At this year’s PLASA show, London-based theatre consultancy Charcoalblue will be joining the technical team of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) and Jonathan Porter-Goff of Stage Electrics to reveal how their designs, and the collaborative work they did with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), transformed one of the world’s most famous theatre auditoriums into a world-class performance space.
Charcoalblue will discuss the design concepts that resulted in this critically acclaimed new performance space for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Andy Hayles, managing director of Charcoalblue says: “The Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s Transformation project, which was completed last autumn, was a singular development in world theatre. The space embodies a host of new techniques and technologies. The auditorium has been designed, without compromise, to create – in the words of RSC artistic director Michael Boyd – “the best place in the world to perform Shakespeare.”
Winner of a RIBA Award and short-listed for the coveted Stirling Prize for Architecture 2011, the stunning theatre was five years in the making (and much longer in the planning). The triumphant new auditorium provides a three-dimensional universe; wrap-around seating and a thrust stage that allows for an immediate contact between the audience and players, as well as audience on audience, giving a rich dimension to sound, action and set.
“At last, Stratford-Upon-Avon finally has a theatre worthy of Shakespeare’s name,” said the Guardian’s Jonathan Glancey, when it opened.
But how did Charcoalblue manage to transform this £112.8million project into a venue for Britain to be proud of? What challenges did the team overcome to achieve such incredible results? And how did the journey from imagination to physical incarnation become reality?
Gavin Owen, Senior Consultant at Charcoalblue, provided project management services on the RST project, with particular emphasis on stage lighting, audiovisual and stage engineering systems. Owen who has been with Charcoalblue since 2005, will join speakers Vince Herbert, HOD Lighting, Jeremy Dunn, HOD Sound, Adam Harvey, HOD Automation/Stage Engineering and Jonathan Porter-Goff, Stage Electrics to divulge the details of this unique success live, only at PLASA 2011.
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