Post by danielwhit on Sept 3, 2010 22:01:54 GMT
www.stratford-herald.com/mainstory.php?ID=2448
PUBLIC TO DECIDE FATE OF THEATRE
THE people of Stratford-upon-Avon are to be asked what they want to happen to the Courtyard Theatre building—once scoffed at as “The Rusty Shed”—after it’s been used as part of the Cultural Olympiad’s World Shakespeare Festival in 2012.
This was revealed to the Herald this week by Vikki Heywood, executive director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and her colleague Michael Boyd, the RSC’s artistic director, as the company announced its programme of events for the opening of its refurbished main theatre on the banks of the Avon.
Ms Heywood also disclosed that the RSC still needs to find nearly £5 million between now and April next year to meet the total £112.8 million cost of the massive transformation of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
She said: “We’re in discussion with a number of supporters who’re well aware that we need to raise all the money and don’t go forward with any outstanding debts for the company—particularly in these times.”
As the refurbishment project draws to a close after more than three years, Ms Heywood said: “Tired, relieved and excited is how the RSC is feeling at the moment. But work is still going on behind closed doors to finish off the job and do tests on the equipment we’ve got.”
The Courtyard Theatre was erected at a cost of £6 million as a temporary building, initially to help accommodate the RSC’s Complete Works programme in 2006-07, and then as a means of allowing the companies Shakespeare productions to continue in Stratford during the closure of the RST and the Swan for refurbishment.
Planning permission for the Courtyard was extended last year until the end of 2012, partly to enable an orderly transition for the reopening of the RST and the Swan in the autumn and winter of 2010-11, but also for the purposes of putting on productions during the World Shakespeare Festival in 2012. The original planning permission was from March 2005 to March 2010.
Ms Heywood said there was no way the RSC would want a third major theatre in Stratford along with the refurbished RST and the Swan once the World Shakespeare Festival had taken place in 2012. But she made it plain that the company was keen to restore its studio theatre, The Other Place (TOP), which currently acts as the foyer for the Courtyard.
“We definitely don’t need three theatres on this scale,” she said. “It was fantastic to have that extra space during the Complete Works. And I think we’ll need it for amateur and professional productions in 2012.”
Mr Boyd, who’s chosen Macbeth as the play that will officially open the refurbished RST, said: “We are looking at avoiding putting the Courtyard Theatre into huge mothballs, but there will be a period when the bulk of our regular teams and equipment will be moved into the new RST so that the theatre is ready to put plays on.
