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  3. An imposing theatre has stood on the banks of the River Avon in William Shakespeare’s home town since 1879. The first theatre bu

An imposing theatre has stood on the banks of the River Avon in William Shakespeare’s home town since 1879. The first theatre bu

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问题     An imposing theatre has stood on the banks of the River Avon in William Shakespeare’s home town since 1879. The first theatre burned down in 1926; a second, now known as the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST), opened in 1932. From the start, the building was scorned by most of the directors and many of the actors who worked there. "Sink it and start again," said Sir Tyrone Guthrie, a director, in 1950.
    They will soon have their way. After a final performance of a gripping production of "Coriolanus" on March 31st, the RST will close until 2010, and the theatre will be extensively remodelled before it reopens. However, instead of being a cause for celebration in the profession and among audiences, the closure is being accompanied by real regret. This imperfect theatre has been so influential in the lives of three generations of English theatre people that it has become the stuff of legend. Consequently, the fabric of the old building will be retained, wrapped around a newly designed theatre. "You wouldn’t want to get rid of all your ghosts," says Simon Harper, the deputy project director.
    The old theatre was designed by a young woman called Elisabeth Scott in 1920s Modernist style. It was built of red brick and had fine art-deco decoration. The foyer box-office, for instance, is a gorgeous piece of early 20th-century design in stainless steel, green marble, bronze and silver bronze with ornamental grilles. The whole was rated Grade 2 (denoting a particularly important building of more than special interest) by English Heritage, the agency that lists historic buildings.
    But the auditorium is like a cinema, with the circle and the balcony isolated from the stage. Although successive artistic directors insisted on internal alterations to create a closer relationship between the actors and their audience, the company has long regarded the internal space as a relic. For modern audiences, which have grown up with television, the relationship with the actors is not intimate enough.
    Even so, audiences today remember a remarkable range of productions in the old theatre. "It’s curious that such a dreadful theatre holds such memories of great events," says Sir Peter Hall, whose own begin with Peter Brook’s Love’s Labour’s Lost in 1946. Sir Peter became artistic director in 1960, and he immediately had a forestage installed, like an Elizabethan apron stage. His regime is probably best remembered for its version of Shakespeare’s history plays. Most directors since then have repeated this testing exercise in producing Shakespeare. Michael Boyd, the present artistic director, is in the middle of his version of the histories right now.
    During the closure of the RST, performances will take place in a new theatre up the road, called the Courtyard. This basic rusted steel box (it rises to 15.2 metres or 50 feet), which was built in 11 months and opened in the summer of 2006, is an ingenious way of managing the transition between the old and the new. Studies by a major accounting firm suggest that the presence of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) benefits the local economy by ￡57 million ($112 million) a year. Complete closure for three years would have dire consequences for the smart shops in the town centre.
    So Arts Council England released ￡6 million from the ￡50 million it is contributing to the whole project to build the Courtyard. (The Stratford theatre’s commercial significance explains the contribution of ￡20 million by Advantage West Midland, a regional development agency, to the ￡100 million development budget. Only ￡15 million has still to be found, and the RSC has not yet begun to tap its loyal supporters.)
    The Courtyard is a model for the new auditorium. Because it is so different from the old, the directors and actors wanted to work out how best to perform in it. The audience of 1,050 sits in three shallow tiers of seats on three sides of a stage that juts out over ten metres from the proscenium.
    This is known as a thrust stage, and it is controversial—actors often have their backs to the audience, making audibility a problem. But, because of the intimacy it allows between audience and actors, the RSC is wedded to it. Sir Peter, for example, prefers the less prominent apron stage in his new theatre in Kingston upon Thames, but a thrust stage has been used successfully in the smaller Swan theatre, part of the old theatre building. (It will be mothballed during the redevelopment.)
    Since the Swan has been where directors and actors have preferred to work and the audience has been enthusiastic, Mr. Boyd decided to recreate it on a larger scale in the new theatre. "Our inspiration is the crowded, secular complexity of the Elizabethan courtyard," he says.
    The final planning application for the project will be considered next month. Apparently, the only controversial item is a 35-metre tower with lifts and a bridge to the theatre to take the audience to the circle and balcony. On top of the tower is an observation platform that some councilors say is obtrusive. But there is no argument about plans for Scott’s distinguished red-brick monument to the Bard. "Knocking it down would have been quicker and cheaper," says Vikki Heywood, the RSC’s executive director. But it was not an option. Thank goodness.
What will the new theatre be like?
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答案The audience of 1,050 sits in three shallow tiers of seats on three sides of a stage that juts out over ten metres from the proscenium. Because of the intimacy it allows between audience and actors, the RSC is wedded to it.
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