Community Home.
World-Class Theatre.
Urgent Redevelopment.

From world-class shows made in Flintshire to our award-winning work with people young and old – for over 40 years our building has been a beacon of excellence and a home for our community. But our building is in need of urgent redevelopment to ensure that it’s not only safe and fit-for-purpose but also a green and inspirational home for our community for the next 40 years and beyond. This once-in-a-lifetime project will ensure North Wales retains this vital and financially sustainable resource for future generations.

A Crumbling Building

Theatr Clwyd was built in 1976 by Clwyd County Council to serve the region with world-class theatre and arts. While built to cutting edge standards in 1976, the last 40 years have taken their toll – our roof leaks, our mechanics & electrics are at the end of life, our audience areas can no longer match the experience of our excellent work on stage, we’ve terrible disabled access, our theatre-making teams work in old & unsuitable facilities and the building doesn’t meet modern health and safety standards.

While sticking-plaster repairs over the years have seen us through, what has become clear is that our beloved building is not fit for purpose.

A green future for us all

We’re passionate about saving our planet and want to ensure our building is sustainable, environmentally friendly and has a massively reduced carbon footprint. That means we have to manage energy and waste better.

A green, sustainable building helps us make carbon savings and use our resources better – to create world-class theatre and develop community learning and engagement projects – not to pay increasing energy bills.

Health and well-being

Our award-winning health and well-being projects make a big difference to vulnerable people in our community – from Singing for Lung Health and mental health workshops to Arts from the Armchair for those with early onset memory loss (with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board) and our Memory Arts Cafe for those living with dementia.

At the heart of the redevelopment is a health & wellbeing suite with specialist changing facilities and a sensory garden – calm and secluded with adjustable sensory lighting, easy access and dedicated equipment.

These spaces will be wholly focused on helping those in our communities who have specific needs that will benefit from our ever-growing arts, health and well-being work.

A place for families

Families, children and young people will, for the first time, have facilities designed for them – with an indoor play area, specially designed outdoor adventure playground, better access for everyone with room to park your buggy, shared family toilets and baby changing and much improved family catering – all this will help us continue to introduce kids to theatre, the arts and creative play for life-long learning.

Discover, Learn, Explore

Thousands of people, young and old(er), engage with us every year, learning new skills, creating new communities and exploring their creativity.

The youth hub will be a safe, creative space for rehearsing, meeting and relaxing – a place for young people to call their own. Our weekly workshops will have fit-for-purpose rooms and our spaces will be equipped to teach transferrable skills based around theatrical expertise in costume, lighting, sound, props, scenic art and set building

Open to everyone

Everyone will be able to access our buiding.

21st century accessibility will mean appropriately-sized (and crucially working) lifts, wider doors, improved signage, accessible toilets and counters, new equipment for audio described, captioned, relaxed and signed shows as well as breakout spaces and calm, outdoor gardens.

It will also ensure our backstage areas are fully accessible for professional theatre makers with access needs

All the right notes!

We are the home of Flintshire Music Service who work in our schools to make sure that a love for music (as well as some top musicians!) continue to be home-grown in Flintshire.

New rehearsal and teaching spaces for ensembles and individuals will be supported by high-quality instrument storage (to make sure our instruments are all properly looked after!).

Visitor experience

Our public areas will be open, light and accessible – with a bar and box office reimagined for faster service, fewer queues and a better welcome, and more pre-show seating to relax in.

Huge glass windows will give spectacular views with access to an outdoor terrace. The gallery spaces and cinema will be refreshed, with lift access improved and a comfortable bar outside our cinema. Our much-loved gift shop will be reimagined to offer the best Welsh produce, crafts and cards.

A new fit-for-purpose kitchen with relocated first-floor restaurant will mean fantastic views, delicious breakfast, brunch and pre-theatre meals made from the best of North Wales produce in a comfortable, beautiful atmosphere.

For the first time in years we’ll be able to host and cater for large-scale events, in a refurbished function room designed as a space to remember for all occasions.

Our Theatres

We love our theatres. And when we asked you, you said that you do too.
They don’t need completely changing just refurbishing – making what’s good, great.

More comfortable seating, increased legroom, new carpets, proper ventilation and heating and, after listening to your feedback, two new aisles in the Anthony Hopkins Theatre (so less squeezing into the centre seats).

The balcony seats in the Emlyn Williams Theatre will be more accessible and there’ll be better (and more) wheelchair positions in both theatres.

The stage facilities will be upgraded, Anthony Hopkins stage will be reinforced, and the stage mechanics and flying systems in both spaces will be repaired.

Set building

Currently our sets are made off-site in an expensive rented warehouse – a much-needed new workshop with welding, woodworking and set painting equipment will let us to build sets more efficiently and more safely, saving money in the process.

With us all under one roof we can collaborate more and be more responsive to our designers and directors. A new viewing gallery might mean you can watch our sets being built and painted (from a safe place).

In rehearsal

Our new rehearsal rooms will be fit for purpose and the right size for our stages – higher ceilings and better access will mean actors can rehearse on mock-ups of the set while better heating and ventilation systems will keep them at a much better creative temperature*!

We’ll also be able to rehearse dance as we’ll have a sprung floor – vital for keeping dancers’ limbs safe!

*In all seriousness – it’s harder to concentrate when you’re shivering!

Wardrobe

Our costume team will move closer to our rehearsal rooms in a specialist area with proper fitting rooms, working computers, improved ventilation, upgraded lighting (so we can see what we’re stitching) and equipment!

To get costumes to the stage ready for the evening’s show a new lift and access corridor will allow costumes to be moved freely around the building making washing during and after shows easier!

A place to prepare

We want the very best actors in the country to come and perform on our stages but our current dressing rooms are fairly horrible – having them refurbished to provide a relaxing space that actors can call their home away from home as well as better access and privacy will make performing at Theatr Clwyd even more appealing.