Great Hall, The Leys School

The Great Hall at The Leys School is an ambitious new performing arts centre which adds a new string to the bow of one of the UK’s leading independent schools. Beyond the auditorium lies a sizeable and flexible foyer for receptions and events and a spacious backstage area which includes dedicated dressing rooms and additional space for costumes, scenic construction and storage.

Replacing the previous theatre on the campus, the brief called for an intimate drama and music theatre which can be transformed into an assembly room for up to 600 students. In response, we developed a room with a fixed balcony and flexible stalls. The rear wall of the stalls can be opened up to the foyer and the seating retracted so that high-seating-capacity assemblies, examinations, and exhibits, as well as other theatrical staging formats, can utilise the large flat floor area.

The building also hosts a 100-seat studio theatre, three drama studios, a dance studio, and large scene shop, dramatically increasing the school’s capabilities and opportunities for performance. As well as leading the auditorium concept and advising on the general planning of the building, we provided acoustics and technical theatre design services, including stagelighting, audiovisual and stage engineering.

We designed a number of features to allow the Great Hall to work well acoustically for a wide variety of performances, including sound-reflective surfaces in the stage area for musical ensembles and carefully shaped walls of the auditorium for clarity of the spoken word. According to the type of performance or rehearsal, acoustic conditions can be adjusted using high-level sound-absorbing curtains.

Safety features include a tension-wire grid installed over the auditorium and fixed lighting bridges over the stage. Double-stacked, the bridges provide access for maintenance to the flying systems that sit between them allowing for the suspension of scenic and technical equipment.