Armed with sketchbook and camera I went back for a few days on site and I was allowed to wander freely around the theatre. I set myself up in corners, finding places to draw to get as many perspectives on the theatre as I could. I wanted to have a bit of quiet time just to get a feel for the place.
Its so different being in a theatre when its dark and there's no one else there. There's an atmosphere of expectation - its profoundly quiet; footsteps echo when someone crosses the stage, you can hear people's voices as they pass along the Wynd outside. I began to focus on the structures in the building - the engineering that makes a theatre work, like the banks of lighting rigs, the electrics, the heavy curtains knotted up on the stage.
There's also machinery under the stage - spanning the centuries... a wooden winch for raising and lowering the footlights, counterweights for the trapdoor...modern junction boxes and electrics.
It all makes me think about what a theatre is.
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