The Theatre has an orchestra pit, fly galleries with winchable lighting bars and hemp bars, a control room, an FOH sound location, two dressing rooms, and a sliding scenery dock door at the rear of the stage (currently disused).
In April 2013 the theatre was temporarily closed for refurbishment as part of the wider refurbishment of the students' union building, and re-opened in February 2015.[3]
History
The Winston Theatre was built in the 1960s as part of the Students' Union building on Queens Road in Clifton, Bristol. The Union moved to this new location in 1965 from the Victoria Rooms, as a larger premises due to the large expansion of the University and increase in undergraduate numbers.
Refurbishment
Between 2013 and 2015, as part of the renovation work to the Union building, the Winston theatre was refurbished. The Stage Technicians' Association (a student society which operates the theatre on a day-to-day basis on behalf of Bristol SU) worked closely with the Union, Galliford Try and Stage Electrics to design a space which was suitable for their current needs, and would also remain up to date as technology moved on.
Technical
Total of 600A 3 Phase power to theatre
200A 3 Phase feed for dimming circuits
200A 3 Phase feed for technical power
200A 3 Phase feed for audio circuits
132 10A Dimmer channels (Zero 88 Chilli's)
16 Relay channels (Fused at 10A, pair of 16A connectors per channel)
3 Winched bars on stage (SWL: 150KG)
Chain hoist bar on stage (SWL:250KG)
Fixed grid above auditorium
6 Front of house booms
Patch panels available at most locations, all fed to a single rack. Panels may contain
DMX
XLR
Ethernet
BNC
Speakon
Intercom A/B
Notable events and productions
The UK National Student Film Festival, Screentest.[4] Created as a platform to showcase student filmmaking talent from around the UK, the awards ceremony has been held in the Winston Theatre in Bristol since 2004. Guests at the festival have included:
The first UK amateur production of Footloose was performed by Music Theatre Bristol at the Winston Theatre in June 2009. The rights for the show have been released by Josef Weinberger.[8]
