Southport Cultural Centre

Mathew Smethurst Evans was in Southport last week to inspect the installations at the Southport Cultural Centre which is being refurbished.
Work is progressing well, and it is expected that the venue will be completed early next year (2013) although the actual handover date is not yet know by Theatreplan.

Final inspections and commissioning taking place in December and January 2013.

Refurbishments includes new technical infrastructure for both venues (sound and communications, lighting), new dimmers, get-in lift, motorised fly bars, and refurbished hemp sets.

Mathew says "The place is generally looking very good, there are areas that are still very much a building site though." Still the Studio and the main venue are both now looking pretty smart, see the photos below.

                                         Studio Theatre

                                          Main Auditorium looking towards the Stage

                                         New seating and freshly decorated light colours

 
Photo of auditorium before the refurbishment dark colour scheme and odd seats in parts of the house.

We will post some more photos in the new year following our next site visit.

                                          

USITT Announces Architecture Award Recipients for 2013

Theatreplan is proud to be associated with Garsington Opera Pavilion on the Wormsley Estate in Stokenchurch, High Wycombe, United Kingdom. Which has been awarded a Merit award for Architecture by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology.

The elegant, Japanese-inspired pavilion was designed by Snell Associates to be put up and dismantled each season. It was finished in May 2011 at a cost of $2.8 million (1.8 million British pounds).

USITT’s Architecture Awards are chosen based on creativity, contextual resonance, functional operation, use of new technology and community contribution. Each project will be represented in a special exhibit at USITT’s 2013 Stage Expo, where an awards reception will be held in their honor.

USITT’s Architecture Commission sponsors the awards, which are chosen by a panel that recommends them to the Board of Directors for final approval. The panel for the 2013 awards included Chicago-based Theatre Designer Robert Shook of Schuler Shook, Dawn Schuette, architect and designer with Threshold Acoustics in Chicago, and Architect Timothy Hartung of Ennead Architects in New York.

                                        Garsington Opera Pavilion Stage

                             Picnic tents with Opera Pavilion behind on a rainy 

                             preview evening in May 2011.

And here's something we made earlier.....

Theatreplan recently worked on the newly finished Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick.  We have been sorting through some files and found this early model box picture which shows clearly the two layered auditorium.

The Old Fire Station in Oxford wins award

Congratulations to the Old Fire Station in Oxford who have been nominated and won the APM Project Management Awards 2012 - Community Project of the Year.

For further details please see here

A little piece of history

Theatreplan partner Clive Odom is featured in this interested article from the 1994 Financial Times.  Just in case your were wondering the extent and background of our experience here at Theatreplan.

Theatreplan welcomes a new partner

Mathew Smethurst-Evans has been made a partner at Theatreplan.  Mathew joined Theatreplan in 2007 as an associate and will continue to work on ongoing projects whilst taking on more responsibilities within the partnership.  A link to the press release can be found here.

The Sainsbury Laboratory - shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2012

For the shortlised candidates for the RIBA Stirling Priza 201, the wait is almost over.  The winners will be announced on the 13th October.  Several of Theatreplan's projects are on the short list including The Sainbury Laboratory set in the grounds of Cambridge University’s botanical garden.

Details of this excitng project can be seen on this video.