The Theatres and Performance Buildings of South Wales
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The most surprising finding so far is that there are so many buildings in this relatively small geographical area. Included in this book are assessments of 111 extant buildings that are or have been used for theatre and other performing arts presentation during their life. Although up to date information about auditorium capacity hasn’t been possible to ascertain for every venue it is realistic to suggest that these buildings contain a collective total of something in the order of 57,000 seats. The population of the area covered is approximately 1,883,250 (based on mid 2008 census figures), giving us an approximation of 1 seat being available for every 33 men, women and children in the region. This represents an enormous asset by any standards and access to the performing arts is surely beyond most people’s expectations. Yet this is only about two-thirds of the theatres that have ever existed in this region and Darwinian processes of extinction of the weak and those who can’t adapt to changes in audience expectations and tastes are fully functioning still - in the time I’ve been visiting these buildings several more have been mothballed or closed completely and there remain only 69 venues surviving and endeavouring to provide live performance entertainment. I think the people of Wales ought to be taking this precious cultural heritage asset much more seriously and taking affirmative action to preserve and sustain it. I hope that this book raises public awareness of this incredible collection of buildings that fundamentally exist only for their benefit and that it provokes a debate amongst those in positions of power and influence who might be able to join together to find the solutions to the five questions that I have distilled my thinking down to and that seem to me, in no particular order of importance, to be the at the root of any future strategic thinking and planning for the Performing Arts in this region: How many theatres do we want (or need) in (South) Wales? How many more theatre buildings do we allow to disappear? How do we decide which ones we should keep and which ones we allow to die? How do we pay to maintain and sustain the ones we want to keep? Should we be building any more new theatre buildings in (South) Wales until we’ve fixed the ones we’ve already got?
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About the Book
This book explores a resource for audiences and performers possibly unique in the United Kingdom and largely unheard of even within the Performing Arts fraternity. For the first time, the entire estate of theatre and performance buildings in Wales has been identified and brought together revealing itself as a single incredible cultural heritage asset. The histories of each building have been researched and the author has described from a Theatre Architect's perspective and recorded with extensive photography 111 buildings in South Wales that are being, or were, used for theatre and other forms of public live entertainment over the last 150 years. Details of a further 47 theatre buildings that have already been demolished and lost forever are also included. This is an essential reference book for anyone interested in the buildings within which performing arts are presented in the region, whether as building owner or operator, performer, audience member, local or National Politician or policy maker, Architect or Theatre Consultant.
About the Author
Rob Firman is an Architect with over 25 years experience of specializing in the design of buildings for the Performing Arts. He is passionate about being involved in the conservation and future success of all Theatres and especially in Wales. He has discovered and visited 111 surviving theatre buildings in the course of a 15 month long road-trip and they are all described in this book. He lives in St Fagans on the western edge of Cardiff with his faithful old dog and cat and is considering exploring the rest of Wales and recording the Theatres and Performance buildings of mid and North Wales as a companion volume to this one.