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Architect announced for RSC's transformation

18 March 2005

The Royal Shakespeare Company today announced the appointment of Bennetts Associates as architects for the £100 million transformation of its Stratford home.

At the heart of the project will be a remodelling of the Company’s 1932 Grade II* listed Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The new theatre will be a modern take on the courtyard theatres of Shakespeare’s day, with a thrust stage auditorium seating around 1,000 people. The aim is to improve the relationship between audiences and actors by bringing them closer together, reducing the distance from the furthest seat from 27 to around 15 metres.

RSC Artistic Director, Michael Boyd, said:
“I believe we’ve found in Bennetts Associates the right people to join us in creating a more intimate space that our house playwright would recognise as a theatre.

“Bennetts Associates proved they clearly understood our responsibilities as a local, regional, national and international theatre company – and the challenges of marrying the wide range of architectural styles on and surrounding our site. Their style of working means this will be a collaborative and creative journey. That’s going to be critical as we involve more of our stakeholders in the project.”

Bennetts Associates are recognised as one of the UK’s leading firms of architects. Rab and Denise Bennetts formed Bennetts Associates in 1987. Initial projects included the Institute of Contemporary Arts, but the firm quickly established a track record of larger-scale projects, including a number of projects in the cultural sector. They are the architects of the Hampstead Theatre in London, Wessex Water’s Operations Centre in Bath, and the Loch Lomond Gateway and Orientation Centre. Their most recent completed project is the Central Library in Brighton.

Rab Bennetts of Bennetts Associates said:
“We’re absolutely delighted to be selected for such a prestigious and challenging project. The prospect of working in Stratford-upon-Avon to revitalize its most important building is very exciting and we look forward not only to immersing ourselves in the RSC and its ideas for the performance of Shakespeare, but also in the issues that affect the town.”

The brief to the architect includes preservation and restoration of the key heritage elements of the 1932 building, including the art deco façade, foyers and ‘fountain staircase’ which links the stalls and circle bars. The Victorian gothic exterior of the former 1879 Memorial Theatre – partially destroyed by fire in 1926 – will also be preserved.

In addition to replacing the existing auditorium, the £100 million plan includes improvement of the front of house facilities with enhanced provision for disabled access, bars, restaurants, toilets and exhibition space. Backstage facilities will be expanded, with improved dressing rooms and a greater separation between the main house and Swan theatres – addressing the current cramped technical and support facilities. The Swan and The Other Place theatres will be retained, and a new dedicated space for the Company’s educational activity will be created.

Today’s announcement follows news from last week (11 March 2005) that the RSC has been granted planning permission for a temporary theatre in Stratford that will be home to the RSC’s main ensemble during the transformation of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Designed by Ian Ritchie Architects, The Courtyard Theatre will be built as an extension to The Other Place – currently the RSC’s 150-seat studio theatre in Stratford. Work is due to start on the 1,000 seat courtyard theatre later this year and completed in time for the RSC’s Complete Works of Shakespeare Festival in 2006. It will take over as the Company’s main theatre in Stratford from 2007.

RSC Chairman, Sir Christopher Bland, said:
“With the planning permission for the temporary theatre secured, the award of £50 million from Arts Council England for the project, and the appointment of Bennetts Associates as architects, we are well on the way to realising our ambition to create the best modern playhouse for Shakespeare in Stratford.

“This is one of the world’s most iconic theatrical sites. It represents a mix of Shakespearean performance, history and biography that’s unique. Our challenge now is to work with Bennetts Associates to marry the best elements of the existing buildings with the brief we’ve outlined for the auditorium, backstage and audience facilities.”

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Further information

For more information please contact:

Roger Mortlock
RSC Director of Communications
01789 412667
Mobile: 07980 758903
roger.mortlock@rsc.org.uk

Images of Rab Bennetts and Simon Erridge from Bennetts Associates, and previous projects designed by them, are available from the Electronic Press Office. To access them, please contact: http://www.epo-online.com/.

Notes to Editors

Selection process
The selection process for the architect began in Autumn 2004 and involved competitive interviews with up to thirty companies who responded to the notice placed in the Official Journal of the European Union.

A shortlist of three practices was drawn up: Bennetts Associates (London/Edinburgh); O’Donnell and Tuomey (Dublin); and McCormac Jamieson and Prichard (London). The selection panel included RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd, Chairman Sir Christopher Bland, Vikki Heywood Executive Director and Deputy Chair Susie Sainsbury. They were joined for the short-listing process by an independent panel of advisors representing CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment), The Theatres’ Trust, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment and RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).

The development of a design concept was not part of the selection process which has been conducted by competitive interview and a demonstration of how the architect would approach the project.

Information on Bennetts Associates More information available from http://www.bennettsassociates.com/

Public money spent on the project so far
Public money spent on the project to date includes money spent on the 2001 Feasibility Study which breaks down as:

Arts Council England £755,140
Advantage West Midlands £320,000
Stratford District Council £30,000
Warwickshire County Council £30,000

Potted history of Stratford’s Theatres and RSC sites
Change and reinvention has been a significant part of the RSC site history. In all some 17 theatres have been purpose built or improvised since 1746.

The Royal Shakespeare Company traces its roots directly to the pioneering work of Charles Edward Flower whose vision and philanthropy established the first permanent Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1879.

1864	For the tercentenary of Shakespeare’s birth, Charles Flower’s wife, Sarah, spearheaded the construction of another rotunda pavilion on the site now occupied by the Avonbank Paddocks development.
1875	Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Ltd incorporated. Charles Edward Flower (Chairman) commissioned the world’s first arts centre (theatre, picture gallery, library and music room) and gives the land and the greater part of the building costs.
1879	Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opened (800 seats), now The Swan Theatre. The Germanic fantasy and towering pinnacles of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre by Edward Dodgshun and William Unsworth were in their own day an extraordinary and eccentric architectural innovation on the river edge of the Stratford townscape.
1926	Shakespeare Memorial Theatre destroyed by fire. The shell was used for many years afterwards as a conference venue, scenery store and rehearsal room. Performances were temporarily transferred to the Stratford Cinema on Greenhill St.
1932	After an international fundraising campaign spearheaded by the Flower family, and an international architectural competition, Elisabeth Scott’s Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened by The Prince of Wales in 1932.
1961	Chartered name of the corporation and the Stratford theatre become ‘Royal Shakespeare’.
1974	The Other Place theatre created from a prefabricated former store and rehearsal room in Stratford.
1986	The shell of the 1879 theatre was converted to the Swan Theatre.
1990	The current The Other Place theatre and rehearsal studios were created on the site of the former corrugated iron sheds which Buzz Goodbody turned into a studio theatre in the late 1970s.