cast

CAST

Client

MUSE / Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council

Location

Doncaster, Yorkshire

Status

Completion Summer 2013, on time and under budget

Value

£17m

Category

Performing Arts, Community

Role

Project Director and Architect (Suzie Bridges for Arts Team)

project summary

Suzie Bridges led the design and delivery of CAST, a community-focussed arts venue aimed at new and young audiences.

The venue, with its 600-seat theatre and 200-seat studio, is used to both view work and teach the skills needed to make and present new theatre. The project was the centrepiece of a wider regeneration of the Waterdale area and has become known locally as the ‘cultural living room’ of Doncaster.

project team

Architect:  Arts Team
Structural Engineer:  Arup
Services Engineer:  Arup
Acoustics:  Arup
Theatre Consultants:  Charcoalblue
Project Manager:  MUSE Developments
Cost Consultant:  Gardiner Theobald
Lighting:  Arup
Contractor:  Vinci
Photography: Andy Barton

    • project description

    "Suzie collaborated creatively and effectively with the many different stakeholders in the project -MUSE, Doncaster MB Council, the operator and Arts Council England... CAST formed the centre piece of our master plan vision. We hoped it would be the trigger for regenerating the rundown Waterdale area, and the project has exceeded our expectations." Michael Broadhead - Projects Director, MUSE

    The new arts venue CAST was delivered as part of MUSE Developments proposals for the regeneration of Waterdale in Doncaster. Suzie Bridges and her team brought together leading experts to help define an arts venue that would attract audiences from, according to Arts Council England, one of the UK's least Arts-engaged towns.

    The result, CAST, is a new genre of community-focussed arts venue, aimed at new and young audiences. It is vibrant, energy-efficient and welcoming. Suzie Bridges and the team conceived it as a creative 'toolbox' - a flexible collection of spaces that respond to current and future markets in a changing Doncaster.

    The venue is used not only to view productions but also to teach the skills needed to make and present new theatre. It provides different performance spaces with different technical facilities. The 600-seat theatre provides a traditional proscenium lyric space for touring and home-made productions. The 200-seat flat floor studio theatre provides an experimental, cutting edge room for a variety of events - from rock and pop, to comedy and street dance. The suite of dance and drama rehearsal studios provide an intimate but professionally equipped space for creating new work, or for event hire to generate revenue.

    Internally, the open, informal foyers offer a range of different gathering spaces which connect the suite of performance rooms, encouraging visitors to interact with the arts. It has become known as the "cultural living room", and two years on the people of Doncaster have embraced the arts as much as the building, and made it their own.

    “Suzie has designed a building that is truly unique to Doncaster, and everyone is delighted by the runaway success of the venue since it opened…”

    "Her obvious expertise in the arts field was of huge benefit to the project at all stages ... “ Michael Broadhead - Projects Director, MUSE
    Michael Broadhead - Projects Director, MUSE

    Awards and publications:
    LABC 2014 ‘Best Commercial Building over £1m
    RICS Project of the Year 2014
    RIBA North East 2014: Shortlisted
    ‘Doncaster stages a bold revival of the arts with cultural living room’ Guardian Jan 2014 
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