Temporary External Dressing Rooms - Photograph, 1970s
Title
Temporary External Dressing Rooms - Photograph, 1970s
Date
1970s
Description
Photograph of temporary external portable cabin Theatre Royal dressing rooms on site of old Empire Theatre, set up during the 1970s.
What's the story?
By the 1970s the Theatre Royal was just a faint echo of its Victorian and Edwardian heyday. Conditions in the theatre were poor with leaking roofs and inadequate facilities, such as small dressing rooms. The Theatre Royal was simply not equipped to cope with the needs of modern touring companies
The situation was so bad that the venue was boycotted by Equity and companies advised not to tour there.
In 1975 ‘A Study into the feasibility of building a Festival Hall in conjunction with the renovation of the Theatre Royal for the City of Nottingham’ by Renton, Howard, Wood, and Levin Partnership was published. In his forward to said document John Carroll then Leader of the City council said –
‘This report highlights the urgent need for improvement and renovation to the Theatre Royal. The dressing room accommodation is probably the worst in the country for a theatre of this size and the situation has already been reached where major national touring companies are not prepared to play at the theatre because of the extremely poor backstage facilities……Although at the present time the Theatre Royal gives the impression of a rundown ill equipped building it is a superb theatre with its quality of actor/audience relationships placing it among the top dozen regional theatres in the country.’
Also linked to the document is a comment from Brian Dickie Manager of Glyndebourne Festival Touring Opera who confirms that apart from the obvious technical and dressing room facility drawbacks the Theatre Royal is extremely well suited to the entire repertoire of the GFTO and counts it as potentially one of the best theatres for touring.
Further comments from the 1976 plans state…
The Dressing Room layout and accommodation is quite simply the worst of any major theatre in the British Isles. Since it is inconceivable that these will not be demolished and replaced in any proposed programme of works no further comment is needed except to point out that the existing layout is not Phipps but the result of squeezing the Empire Theatre in 1897 into the narrow site between the Theatre Royal and Upper Sherwood Street.
The Arts Council did indeed see the potential of the Theatre Royal as a venue of national significance, in terms of kick-starting a major strategy of large-scale national touring.
To support Nottingham City Council with its ultimate aim to rebuild and refurbish the Theatre Royal, the Arts Council provided some stop-gap funding simply to enable temporary portable cabins to be erected on the site of the old Empire, which had been demolished at the end of the 1960s, so that the larger touring companies could still come to the Theatre Royal.
The situation was so bad that the venue was boycotted by Equity and companies advised not to tour there.
In 1975 ‘A Study into the feasibility of building a Festival Hall in conjunction with the renovation of the Theatre Royal for the City of Nottingham’ by Renton, Howard, Wood, and Levin Partnership was published. In his forward to said document John Carroll then Leader of the City council said –
‘This report highlights the urgent need for improvement and renovation to the Theatre Royal. The dressing room accommodation is probably the worst in the country for a theatre of this size and the situation has already been reached where major national touring companies are not prepared to play at the theatre because of the extremely poor backstage facilities……Although at the present time the Theatre Royal gives the impression of a rundown ill equipped building it is a superb theatre with its quality of actor/audience relationships placing it among the top dozen regional theatres in the country.’
Also linked to the document is a comment from Brian Dickie Manager of Glyndebourne Festival Touring Opera who confirms that apart from the obvious technical and dressing room facility drawbacks the Theatre Royal is extremely well suited to the entire repertoire of the GFTO and counts it as potentially one of the best theatres for touring.
Further comments from the 1976 plans state…
The Dressing Room layout and accommodation is quite simply the worst of any major theatre in the British Isles. Since it is inconceivable that these will not be demolished and replaced in any proposed programme of works no further comment is needed except to point out that the existing layout is not Phipps but the result of squeezing the Empire Theatre in 1897 into the narrow site between the Theatre Royal and Upper Sherwood Street.
The Arts Council did indeed see the potential of the Theatre Royal as a venue of national significance, in terms of kick-starting a major strategy of large-scale national touring.
To support Nottingham City Council with its ultimate aim to rebuild and refurbish the Theatre Royal, the Arts Council provided some stop-gap funding simply to enable temporary portable cabins to be erected on the site of the old Empire, which had been demolished at the end of the 1960s, so that the larger touring companies could still come to the Theatre Royal.
Type
Photograph
Location of item
Private Collection - Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby
Rights
Private Collection - Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby
Contributor
Researcher: Mavis Moore
