![]() ![]() These distinctive doors will serve as a new access point for visitors to the workshop and RSC staff alike once construction is complete. The slender and towering front entrance of this was once used to transport elements of production scenery for the art deco Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, a predecessor to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre which was destroyed by fire in 1926. The oldest buildings in the “jumble” are Grade II-listed and have been preserved: two cottages dating from 1850 which were originally stables and subsequently used as a costume stockroom, and an 1887 ‘scene dock‘ building. The RSC drafted in local contractor Stepnell for the job the following year. The costume workshop revamp plans were only revisited at the end of 2015, and a public fundraising campaign was launched in 2017, raising £3m for the project. The RSC prioritised the revamp of The Other Place, a 200-seat theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, which was completed in 2016 to coincide with the 400-year anniversary of the bard’s death. Initial plans started to be drawn up for the redevelopment of the workshop in 2013, but the project was placed on hold shortly after. “There were fire escapes, but in one case you had to climb through a hatch down what was almost like a ship’s ladder.” “It was a jumble of higgledy-piggledy buildings with ridiculously steep staircases and low beams – we had one designer knock himself out twice in the same week,” says RSC technical director Stephen Rebbeck. The building lies across the road from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, a 1,040-capacity venue, which underwent a major revamp from 2007 to 2010, for which Mace was construction manager.īy 2013, it had become clear that the costume workshop was not fit for purpose. These items, worn over the years by the likes of Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes, have been made on-site by a team of artisans at the Royal Shakespeare Costume Workshop in Stratford-upon-Avon since the 1950s. ![]() ![]() The Royal Shakespeare Company requires a sizeable facility to make all the costumes it uses. It follows that the variety of his works demands a range of costumes and accessories – from mediaeval suits of armour to period corsets. Whether penning classical tragedies, battlefield epics or bawdy comedies, William Shakespeare was a versatile playwright. ![]()
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