Our theatre space here in the Leeds School of Arts building is an industry standard small-scale theatre. It can seat up to 180 audience members, it has a tension wire grid, it has high specification on lighting and sound, and it really is here to support the practice of our students and make their work aim towards professional standards.
So, the 180 seating rate comes... pulls right back so that it basically triples the space of the theatre, and it means that what we can have is we can have more in-the-round productions, we can have live art practices happen here.
So, I would rate the performing arts facilities 10 out of 10. There's everything I expected when I arrived into the building. There's lots of wide-open spaces, we've got green screen rooms, we've got three performing arts rooms, we've got a big theatre, a cinema, a black box room... got everything I need and got lots of tech rooms as well, so if you just... you need anything in the performing arts industry, it's in this building which is fantastic.
Here at Leeds School of Arts, our students are all supported by an amazing technical team, so right from the very beginning of the module and practice, our students will be in discussion with that technical team, and they will support the students through lighting, sound, AV, anything that is required to make their work, how they envision it as they move forward in their modules.
We train our students to be able to use the technology in this building, so our current production of Mother Courage is performed by our Level 4 performing arts students, but it's also being produced by our BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance students as well at Level 4. They're calling the show, they've done the lighting design, they're operating the sound and also the lights.
So, today is our show day and we are performing the play called Mother Courage and Her Children by Brecht. We've been rehearsing and developing this over a period of about 11 to 12 weeks, and we'll be performing it today later on in the evening.
So, outside of timetable sessions, the students can book the spaces and come in here to independently rehearse. That really encourages collaboration across the programmes and encourages an independence in our students which is really important to arts practice.
A professional career in the creative industries is something that's within their reach when they're working with us. They get to experience it and they also get to experience different facets of that process as well.
I think what really excites me the most about having access to these amazing facilities is the opportunity for our students to collaborate across courses into music, sound, and film, but also to support one another, so when our students produce their work here in the theatre, we have students from all over Leeds School of Arts coming to support them, and it really begins to develop a community of arts practice here in Leeds School of Arts.