PLANS FOR CHESTER'S CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
15th December 2009
City arts organisation, Chester Performs, the company behind some of the proposals for Chester’s “£50m” investment in culture, have revealed the thinking behind their schemes.
Cheshire West and Chester’s submission to the UK City of Culture committee for 2017, include the creation of a summer theatre venue in Chester’s Grosvenor Park and the transformation of St Mary’s Centre into a full time arts centre.
Theatre in the Park
Chester Performs is planning to assemble a cast of nationally acclaimed young directors and actors to present three plays during summer 2010.
Four weeks of theatre in the park, working title “Grosvenor Open Air Theatre” is proposed between mid July and early August.
For the first time in decades, high quality repertory theatre could be set to return to Chester
The plan is to design and build a park based theatre experience similar to London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Ideas so far include a Shakespeare play, a Restoration Comedy plus a classic Greek or Roman play.
Chester Performs is expecting the summer theatre season would attract national theatre critics and help put the city back on the map of cultural hotspots. As well as providing a massive boost to the city’s tourism scene.
There would be 300 seats available and over 30 performances, although this could grow if demand is great enough. Andrew Bentley of Chester Performs explains the thought process behind the plans:
“This is about creating something of quality which is unique to Chester. This is a major heritage city and a huge tourist attraction – the summer season of plays will reflect that. We are talking to some of the country’s best young directors and designers. We will be asking the Arts Council of England and other regional partners to invest in the venture along with Cheshire West and Chester and the economic and tourism impact should be considerable. This will be a beacon of excellence rather than a stop gap solution. If we win the bid to home the Rose theatre that would be great, and we can carry on this tradition into that space – but we can do this now and without spending millions”
St Mary’s Centre
The organisation’s proposals for St Mary’s Centre (formerly St Mary’s on the Hill) are intended as a ‘pragmatic interim solution’ to the city’s lack of a permanent performing arts centre.
Both Chester Performs and the local authority have acknowledged that it could be a number of years before the new performing arts centre is built, and in the meantime the search has been on to find a temporary cultural venue and a solution to Chester’s lack of theatre.
The search revealed that the cost of a major refurbishment to many buildings was close to that of creating a new space. Chester Performs has proposed that St Mary's Centre could be the perfect solution on a limited budget.
Andrew again explains:
“St Mary’s Centre is a wonderful building – well lit, with disabled access and catering facilities. Surprisingly however, it has fallen into very little use. Now that all these facilities have come under one banner (it was previously part of the old county council) we can make sensible suggestions for how to combine their uses. We can transform St Mary’s even without displacing its current users”
Chester Performs’ plans for the centre include:
• Creating a flexible “studio” theatre.
• Creating flexible seating and staging so that performers and theatre companies can perform in a wide range of formats
• Introducing limited but state of the art lighting and sound systems
• Installing a cinema screen and a Dolby surround system
• Refurbishing the concert grand piano
• Creating a full time cafe in the centre.
Chester Performs’ plans are to turn the centre into a full time venue for theatre, music and film and poetry.
Andrew again:
“It’s amazing how flexible St Mary’s Centre could be. Although the church layout may seem restricting, it is in fact quite liberating. Performers love a challenging space as long as it’s inspiring and St Mary’s is certainly that. For a small amount of investment we can transform the space into a full time venue. At the moment our Soapbox programme runs twice a month – in St Mary’s we can run it full time. Volcano Theatre, who came to St Mary’s with Chester Performs as part of a national tour, said that the church was by far their favourite building. What’s more, their show sold twice the number of tickets than in Liverpool, which just shows the demand that is out there.”
Proposals reveal plans to create a permanent café area and arts centre with 200 seats, creating a visitor centre designed to be a destination for local people, students, artists and tourists alike.
The programme will include a range of film, from independent art house styles to family favourites. As well as film and performance, the space will be used for creative workshops and music events.
Andrew Bentley said:
“It’s sad that so few know about the space, because it is so obviously attractive. The lack of awareness of course is down to how little happens in the space. It’s in a great location with parking and easy access, right in the heart of the city. Within 18 months there will be two University departments on the doorstep as well as full offices in HQ. If Hotel du Vin goes ahead there will be two major hotels within 50 yards.
This centre could be a great economic boost. If the Town Hall can be made to accommodate larger music concerts in particular, then we start to have a real sense of a night time cultural economy returning to Chester”
Both proposals are being considered by the local authority as part of their plans for next year. Chester Performs estimates that the two proposals can bring over £1.6m of economic benefits to the city, creating 36 new jobs.
ENDS
For more information contact
Andrew Bentley/Nancy Rutherford
Chester Performs
01244 409113
andrew@chesterperforms.com /nancy@chesterperforms.com
www.chesterperforms.com