Culture
Made to measure
22 NSC
Feb 20
For more than 60 years the Royal
Shakespeare Company (RSC) has
employed a team of specialists
in dress and garment-making,
millinery, armoury, jewellery production and
shoemaking, in short, a production line to
make more or less everything worn or carried
by actors performing at its world-famous
venues in Stratford-upon-Avon.
“We have the largest in-house costumemaking
department of any British theatre, but
unfortunately the premises were no longer fitfor
purpose as they consisted of a collection
of run-down buildings that have been added
to and altered over the years,” explains RSC
Technical Director Stephen Rebbeck.
The project, which has been funded by
public contributions and a National Lottery
grant, includes demolishing most of the old
costume department, with the exception
of two listed buildings and constructing a
new three-storey steel-framed building that
will connect into the retained structures
to provide new costume workshops, a
maintenance workshop and an exhibition
space.
All of this work is being carried out in an
extremely confined site, sandwiched between
a row of RSC-owned cottages, usually rented
out to actors, a Grade II-listed 1887 former
scene dock which was built for the original
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and the RSC’s
Headquarters building.
Interestingly, the old scene dock, which
is set in the middle of the row of cottages is
being converted into an entrance hub, not
A 30-strong workforce of skilled costume makers have been
temporarily relocated, while the Royal Shakespeare Company
redevelops its workshops with the aid of steel construction.
Martin Cooper reports from Stratford-upon-Avon.
A steel frame
provides the
required open spans
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/Braced_frames