AGENIA
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Curtain rises on Glasgow’s new Tron Theatre
Anyone in Glasgow with an appetite for high quality theatre will experience a sense of relief when the Tron reopens on Friday 23 July. The building closed last summer‘to complete £5 million’s worth of re-development, and now boasts extra performance spaces and a stylish new look to its bar and restaurant.
The artistic programme gets underway on Wednesday 28 July with Jade Theatre Company’s production of Like Candyfloss by Sarah Woods. It is believed that The Tron's relatively youthful audience profile and reputation for artistic adventure should guarantee that it will avoid the loss of audiences which most theatres fear during extended closure.
Neil Murray, the Tron's administrative director, reckons the money raised from four different public sources has been well spent. 'We feel that our patrons can now be completely looked after from the moment they arrive,’ he explains. 'The new restaurant provides full _ ‘ meals, and the bar is much larger, ' v so people won't have to leave the building for anything.’
The sense of a modern entertainment complex is combined with the preserved site of the Tron's original 16th century building. Murray praises the architects RJMJ Scotland for their ingeniusness in bringing this off. 'lt's quite amazing,’ he says. ‘The wall of the old building actually forms a main part of the new complex - you have to see it to believe it.‘
Much improved technology is bound to be welcomed'
by performers, as will the new studio space, an intimate
ANDREW LEE
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Dramatic improvement: the new-look Tron Theatre
theatre which provides a well-equipped stage for smaller-scale productions. Murray points up the advantages: ’Until now, we’ve not been able to offer performers a rehearsal space, but now touring companies can rehearse in the building. Giving companies a sense of being part of the project at the Tron is bound to improve artistic links, as well as producing generally better theatre.’ (Steve Cramer)
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Museum pass provesjust the ticket
Plane dealing: Museum of Flight
Kiiigussie and Newtonmore to the lyiuseum oi Costume at Shambellie House in Dumfriesshire, also taking in the Museum of Flight in East Fortune, the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses in Fraserburgh, the Scottish Agricultural Museum at Ingliston, Irvme's Scottish Maritime Museum, the Scottish Mining Museum at Newtongrange and the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther.
"The museums are offering the chance to discover Scotland's extraordinary
Scots are being encouraged to explore their heritage with the introduction of a new season ticket which opens the doors of ten of the country's museums. Under the new scheme, the ticket - costing £5 for adults and £10 for a family of two adults and up to three children — gives twelve months' access to some of Scotland's most popular
visitor attractions.
PartiCipants in the scheme include thr- new Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and its next-door neighbour, the Roya Museum of Scotland, while .wthen offer a broad histoncal and geographical portrait of the country's past. The season ticket cow-rs niouni‘ from the Highland Folk Museum ii'
heritage and culture, like the ieconstructed 1700’s Highland township at the Highland Folk Museum and the puffer made famous in, the a :. telewsion series at the Scottish Maritime Museum,’ says Ross Noble, spokesman for the scheme.
The season tickets are available now at each venue. tAian Morrison)
The Scottish Inquisition
Questions you don 't expect. This issue: Paul Nosbitt, Curator of Exhibitions, Royal Botanic Gardan, Edinburgh
Broadsheet or tabloid?
Both, of course; sensationalism and propaganda in equal measures.
First arts/medialmusic related job? Selling my drawings at the age of sixteen to a shyster from Newcastle.
What is your career highlight? Receiving the National Art Collections Fund Award for 'An Outstanding Contribution to the Visual Arts' in the company of my mum.
The award for a lifetime contribution to Scottish culture goes to? Everyone who cares.
Name a work of art that you cannot live without . . . My shoe collection.
. . . and a law that you are proud to have broken? Gravity.
You're about to be exiled - where and how would you spend your last night?
New York's lower east side, having a lock-in with Kid Silver and all the angeh.
Glasgow: City of Architecture and Design. But which Scottish building would you like to see destroyed? I'd start with Dounreay and work down.
What motion would you make as an MSP? Anything to help end male tyranny.
Top Scot of the new Millennium? Get back to me in a thousand years.
What should be in the Millennium Dome?
Dounreay and my downstairs neighbour.
How do you see Scotland's future? Inhabited by strange and beautiful life forms.
22 Jul—S Aug 1999.115”! 87