Sports Hall to Theatre

[medina]

Hi All,

Does anybody work at or know of a venue near you that is a sports hall that can be used a theatre space, we are looking at using our hall for larger gigs and were looking at a visit to a couple of sites to see how they have been set up. We are based in the south (Isle of Wight) so anything a couple of hours drive away would be of interest.

Thanks

[J Pearce]

Stevenage leisure often use their sports hall as an additional performance space. The events I've been involved with use what is basically a full outdoor stage without a roof lining.

 

Depending on your roof structure you may or may not be able to hang your lighting from the roof, if you can you only need a steel/litedeck stage and some masking to taste, if not a full ground support stage may be required.

[medina]

thanks for the reply, It might be useful to know a bit about the hall we want to use, It was designed to be a multi purpose space, there is additional steel work in the roof for trusses etc, but the money ran out so the bleacher seating was never installed. this time we were thinking of having a raised stage (maybe an outdoor free standing one)with flat seating, 800 in total or 1000 standing. My main concern is the sound, the hall has a sports hall echo which is going to be awful for performance sound, so I need to find a solution for this, I was thinking of hanging drape around the hall, but with the hall 34 metres deep, 26 wide and 9 high thats a lot of drape! any suggestions would be great!

 

Mods, this might be leaning towards sound forum, feel free to move as required.

 

Thanks

[J Pearce]

Temporary bleacher seating can be hired, or built out of deck.

 

Sound wise, padded chairs, carpet and getting the speakers up high pointed down will help a lot. Drapes only work to mid high frequencies, so it's preferable to stop the sound getting near the wall in the first place.

 

Stage wise, this is what products like litedeck and steeldeck were designed for. Quick to assemble and relatively cheap to hire.

[Jivemaster]

First get a good acoustic solution to the echo problem -it will cost but it is essential

Second find out what power is available you could need 100amps per phase easily for lighting.

third get the drawings that show exactly what weight loading can be applied and where, for the lighting rig.

 

Your seating style must be approved by the licensing authority, in fact any changes need to be approved by them and may have added costs - when was the place last wired? Can you prove that the emergency lighting has been checked/serviced recently, do the toilets and bar and kitchen still conform the best practise? ( I know one venue that forgot to renew their licence so they had to re-apply for one to current standards -new toilets, kitchen, bar, emergency lighting system, total rewire, and disabled access. Silly money!!!)

[Adam L F]

Have a look at St Clement Danes School, located in the south of Hertfordshire near Watford. Done a few gigs there myself basically a glorified sports hall with proscenium arch stage with a few FOH bars and your normal bog standard kit.

[rossmck]

One venue I know of locally (ish) that does it is the Barrhead Sports Centre in Barrhead, near Glasgow, not local to you but they may be willing to give you some tech info... they have had the RSC perform shows there often.

[jradley]

You could consider taking a look around the Rivermead Centre in Reading (only about an hour drive from Southampton). It's a sports hall that also holds concerts (Robbie Williams even played there back in 2000). Unless things have changed since I worked on a gig there some years ago they don't have much (if anything) in terms of permanently installed PA or lighting rig - we hired in everything that was needed, but they can show you the layout and suspension points for truss etc.

 

John