Arcola Theatre
{{Short description|Theatre in Hackney, London, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox Theatre
|name = Arcola Theatre
|image =
|caption =
|location = Dalston
London, {{postcode|E|8}}
United Kingdom
|designation =
|coordinates = {{coord|51.551944|-0.073889|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
|architect =
|owner = Arcola Theatre Production Company
|capacity = 200 (main house)
100 (studio)
|opened = {{Start date and age|df=yes|2000}}
|yearsactive =
|rebuilt = 2010-11
|closed =
|othernames =
|production = Repertory productions
|currentuse =
|publictransit = {{rail-interchange|london|overground}} {{rws|Dalston Junction}}; {{rws|Dalston Kingsland}}
|website = [http://www.arcolatheatre.com arcolatheatre.com]
}}
Arcola Theatre is in the London Borough of Hackney. It presents plays, operas and musicals featuring established and emerging artists.
The theatre building, in the former Colourworks paint factory on Ashwin Street, Dalston, houses two studio theatre spaces, two rehearsal studios and a café-bar. In 2021 the theatre opened Arcola Outside, also on Ashwin Street.{{cite news|url=https://www.arcolatheatre.com/outside/|title=Arcola Outside}}
Since 2007 the Green Arcola project has aimed to make Arcola the world's first carbon-neutral theatre.
History
Arcola Theatre was founded by Artistic Director Mehmet Ergen, and Executive Producer Leyla Nazli in September 2000.
Its original location was a former textile factory on Arcola Street in Dalston. The theatre celebrated this with its fifth anniversary production, The Factory Girls by Frank McGuinness. In January 2011 the Arcola moved to a former paint-manufacturing workshop on Ashwin Street in Dalston, after its previous landlord earmarked the Arcola Street site for redevelopment as apartments.{{Cite web |url=http://www.whatsonstage.com/news/theatre/london/E8831285942121/Arcola+Moves+as+Landlords+Turn+Theatre+into+Flats.html |title=Arcola Moves as Landlords Turn Theatre into Flats - - News - Whatsonstage.com |access-date=2012-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101209062832/http://www.whatsonstage.com/news/theatre/london/E8831285942121/Arcola+Moves+as+Landlords+Turn+Theatre+into+Flats.html |archive-date=2010-12-09 |url-status=dead }} It marked the move by premiering The Painter, a play about J. M. W. Turner by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/moving-stories-for-london-s-fringe-theatres-6554916.html|title=Moving stories for London's fringe theatres|newspaper=London Evening Standard|date=10 April 2012|first=Veronica|last=Lee}}
Since its inception the theatre has twice won the Peter Brook Empty Space Award and was awarded Time Out Live Awards in 2003 and 2006.{{fact|date=May 2023}}
In 2007, an Arcola co-production of Mojo Mickey by Owen McCafferty became its first West End transfer to the Trafalgar Studios.[http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/news/mojoarcola.htm British Theatre Guide, 30 May 2007] accessed 18 Sep 2007 2007 also marked the first year of the Arcola's Grimeborn, an opera and musical theatre festival that now runs for six weeks in August and September.{{fact|date=May 2023}}
The theatre claims to be committed to achieving carbon-neutral status and a research project, Arcola Energy, "bringing together the creative mindset and the engineering methodology", is established on the building's top floor to develop and market hydrogen fuel cells, with the profits subsidising the theatre's community arts projects.{{cite web |title=Case study: Arcola Theatre |url=https://1010uk.org/articles/case-study-arcola-theatre |publisher=10:10 Climate Action |access-date=21 June 2019}} Simple8's 2008 production at the Arcola, The Living Unknown Soldier, was the first show to be powered by the venue's hydrogen fuel cell. Peak power consumption for lighting was said to be 4.5 kW, or "up to 60 percent less than comparable lighting installations".{{Cite news |date=April 2008 |title=Arcola Theatre Now Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered |work=Stage Directions |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/208750722/fulltext/79D8009CCDB94DF9PQ/2 |access-date=2023-04-30 |via=ProQuest}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Theatres in London}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Theatres completed in 2000
Category:Theatres in the London Borough of Hackney
Category:Studio theatres in London
Category:Producing house theatres in London
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