Mercury Theatre Re-opens and Announces Capital Development

Mercury Theatre has re-opened the doors of its auditorium and public spaces after a substantial refurbishment. The Mercury Theatre is the most active producing theatre in East Anglia and has served as a vital centre of excellence in the East's growing creative economy for several decades, the newly-refurbished building brings all of the theatre's spaces, staff and production work together into one modern, sustainable and accessible building with more opportunities for community engagement.

Key Highlights:

• Bringing all of the theatre's spaces, staff and production work together into one building, previously wardrobe, stage management and technical departments were operating in an unconverted residential house to the rear of the building
• The front of house areas, the auditorium and backstage have been redesigned, with step free access throughout the building and a hearing loop system installed, improving accessibility for everyone.
• Creating further spaces for community engagement projects within the theatre and including a new rehearsal room, dance studio and creative learning space
• Increased facilities outside of the auditorium, including doubling the amount of toilets and the opening of Mercury Café Barwith food and drink sourced from local suppliers
• The building's energy efficiency increased with the expansion of LED lighting, converting to 100% renewable electricity and the implementation of solar panels.
• The auditorium has new seats, and an increased capacity of 530

Executive Director of Mercury Theatre, Steve Mannix said today, "This is the culmination of the hard work of our very dedicated team here at the Mercury and the support of so many including Arts Council England, Colchester Borough Council, Essex Country Council, South East Local Enterprise Partnership, European Regional Development Fund alongside those who made generous private donations. To deliver a capital project at any time is a remarkable achievement, but in the face of everything that our industry has weathered in the past 17 months, it's all the more rewarding. We're thrilled to officially throw open the doors to our new theatre and share all it has to offer. This theatre is born of our community, and is here for everyone - to enjoy world class theatre, a comprehensive education and community programme, and quite simply to connect with others. Welcome back!"

This is the first time in the Mercury Theatre's history that all of these facilities have been under one roof.

Three new spaces have been added to the building for use by the Mercury Theatre team and are also available to hire; a double-height rehearsal room, with floor-to-ceiling windows, mirror wall, piano and speaker system that can feed directly to the stage; a dance studio with sprung floor, ballet barre and mirror wall; and a creative learning space which will house Tots classes, drama clubs, workshops and more.

The auditorium has new seats that make up an increased capacity of 530, as well as reconfigured backstage areas to allow step-free access from the loading area behind the theatre directly onto the stage, plus new dressing rooms and facilities for performers.

A brand-new café bar with indoor and outdoor seating. All fresh produce that goes into the theatre's substantial new food and drink offering is sourced from local suppliers to reduce food miles, and all waste is carefully monitored and composted in the gardens to the rear of the theatre. Recyclable packaging for food and drink is also being introduced wherever possible

A new shared office for staff with hot desks available for local creative businesses to hire, meeting rooms, wardrobe department.

The way the building generates and conserves electricity has been improved, with the expansion of LED lighting throughout the building, which is used efficiently via a timer system. The venue now operates on electricity sourced from renewable supply, and we have extended the solar panels on the roof.

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