First Look: Behind the scenes of the refurbished Citizens Theatre Glasgow

The Scotsman

Look behind the scenes of the refurbished Citizens Theatre Glasgow

Transcript

00:00I'm Jane Bradley, Arts Correspondent at The Scotsman, and I'm here today in the

00:30Glasgow Citizens Theatre, which is due to open later this summer after seven years

00:35undergoing a major refurbishment. We're here in the auditorium, which as you can see looks

00:39almost ready to go. We've got the upper dress circle open for the first time in a long time

00:45with about 150 seats added, and the first cast is due to start rehearsing in the rehearsal

00:52spaces here in just a few months. I'm Lord O'Smith, I'm Head of Production for The Citizens.

00:58There's a mix of things happening in the building. We've got the complete new build at the front and

01:03the south side of the building, and then we have the refurbishment of the historic areas and the

01:101996 building on the north side. So full refurbishment in those areas and reconfiguration

01:14of spaces, and then the new build at the south side and front of the building. We are now very

01:21close to completion. We are in the process of starting our own client fit-out works,

01:26which are following on from the main contractor works. So that's all sort of in progress and

01:31starting now. Various things happening, we've got lots of our own stuff back on site and we're

01:36working through that at the moment. We've got a mix of heritage in the building, a lot of which

01:41we've always known was there, but it's not really been publicly accessible before. So we've got the

01:45historic paint frame backstage, which dates from the 1880s, and that's still operational running

01:50on the original Victorian machinery. And then above stage and below stage in the sub-stage

01:55level, we've got a lot of the Victorian machinery there as well. They're not operational, but it's

01:59still there in situ, and we've made those areas accessible for the public, and also there's some

02:04viewing windows into those areas, so that people can get a glimpse of the past and the history.

02:09There's also some other heritage that we found, like the beautiful sandstone wall of the auditorium

02:13and our lovely archways above the auditorium doors, that all of that had been covered up with

02:17layers of plasterboard and various things for decades, and no one really knew that,

02:21we sort of knew the sandstone was there, but not what condition we would find it in,

02:24and no one knew the archways existed at all. So we've uncovered some really nice things in that,

02:28as well as the stuff we already knew that we've tried to preserve and again allow access to.

02:33I'm Kate Denby, I'm Executive Director at the Citizens Theatre.

02:36I'm Catherine Evans, and I'm the Director of Participate here at the Citizens Theatre.

02:40Yes, it's felt like this has been on the horizon for a long while, but we're almost there,

02:45we're almost at the finish line, and we are gearing up and directing everything towards reopening

02:50at the end of August, beginning of September with our first shows,

02:54and so of course all the work is starting in earnest now. We are announcing our first season,

02:58we're getting tickets on sale, we are starting to do a lot of work in our community to deliver

03:05activity when we reopen, so it really is the moment at which the engines really start firing

03:10to get us back into the building in September. I think it's that sense of, it's the beginning of

03:15something that in many ways we've all been looking forward to, and I think lots of the

03:20discussions around multi-year funding and lots of the unknowns, they've all been circulating

03:24for a long time, and actually there feels like this really lovely moment of coming together

03:28with a little bit more set of knowns for the future, but also the building really coming home.

03:34You know, we've been out and about making work, not just our community work, but you know we did

03:38have lots of shows happening whilst we've been out of the building, but there's just been this

03:43yearning for space and to be the hosts, and I think that's one of the things is that

03:48with this resource, what we have is not just the ability to produce our own work, but to really

03:54bring communities together, whether that be the artistic community, whether that be local

03:58communities, it's just I think the sort of layering of possibility is really, really exciting.

04:03The Citizens Theatre, I think it speaks to its name, it belongs to the people of Glasgow,

04:07and that sense of affordability has been such an important part of the history of the Citizens

04:13Theatre, and of course we need to look at the economics of running theatre and making sure that

04:19for those who can pay and who want to pay, that they're able to pay, but it also means that we

04:24have to make sure that there's opportunities for people who perhaps don't have as much

04:29financial means available to them, that there's no barriers to people being able to access

04:34the theatre, but I think we have to remember that ticket price is not the only barrier to

04:39coming to the theatre. You have to be able to see into the building, you have to be able to

04:44meet the people who are making theatre, you have to feel like this building, that this community,

04:48that this practice is a place for you, and so as well as the affordable ticket pricing,

04:55we're really making sure that there's lots of opportunities for people to find their way

04:59into the theatre, so whether that's through participation activity, whether it's coming

05:03in to have a cup of tea in the cafe, or taking part in training, in apprenticeships, we want to

05:10make sure that there's lots of routes into the theatre so that we have a really thriving theatre

05:14sector for many, many generations to come. My name's Dominic Hill, I'm the Artistic Director

05:19of the Citizens Theatre. I mean, it's fantastic to be able to show people around the theatre after

05:24so many years, actually, and we're all really kind of proud of it and excited by the new spaces, so

05:31I really love letting other people have a look and engaging their reaction and seeing

05:35kind of how astounded and amazed people are. So the last few months, the transformation has been

05:41kind of extraordinarily quick, like, you know, I come in here a lot, but, you know, week by week,

05:46you go, oh, that's changed, that's new, and even today, you know, I went on a route that I hadn't

05:51been on before, between the rehearsal room and the main foyer, so I love that sense of the

05:56opportunities that keep opening up. So we're going to open with Small Acts of Love by Ricky Ross and

06:01Frances Poet, which is a beautiful, large-scale piece about the aftermath of the Lockerbie bombing,

06:09really kind of warm and important piece, I think, about community and coming together and how you

06:16deal with grief, but ultimately a very uplifting piece. So that will kick off the season in

06:25September, and then I'm really delighted that Douglas Maxwell's Glasgow Comedy, So Young, is going

06:32to come and play here for two weeks. It was originally commissioned for this theatre, and it's a really,

06:40both incredibly moving and incredibly funny play, and I think the people in Glasgow will

06:45really appreciate that. I think there's a huge fondness for the SITS Christmas show,

06:50and I'm delighted that Lewis Hetherington is writing us a new version of Beauty and the Beast,

06:54which will be funny and silly and celebratory and have a little serious message running

07:00underneath, but really be the kind of perfect family show for Christmas. I'm Lewis Hetherington,

07:05I'm a playwright, and I've written Beauty and the Beast, which is going to be the first Christmas

07:09show in the new SITS and theatre. I suppose it's not strictly a panto, but it's very, there'll be a

07:14lot of audience interaction, we're really looking for people to be kind of alive to it, and there's

07:19a lot of audience address, they're very involved in the storytelling, there'll be a lot of music,

07:23a lot of nonsense, and hopefully a lot of joy, because I think that's what I absolutely love

07:27about making Christmas shows, it's sort of a collective celebration of story, of theatre,

07:32of people. It's been really unbelievably exciting, I think because it's such an honour to be asked to

07:38be the first Christmas show, to open the new building, and to sort of be part of that incredible

07:43legacy of, you know, Glasgow's culture.

Category

Transcript

Recommended