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The Other Place: Royal Shakespeare Company

Description

Please note: Prompt Books and stage managers' production records for productions staged at The Other Place are included in the relevant record series - see Related Materials below.

Administrative records relating to the productions which had taken place in the first two buildings known as The Other Place.

There is some overlap of administrative production files for the first building [TOP1] and the second building [TOP2].

Related material

Please note: Prompt Books and stage managers' production records for productions staged at The Other Place are included in the relevant record series:

RSC/SM/1 - Prompt Books,
RSC/SM/2 - Stage Managers' Production Records.

Custodial History

Records for The Other Place were deposited in two stages by Bronwyn Robertson for the RSC, one after the closure of original theatre in 1989-90, and the second after the closure of second building as a theatre, in March 2002.

Admin History

Originally erected in 1963 as a venue for understudy rehearsals and experimental work under the direction of Michel St Denis, Associate Director of the RSC, the building [TOP1] was first known as The Studio.

In the mid-1960s the building was used for the educational Theatregoround group, but it was with the appointment of Buzz Goodbody as its Artistic Director that the modest corrugated aluminium shed came to be used for public performances, opening as The Other Place [TOP] in April 1974. Despite its lack of basic amenities (no showers for performers, no refreshments for audiences), the "tin hut" saw some of the RSC's most imaginative work on Shakespeare and a wide range of other classic and modern writers.

This original building [TOP1] closed and was demolished in late 1989 and a new theatre [TOP2], designed by Michael Reardon and equipped with better facilities for audiences, performers and technicians, opened on an adjoining site in August 1991. The new building was equipped with two extra rehearsal spaces, the Michel St Denis and Buzz Goodbody studios, which enabled it to be used for a much wider range of activities including festivals, conferences and educational workshops while retaining the auditorium as a performance space. TOP2 staged its last performances in November 2001 and was cleared for use by other departments in March 2002. It was later used for occasional performances.

Dates of Artistic Directors of The Other Place:
Buzz Goodbody 1974-5,
Barry Kyle 1975 (following death of Buzz Goodbody),
Trevor Nunn 1976, Ron Daniels 1977-89,
Tony Hill 1991-5,
Katie Mitchell 1996-8,
Steven Pimlott 1998-2001.

Bronwyn Robertson was the administrator of The Other Place until March 2002.