Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Gold Award

Images

Videos

Direct link: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/816915383

Company

Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Summary

Pitlochry Festival Theatre commissioned a new studio space and foyer extension in October 2020, at the peak of Covid pandemic lockdowns. The PFT Team, led by Colin Liddell, Chair of the Capital Committee; Crawford Gillies, Chair of the Board; Kris Bryce, Executive Director; and Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director; took the bold decision to accelerate this Capital Project, taking advantage of the forced closure. Suzie Bridges Architects were appointed through competition, and the studio staged its first production in August 2022.

PFT, nestled in its unique Highland Perthshire setting overlooking the river Tummel and Ben Vrackie, is Scotland’s largest producing theatre - a National Theatre of Pitlochry - with multiple seasons, annual shows, community engagement, education, outreach, and more. PFT’s ‘VISION Project’ outlines a plan for its successful and sustainable future, and a commitment to their audience and wider communities – both local and further afield, through
• increased community engagement,
• reduced carbon footprint,
• financial sustainability.
PFT’s goal for the studio project focussed on placemaking, accessibility, engagement, and essentially, the desire to put people at the heart of everything they do.
Central to the project was a second performance space, a studio built within a scenery store. A fully flexible space, it showcases new writing and touring productions from across Scotland and UK, broadening PFT’s already-strong artistic programme. The project raised the studio floor, creating level access throughout; extended the foyer; created a new ‘beacon’ entrance and welcoming box office; opened the foyer to stunning views; and added accessible facilities for public, staff and performers including an accessible dressing room, transforming the way PFT, its audience, and the community, interact.
Throughout commissioning, design, and construction of this complex project, whilst Covid lockdowns continued, PFT worked hard to meet the needs of their communities. They developed outside spaces and online stages. Online events became a lifeline for PFT’s housebound community, with a telephone club for the lonely and vulnerable, and daily digital outputs from actors and performers. Sound Stage, with Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, gave online theatre to home audiences every month, with new works by top names. And Winter Words, PFT’s annual literary festival, transferred successfully to Zooming and streaming.
The inspirational studio space supports PFT’s ambitions for radically enhanced access to their work. It delivers accessible facilities that engage and expand existing and new audiences, supporting and creating jobs, reaching a wider range of artists from all over Scotland and the UK.

The Judges has this to say:
“This client was collaborative, enthusiastic and clear about what they wanted to achieve. It took a lot of courage to be bold and go beyond what they had to do in a technical sense but it puts Pitlochry on the map and is not a twee tourist draw”

Reason for nomination

The Pitlochry Festival Theatre Studio project Design Team, led by Suzie Bridges Architects, wish to nominate their client, The PFT Team, led by Colin Liddell, Chair of the Capital Committee; Crawford Gillies, Chair of the Board; Kris Bryce, Executive Director; and Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director; for the Scottish Design Awards 2023 Client of the Year. In October 2020, at the peak of Covid pandemic lockdowns the PFT Team took the bold decision to accelerate this Capital Project and take advantage of the forced theatre closure. This project, Phase 1 in a series of works to revitalise the treasured theatre, was complex and exhausting, but the PFT Team worked tirelessly to ensure the programme succeeded. PFT had the foresight and commitment not only for this project, but for the additional works they undertook throughout the commissioning, design, and construction stages of the major works, such as: • connections to the local community with online events, a telephone club, and daily digital outputs from varied performers, • creative and imaginative solutions for outdoor performances, including refurbishing the outdoor Amphitheatre and building a bandstand, • online creative endeavours, like transferring productions from stage to radio, or Sound Stage with Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, or Winter Words, their literary festival, hosted entirely on zoom and streaming, • continuing Shades of Tay, a programme of commissions and community projects aimed at celebrating the magnificent Tay area and those who live there. Whilst building work progressed PFT continued to produce and promote new work, leading the way for other theatres. As a client for a major Capital Works Project, the PFT Team were great. They were collaborative, enthusiastic, clear about what they wanted to achieve, and highly committed, particularly regarding any local community issues. They were dedicated to the legacy of their special theatre and the organisation’s ambitious ‘VISION Project’, aiming to put people at the heart of all they do. They successfully applied for funding from the Tay Cities Deal and others, as part of a much larger project that will ultimately reimagine their theatre over the years to come. Now the project has been completed and is in use, PFT have imaginatively and creatively used their new spaces for a range of community and theatrical engagements, including television broadcasts, new drama works, baby sensory classes and discos, rehearsals, literary festivals and author talks, school theatre workshops, and dance classes.