Here are a few hasty photos taken on a mobile phone of the Upper Circle. We were filming up there with Icon Films (video will be posted here soon).
Above left: The Upper Circle.
Above right: Looking into the Upper Circle box
Above left: layers of paint tell us what colour the theatre has been over the years
Above right: Looking into the Upper Circle box
The brilliant Jagprops are making us some boxes for these artefacts to be displayed in our foyer. In the meantime, here are some photos of what’s been found in the refurbishment of the theatre so far…
17th/18th Century glazed ware and imported German stoneware (17th/18th Century)
Clear glass mineral water bottle (c1900) and two necks of wine bottles (18th Century).
Imported french pottery (Beauvais Ware), early 16th Century [the face]
Clay tobacco pipes (late 17th/Early 18th Century)
Child’s marble (Probably 19th or early 20th Century)
Early 20th Century food wrappers
Animal bones found in 18th Century dump of rubble associated with construction of theatre.
As we head into autumn, we’re now at the stage where the demolition work is almost complete and the contractors start to piece things together again. At the weekend Tom Morris and Emma Stenning headed off to Paris to check on the progress of the new seats for the auditorium, being manufactured by Quinette Gallay.
As the refurbishment work has progressed, we’ve been working closely with the architects and seat manufacturers to maximise the capacity in the theatre, whilst not sacrificing comfort and sightlines. At one time in its history, before the gallery was finished up to 1000 people were crammed in to the auditorium - we promise we won’t do that, but of course we want as many people as possible to be able to see the work we stage.
Anyway, more on the seats in future posts - we’ve sent Emma off with instructions to take some photos and video so we can share them with you. This post is heading back to the very beginning…
The following is an extract about the origins of the theatre from a fascinating book, Bristol Old Vic - The First Ten Years, by Audrey Williamson and Charles Landstone, published in 1957 (You can still buy second hand copies on Amazon if you’d like to read it!):
“[The Theatre Royal] is the oldest theatre in the country. When it was built, King Street, adjacent to the docks, was the centre of the city’s life and commerce. The merchants lived in their handsome houses on the other side of the road, or in the neighbouring Queen Square, named after Queen Anne, and boasting a long terraced line of delicate ironwork balconies, in the style of architecture associated with the reign of that monarch. Always the theatre has had to struggle in an atmosphere of storm or stress, and, at the very outset, the idea of a permanent home of drama encountered the fierce opposition of the religious element in the city. Eighteenth-century Bristol had waxed rich on the slave trade, and when public conscience was aroused it found its expression in an excess of puritanism. There had been for the previous forty years a small theatre in what was then the countryside, half a mile outside the town, at the foot of Brandon Hill.
“Run by an actor called Powel, who had been a leading man with Garrick at Drury Lane, this building had become too small for the growing theatrical interest of the town […] A plot of land was acquired in King Street and, despite the vehement local protests, a company of citizens was formed to promote the scheme. Chief among the organisers were Alexander Organ, who was subsequently to become mayor of the town, and Thomas Symons, a solicitor. They gathered around them forty-eight people, who each subscribed the sum of £50. In return these donors each received a silver token which gave them the right to a seat at one performance of every play produced in the theatre. Several of these tickets are still in existence, some of them at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.
One of the original theatre tokens.
“Other money was subscribed, and the theatre eventually cost £5,000 to build. The foundation stone was laid on November 30th 1764, and it was opened on May 30th, 1766. It had been built as a faithful replica of the Drury Lane Theatre of the day; James Paty was the architect and Michael Edkins the decorator. Very little of Edkin’s craftsmanship remains today, but Paty’s work is almost unaltered. There is still the sunken pit (now converted into stalls), the surrounding horseshoe circles which originally consisted of boxes, the entrances to which can still be seen in the woodwork at their rear. The gallery was added towards the end of the eighteenth century, and the highly decorative ceiling raised to meet it.
King Street, late 19th Century - the old entrance to the theatre is on the right.
“The original entrance was down a long alleyway between shops and houses, and theatre began at what is now the horseshoe foyer surrounding the dress circle. The conversion of this alleyway into a long entrance passage and the building of bars and offices above the passage are all Victorian additions. When a violent controversy (which reached the national press) arose in 1955 about the pattern of the wallpaper in the entrance passage, the Ministry of Works, as guardians of an ‘ancient monument’, were careful to point out that they were not concerned, as their jurisdiction began only at the horseshoe foyer.”
Luckily, we’re not having ‘violent controversy’ about the style of the interior decorations of the refurbished theatre. The seats and paintwork will be sympathetic to what we believe was the original colour scheme of the theatre - hopefully we’ll be able to share some of the ideas with you on this blog.
And as work continues on the theatre and back-of-house, we are learning more and more about what the original theatre felt like, from discovering the original level of the pit to digging down into the foundations around the horseshoe.
The foundations of the pit passage, 2011. Photo: Farrows Creative.
Sadly, the long entrance passage into the theatre no longer exists. The old frontage of the theatre was replaced in the 1970s with the frontage to the studio which you can see on King Street today. If the passage did still exist, it would pass through our studio theatre, which as you may have read in Bristol Evening Post, is where one of our duty managers, Andrew Stocker, claims he felt a ghostly presence. Perhaps someone is still not happy about the choice of wallpaper in 1955…
Words: Matthew Austin.
We had one of our regular trips around the construction site last week with Toby Farrow from Farrows Creative. Toby has been documenting the refurbishment work since just before it began, and we’ll be touring the site regularly with him until we re-open in Summer 2012.
Our tour last week took us from tiny, recently uncovered cubby-holes in the depths of the theatre, to the splendid view of the old city from up on the roof of Cooper’s Hall. The site seems to change dramatically every time we go in - walls have been removed, tiles taken off and replaced again, temporary floors installed and so on. Here are some of the photos from the shoot.
The photo below shows the newly restored roof of the auditorium, which you may remember was, until recently, stripped of tiles and sitting under a temporary scaffold roof. It has now been restored, insulated and the tiles carefully replaced. It’s almost impossible to tell that anything has happened to it.
This, just next to the auditorium roof, is the scaffolding surrounding a huge new metal frame over the rehearsal room. This frame will form the glass roof of the rehearsal space, and will make a huge difference to the artists making work in there.
Now we’re right down in the belly of the theatre, and this photo is of the excavation of the pit passage, ready for a new floor to be constructed. The wall to the left is the back wall of the stalls seating area.
This is the dress circle, where before the work began, you would have entered through the double doors on the left of the picture. The wooden frame on the right is in front of new ventilation equipment. You might also notice three of the old seats sitting under a black cloth at the back of the shot.
Here’s the upper circle. We noticed recently that the sightlines of the stage are excellent if you sit on the floor of the upper circle, which could mean that at some point there were no seats in this area and people used the tiered floor as bench seating.
Moving down again, these shots are of the paintshop, which as you can see hasn’t changed that much yet. What you do get a sense of in this space is how huge it is - and how exciting it will be when it re-opens as a new performance space.
And finally, here is one of the most exciting things we’ve made recently. The photo below shows a patch of wall, which until work started on the theatre was undiscovered. It’s in the stage right wings (or to the left of the stage if you’re sitting in the audience!), and it’s an etching of a galleon, probably scratched onto the wall by a bored actor as he waited to go on stage.
We’re not sure of the date, but above it, in 1859, someone called EJ Harwell etched their name into the wall. Who was EJ Harwell? Did he also draw the galleon? We may never know…
Here’s the latest article from Bristol Evening Post’s series on the redevelopment of the theatre. This month’s piece, written by Natalie Hale, focuses on the backstage rehearsal spaces. Photos by Farrows Creative.
Backstage in the rehearsal rooms of the Bristol Old Vic, acting royalty from Peter O’Toole and Dame Judi Dench, to Daniel Day Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite and Leonard Rossiter, have painstakingly learned lines, gesticulated, argued and shed blood, sweat and tears to create productions fit to perform before an eager Bristol audience.
A rehearsal space is much more than just somewhere to run through lines or walk through the staging of a play. They are effectively like the “womb” of a piece of theatre – the place where ideas get turned into reality; where a play gestates and grows.
The old wardrobe laundry and dyeing room.
Therefore it’s vitally important that rehearsal spaces are comfortable and fit for purpose.
Perhaps surprisingly, considering the high-profile actors who have tread the boards and the acclaimed productions that have appeared on its stage, the Old Vic’s rehearsal space has been pretty inadequate – little more than a concrete box in fact.
This is why the area is undergoing a major revamp as part of the theatre’s massive redevelopment project.
Executive director Emma Stenning explains:
“Our main rehearsal space, which is the same size as the theatre, was basically a box with terrible acoustics and a hard floor which made it very difficult to rehearse movement or dance. It was also very cold.
“The rehearsal space is important to actors. If the acoustics and the floor aren’t anywhere near what it’s actually like to perform on the stage, then it’s almost impossible for artists to get a sense of what the show will be like.
“I guess it’s like any working environment – you want it to be as comfortable and conducive to being productive as possible, otherwise the end product will more than likely not be the best it could be.”
Rehearsal room.
Work is currently under way to make dramatic improvements to the rehearsal area to ensure it is fit for purpose.
“Our plans are to completely rebuild the old rehearsal space and also convert our old wardrobe area into a new rehearsal space.
“By converting the old wardrobe area, we’re effectively doubling our rehearsal space provision. We’ll be installing dance floors, raising the height of the ceiling and installing new skylights. There will be improved heating and technical facilities in these spaces too.
“Basically, we’ll have spaces fit for the 21st century.”
To make room for the increased rehearsal space, the wardrobe has now moved into a purpose-built workshop on Albion Docks.
This dockside area also houses the theatre’s production department consisting of carpentry, metalwork, props, scenic painting, lighting and sound.
In addition to being more spacious and comfortable, the new rehearsal area will also be better used.
The King Street theatre will be able to welcome more artists to work at the Old Vic, so as well as rehearsing its own productions, it can also house the multitude of artists developing work through Bristol Ferment, alongside the theatre’s resident company Firebird. It is also possible that performances could be staged in the rehearsal spaces.
Dressing room.
The contractors have been working on this backstage area for a couple of weeks now, and Emma tells me that it’s proving to be a huge undertaking.
“The walls have been knocked through and the roof has been removed, leaving just planks of wood for a ceiling.
“There’s more demolition work to do to that part of the building before we install a new ceiling and skylights but then quite soon it’ll all begin to take shape. At the moment, it’s essentially a shell.”
As one would expect from such an historic building, it’s not simply a process of demolition and renovation. As work continues throughout the theatre, fascinating discoveries continue to be made.
The most recent is an area called the ‘Royal Loo’, where the actors used to wait before going on stage and which intriguingly features graffiti from 1859.
Emma explains:
“This is a tiny part of the backstage area just off the main stage where actors used to wait before they were called on stage.
“We’ve found an extraordinarily detailed line drawing of ship which we like to think someone probably drew over a period of weeks as well as people’s names etched into the wood.
“We’ve also discovered a door from the 18th century at the back of one of the boxes,” continues Emma. “This is where rich patrons would pass through at the end of the show into the backstage area to meet the actresses.
“We don’t know exactly what happened when they did meet, but we do know that the definition between actress and prostitute was somewhat blurred in those days!”
Another revealing discovery that further brings the theatre to life, is a mark where generations of actors have lent their hand on the pillar before going on stage.
“Yes, there’s a pillar on the side of the stage where the actors would stand before they went on stage, and there’s a big greasy mark where their hands would rest as they leant on it watching from the wings,” confirms Emma.
“It gives a great sense of the history of the theatre, thinking that generations of actors have stood in the same place, waiting for their call, watching the action of countless plays unfolding beyond the curtains.
“We’re so used to hearing the glitzy stories of actors and shows and the public face of the theatre, so it’s lovely to be uncovering these private little moments of waiting before stepping out into the spotlight.”
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