NT Future
“We're proud of our building and proud of the work we bring to our audiences. But if that work is to keep developing, then our building has to develop too. I'll never forget how exciting, how open the National Theatre felt when I first walked into it; and NT Future is all about opening it up further – both metaphorically and physically – to more people. We want to give our audiences a greater understanding of the plays they see and encourage the public to participate in the process of making theatre. We want to reveal all the skills that go into making theatre both backstage and on-stage and we want our extraordinary building to be central to the creative life of London. When NT Future is realised we want to say – as the NT did when it first opened – the New National Theatre is Yours."
Nicholas Hytner, Director of the National Theatre
The National Theatre is home to an vast range of activity, both on and offstage, reaching more people than ever before in many ways, including the Travelex £10 Tickets season; extensive education and outreach programmes; the free summer Watch This Space festival; Sunday openings; touring; and the recent introduction of live cinema broadcasts around the world, NT Live.
In 1976 when the NT’s South Bank building opened, the economic climate was as challenging as that we are currently facing. Laurence Olivier, the National’s first Director and his successor, Peter Hall, were not deterred from realising the vision described by Harley Granville-Barker in 1904, who foresaw a ‘visibly and unmistakably popular institution, making a large appeal to the whole community.’
We are now launching an ambitious £70million scheme called NT Future to enable the National Theatre to rise to the challenge of the next 50 years. We want to open our building up – to audiences, passers-by and the local community – and to contribute to the regeneration of the South Bank; to transform our facilities for education and participation; and to keep ahead of new technologies and meet the changing needs of theatre artists and audiences. We want to achieve this alongside environmental and financial sustainability – driving down costs while reducing energy consumption.
In 2007 architects Haworth Tompkins (who were responsible for the development of the National Theatre Studio) were appointed by the NT to write a Conservation Management Plan for Denys Lasdun’s Grade II* listed building. This assesses the architectural significance of the site in all its intricate working detail and places it in its historic context, while providing a framework for any changes to the building. Developing the opportunities suggested by the Conservation Plan, the National Theatre asked Haworth Tompkins to prepare a masterplan for change.
For the last two years we have been working closely with Haworth Tompkins and the plan was submitted to Lambeth Planning, with whom we have been in dialogue throughout, in early June. We have consulted widely, with neighbouring organisations on the South Bank and the local residents; with English Heritage, the Twentieth Century Society and the Theatres Trust; with members of staff and the NT’s artistic community; and with our audience.
The main elements of NT Future are:
• The creation of a new education and participation ‘Discover’ centre, allowing an extra 50,000 people a year to engage in onsite learning and training activities, including participatory workshops, masterclasses, seminars and study days. By transforming the Cottesloe Theatre and its foyer and relocating the current adjacent workshops, we can equip the NT for the first time in its history with integral education spaces and facilities to engage an audience, young and old, hungry to know more about what goes into making theatre and to experience practical creative skills.
• The Cottesloe auditorium will be refurbished to extend capacity (creating over 10,000 new seats a year), while improving access and comfort, and equipping it for daytime education use with a seating system that allows for quick changes to a flat floor, and improved technical facilities. With windows to the auditorium and Discover centre, and improvements to the external entrance, this will animate and open the Cottesloe during the daytime for the first time.
• The NT building will be opened up to enable audiences to observe its internal life and theatre-making processes, with a high-level public walkway through the workshops and backstage areas, linking for the first time the Cottesloe to the main foyers.
• A new production building to the south of the NT will give the National a hub for theatremakers to develop their onsite skills, including a modernised paint studio offering dramatic views of scenic artists at work and sets being built for visitors and passers-by on Upper Ground. Studios for designers and dedicated suites for digital production and experiment will enable more innovative and collaborative work and advance the NT’s current projects such as NT Live and digital online content, bringing the NT up-to-date with modern theatremaking processes.
• The audience experience will be enhanced, relieving the current pressure on our crowded foyers and transforming its sometimes forbidding exterior for first-time visitors. The entrance will be opened to the river, and remodelled to welcome visitors from all directions. Our earned income will be increased by opening a new café-bar on the prime north-eastern riverfront corner (currently occupied by waste and goods facilities). A relocated bookshop will draw visitors into the NT foyers, which will be regenerated with new lighting and signage and a new lift to improve access.
• The external areas around the NT will be refurbished to open the National on all sides, drawing more people in with green spaces and gardens as well as improving microclimate and biodiversity.
In addition, we are developing two further plans:
Environmental
The National Theatre has already made great strides in reducing its energy consumption, particularly through our partnership with Philips, but in order to lower our energy bills and achieve our plans for NT Future without increasing our energy consumption, a number of projects have been prioritised. These include:
• The installation of sub metering (to show where energy consumption is made, and to identify additional measures and targets)
• The installation of a combined heat and power system, generating heat from waste exhaust
• Renewal of boilers
• Installation of a thermal storage solution to capture heat and coolness, store and utilise as required.
Technical
Much of the technical infrastructure in the National Theatre dates from its original installation and has reached its expiration date. Various items of equipment will require renewal in the coming years in order to maintain and improve the ability of the National Theatre to put on shows which cater for modern theatrical show designs. The Technical Masterplan will renew / install the following key items:
• A full replacement of the Olivier power-flying system
• Installation of a power-flying system in the Lyttelton (replacing the current manual system)
• A new lighting bridge solution for the Olivier
• New seating for the Cottesloe
• New drive and control systems for Lyttelton stage equipment.
June 2010
