Studio 144, the new arts centre in Guildhall Square, launches on Friday (Feb 16, 2018), with a “spectacular opening event and a day of free live entertainment and family activities” promised for Friday and Saturday.
The arts centre will be home to Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST), City Eye and John Hansard Gallery. The council says it’s “been designed to ensure the space is versatile enough to accommodate a range of art forms that will appeal to a broad spectrum of cultural and artistic tastes”.
The two-day event, Southampton Celebrates, will begin at 6pm on Friday with a performance created by NST’s resident dance theatre company ZoieLogic Dance Theatre, with 130 dancers from communities across Southampton, a Ford car and fireworks.
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This opening show, Homegrown, celebrates Southampton as a city of makers, and will be followed by a performance of the world premiere of Howard Brenton’s The Shadow Factory in the main house at NST City, which tells the story of Southampton’s courage in 1940 during The Battle of Britain.
Free activities
On Saturday from 11am NST will host a programme of free activities for all ages inside NST City, including behind-the-scenes tours of the new venue; the Shadow Factory exhibition exploring the stories behind The Shadow Factory and featuring the “visually stunning” set designed by 59 Productions, the Tony award-winning design team behind the London 2012 Opening Ceremony.
There will also be improv comedy sessions, pop-up performances, live music from local bands, drop-in family games, songs and crafts and children’s performances, opportunities to have your own poem created and a workshop with award-winning poet, playwright and performer Inua Ellams.
Milestone
Councillor Satvir Kaur, cabinet member for communities, culture and leisure, said: “Southampton is on a journey to becoming the cultural destination in the south and the opening of Studio 144 is an important milestone of this journey”.
“Not only will Studio 144 boost the local economy, creating hundreds of new jobs and bringing in thousands more visitors into Southampton, but is also great for city pride and will put Southampton on the map.”
• For full details of the ‘Southampton Celebrates’ programme, including timings, visit NST’s website https://www.nstheatres.co.uk/whats-on/southampton-celebrates