Kneehigh Theatre
Chris Ricketts Sherman Cymru
Luke Robson Central School of Speech & Drama
Tim Ronalds Tim Foster Architects
Elliott Rose Unicorn Theatre
Geoffrey Rowe Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham
Peter Ruthven Hall Theatreplan LLP
Claire Saddleton See a Voice
Mhora Samuel The Theatres Trust
Emma Savage Carr & Angier Theatre Consultants
Nikki Scott Stage Technologies
Jenny Sealey MBE Graeae Theatre
Christina Seilern Studio Seilern Architects LLP
Caroline Sharman New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth
Gillian Shaw Scottish Arts Council
Andy Shewan Unicorn Theatre
Ruth Smallshaw Theatre Projects Consultants
Alistair Smith The Stage
Ian Smith King Shaw Associates
Roger Spence
Mick Spratt Wigwam Acoustics Ltd
Judith Strong Arts & Architecture Projects
Graham Sykes Prince of Wales Theatre
Flip Tanner Royal Shakespeare Company
David Taylor Arup
David Taylor Sheppard Robson
David Thacker Octagon Theatre, Bolton
James Thomas Charcoalblue Ltd
Pat Thomas OBE The Theatres Trust
Neil Thomson Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Andrew Todd Andrew Todd Studios
Dr Ben Todd Arcola Theatre
Steve Tompkins Haworth Tompkins
Robin Townley DanceEast
Ben Twist The Theatres Trust
Leonie Wallace Wales Millennium Centre
Nicola Walls Page/Park Architects
Trevor Watson Davis Coffer Lyons
Mark White ETC
Andrew Wilie Buro Happold Ltd
Keith Williams Keith Williams Architects
Caz Williamson Conference 09 Consultant
Edmund Wilson Tim Foster Architects
Liz Wilson Oldham Coliseum Theatre
Peter Wilson Royal Shakespeare Company
Sandy Wright Wright & Wright Architects
John Young Ambassador Theatre Group
19
Published September 2009
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