Charcoalblue
We strive to envisage how the teachers and students will use the building both now and in the future
relationships or tie-ins with manufacturers and are not obliged to buy any particular equipment’. What you get, according to Gavin Owen, senior consultant at Charcoalblue, is the services of ‘an experienced, independent and well-informed individual who understands theatre in all its guises, shape and sizes’. He adds firmly: ‘We understand what works and what doesn’t.’ For example, The Leys in Cambridge is an independent school with an active and successful music and drama department. The school’s previous theatre, built in 1967, was no longer fit for purpose. The Great Hall project, with Charcoalblue involvement, provided the school with a new home for drama. The new 320-seat Great Hall theatre incorporates high-spec backstage facilities, technical infrastructure including lighting and sound equipment, a control room, a workshop, storage areas and a green room. These will enable The Leys drama department and technical staff to operate a fully functional ‘teaching theatre’, with students involved in every aspect of productions. To increase flexibility of use, the lower-seating tier of the theatre is retractable, creating a school hall which can comfortably seat 600 for a full school assembly. A first floor drama studio providing flexible rehearsal space and an intimate theatre, which can be used for small productions and group work, has also been created, as well as a dance studio and space for the drama department providing three spacious classrooms and an office.
Charcoalblue projects
Birmingham REP – To celebrate its centenary, Birmingham REP is undergoing redevelopment Bristol Old Vic – The renovations were completed in autumn 2012 to a cost of over £19m Chichester Festival Theatre – The theatre’s technical system design is being overhauled by Charcoalblue as part of the building’s update National Theatre – Charcoalblue helped to construct the National Theatre’s temporary performance space The Shed while work is underway to refurbish the Cottesloe Theatre, also with help from the consultancy firm Curve Theatre, Leicester – Finished in 2008, the performing arts complex cost £61m to complete
www.teaching-drama.co.uk
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Results: Charcoalblue’s work at The Leys School, Cambridge
Multipurpose spaces Charcoalblue’s Gavin Owen provided theatre design and planning services to The Leys School as well as the detailed design of the theatre’s technical systems. The company also worked on – among many other projects in education establishments – the refurbished theatre at Repton School and the new facility at St Edward’s in Oxford. Managing partner Andy Hayles points out that school auditoria often have to accommodate such activities as assemblies, parents’ evenings and exams, as well as meeting the needs of the drama and music departments. ‘We look and listen very carefully to what the client wants,’ he says. ‘We strive to envisage how the teachers and students will use the building both now and in the future – and then the specification of the theatre systems is more than appropriate.’
LAMDA – The drama school’s move to a new Hammersmith base is expected to be complete by spring 2014 Liverpool Everyman – Work is currently underway to add new facilities to the theatre, including an education studio Lyric Hammersmith – The Lyric is adding brand new spaces such as a film and TV studio, as well as enhancing its current facilities Unicorn Theatre – The children’s theatre was redeveloped with help from Charcoalblue in 2005 Southbank Centre – The somewhat controversial building work on the Southbank Centre is being assisted by Charcoalblue, who plan to integrate new theatre systems into all of the centre’s spaces.
Crucially too, Charcoalblue argues passionately that second best is not good enough for schools. ‘Our approach to school projects is to give them the highest specification in response to their needs because the standard should be no less than a professional space with the same budget,’ says Owens.
Expanding Charcoalblue is quite a success story. Now the theatre consultants of choice for many of the country’s leading architects and theatre companies, it has won awards, ecstatic reviews from the theatrical and architectural press and, most importantly, praise from its theatres’ performers, technicians and audiences. All of which has led to an increasing demand for the company’s services beyond the UK, and in 2012 it opened a parallel studio in New York. And as at The Leys School, where it was partial, the company’s involvement can work at different levels: at one end of the spectrum it might be simply an initial feasibility study and assessment of user needs and wider community aspirations; or it could be the detailed design of a theatre auditorium or the technical fitting out of a stage-house. Where appropriate, Charcoalblue will design specialist systems and equipment, tailoring them to requirements, including bespoke seating and furniture design, stage engineering, stage lighting and audiovisual systems. So if you are thinking of improving or creating a theatre space, a consultancy really has to be your first port of call – although as Crosbie says, if the work is done well, the public will be blissfully unaware of it.
Teaching
For more information about the organisation and their projects, visit www.charcoalblue.com.
Drama
autumn term 1
2013/14
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