Stanford Hall Theatre, Loughborough.

[Muller_Light]

Last week I and Oakwarden visited Stanford hall theatre near Loughborough, as we are helping to do a show there in October.

It was like going back in a TARDIS. The theatre was apparently built in 1937 and clearly the décor hasn’t changed much since then – and neither have many of the fittings!

On stepping onto the stage the first thing I noticed was the footlight battens recessed into the front of the stage. Beyond this, in the orchestra pit, was the mighty Wurlitzer ready to rise up. (well it would if it wasn’t covered up!)

A quick walk round the stage revealed some interesting lighting; A bar of Fresnels at the front, 3 bars of battens and a bar of floods at the back. FOH consisted of 6 spots recessed into the ceiling, with 6 small holes for them to shine through; someone had also added a couple of temporary brackets at each side of the auditorium with a couple of small fresnels on them.

All the lights are controlled by a Strand 60 channel AMC dimmer, which looks onto the stage through a gauze that is built into the decoration at the side of the auditorium. (Giving a view of nearly ¾ of the stage!)

Around the stage managers desk there were a collection of knobs, amplifiers, lamps and switches that looked like they had once been in an old G.P.O. (that’s BT for you young whippersnappers) telephone exchange. Apparently they all still worked!

We then went outside and climbed up a ladder, through a trap-door, up some narrow steps to the projection room. None of your modern digital stuff here; a couple of 35mm projectors complete with wind-the-carbon-rods-together arc houses (I couldn’t find any spare rods), a carbon arc follow spot and some sort of dual glass slide projector with 2 vertically arranged arc houses!

Somewhere I’m sure there must have been a couple of valve amplifiers, but I didn’t find them in my short visit.

The stage has 40 manual fly hoists, some of which look fairly recently used and a cyc which is like a 10m x 5m canvas drum stretched across the back wall.

 

Over to the rest of you now; is what I found typical of many rural theatres and what other time capsules are out there?

[TomLyall]

Well I live in loughborough, and have seen a few amdram things there, the sound is deffinately not up to much... most of the wiring is quite scary too, but as they say it still works :D :D

 

oh btw most theatres are death-traps anyhow... (ok im expecting a flurry of comments about that now...)

 

Tom

 

[Edit: Spelling]

[robloxley]

oh btw most theatres are death-traps anyhow... (ok im expecting a flurry of comments about that now...)

Definitely pretty dangerous places what with lots of electricity, pyros, flying things, large heights to fall from etc. Best not forgotten!

[WiLL]

I explored backstage at a village hall in Chingford last year and found that their tiny stage's lx was all powered by a rack of mini-eight dimmers. Nice. I had good fun pretending to be Dr. Frankentstein with that lot.

[benweblight]

our school hall has footlight trenches!!! now filled in (damm aspestos), as wel those old grey mains boxes, with NO 3phase, or proper connectors of any kind, and they power bits in the power cupboard used with them (you know the things that look like they should have pistons)

plus the very old furse rig

[P. Funk]

NO 3phase

 

why do you need 3 phase in a school hall?

 

our school has an interesting way of saving money. when they get new stuff installed, they dont bother getting the old stuff taken out. So I'm still finding random very old 15 amp sockets that dont work, bits of TRS coming from holes in the wall with a plug on the end that does god knows what, etc. Fun trying to see what they all do :P

[benweblight]

we have the actual power but we cant get at it, thats what I mean

[Jivemaster]

I used to FSM a local drama fest at stanford hall, That place was a private house with its own theatre/cinema c/w organ Yes it rises and still works. Its the local venue for am dram in south Notts and North Leics. You should have seen the old Blackburn and Starling motorised remote controlled resistive dimmers in a room under the stage

[Goofy]

In its defence, I will say that Stanford Hall is a wonderful place to visit as an audience member! :D

[delicolor]

You should have seen the old Blackburn and Starling motorised remote controlled resistive dimmers in a room under the stage

I never saw the dimmer room but the control was still around backstage on the perch.

 

It also had some sort of mercury based tilt switch mechanism associated with the house light control, the fountain-style fittings on the side walls would cascade out as each of the glass switches broke the circuit in sequence.

 

I never saw that either, but the old Furse guys had to mintain it & it came up in conversation.

 

The double-decker lantern affair in the Box was a genuine Brenograph effects projector, predating disco lighting effects by about 40 years. Last time I saw it, it had been twisted out of the way so the port could be used for a followspot.

 

Ian

[mantleberg]

Hi it may intrest you to know that I was one of the projectionists at stanford hall the projectors are GB MAGNUS circa 1938 the slide machine is called a BRENOGRAPH made by Brenkert of Switserland, The sound has been upgraded to a transistorised unit by a guy called David my second in command..thaught this may intrest you J.S.

[timpman19]

Old thread but this theatre is now shut down due to lack of funding and numerous other health and safety issues.

A lot of secrecy kept about it all really, not given many details at all.

[Ynot]

Last week I and Oakwarden visited Stanford hall theatre near Loughborough, as we are helping to do a show there in October.

It was like going back in a TARDIS. The theatre was apparently built in 1937 and clearly the décor hasn’t changed much since then and neither have many of the fittings!

Gee! An old thread with an interesting topic! :)

 

About a hundred years ago, (!) when I worked with a small am-dram group about 30 miles or so from loughborough, we took a play to the area festival which was hosted there for a few years. I found the place absolutely fascinating!

We had a mini-tour from the local tech, which included the dimmer room, which wasn't the one connected to the AMC - actually, I can't remember there being an AMC - the control desk I used was a bit like an old GPO test rack, with rotary knobs for faders and key switches selecting the channels - you effectively patched the channels there on the desk.

Anyways, back at the dimmers....

from what I recall, the dimmer room, beneath the stage, contained a long stainless steel (I think) cylinder with the rheostat type dimmers in curves around it - when you selected the channels the system operated an electro magnet which clamped the slider handle to the drum, and when the master fader was connected, the drum rotated, changing the position of the sliders! Fade outs were a reverse, obviously.

Cross fades were impossible to achieve as far as I could see, and the rate of fade was constant - and SLOW!!

 

Nevertheless, complete with the salt water rectifier in the corner, it was VERY interesting to watch, and at that time extremely well maintained and clean.

 

Tony

[delicolor]

When I was at CCT, the Furse guys up in Nottingham used to look after the Blackburn starling but it got harder and harder as it was unique, not totally understood and by then half a century old.

 

Blackburn Starling were still trading in the Nottingham area (and still are) but were not interested in this rather quirky bit of vintage electro-mechanics.

 

I seem to remember they made another unique system for the Royal College of Music as well.