Student drama under threat from costly redevelopment of UCL Bartlett School

On campus, fears grow about the fate of the Garage Theatre

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A petition to save the Garage Theatre Workshop has gained almost a thousand signatures as the UCL Estates £12 million refurbishment plan for the Bartlett Institute makes headway.

The popular student venue is set to close its doors by April 2014 and will make way for a low-power electrical substation as part of redevelopment works to the Wates House site. By the start of the academic year in September 2016, architecture students will benefit from dedicated workstations, increased studio space and a 333% larger café.

The intimate 100-seat venue before a Comedy Club performance.

Yet, UCL officials have remained inconspicuously coy about a possible replacement for the adjacent theatre – which is anticipated to host over 1800 students this year.

Students fear this could spell the end for grassroots drama on campus, with a number of UCL arts societies including Drama Society, Musical Theatre Society and Comedy Club collaborating to form the ‘Save Your UCLU Student Theatre’ campaign. Its leaders seek to promote the importance of performing arts on campus and ensure an alternative location is identified in the heart of Bloomsbury to host future events.

The petition page has 815 signatories and features heartfelt testimonials to the Garage Theatre Workshop, with one student explaining she had ‘made some of the best friends of my life there, and learned things I never would have found in my lectures or book’. Others underlined the importance of the theatre which, as UCL’s only student-run space, is not limited by profit margins or shy from more experimental productions.

Student and drama enthusiast Robin Simpson says ‘the Garage Theatre is a gem. I loved the production of Woyzek last term. It would be a devastating blow to lose such an intimate, quirky venue’.

Sources from the campaign have hinted a selection of performances are being planned at the theatre before its closure this year. Thespians, musicians and student audiences wait in anticipation of a statement from Union officials, the Bartlett School and UCL Estates.

Cross section of the proposed changes