Fletcher teams up with Rye Festival again

After the success of last year's The Mad Lover in The Rye Arts Festival - we're teaming-up with Southwark Playhouse to produce For All Time by Rick Thomas from 22nd April - 1st May

For more information and to book tickers click here




It was the first Fletcher event way back in 2009 staged in The Tudor Room at The Mermaid and was introduced by the man who started it all - Freddie Lees and Donald Sinden - seen here with the cast and writer.

From left to right - Simon Paisley-Day (Shakespeare), Rick Thomas, Donald Sinden, Sara Markland (Margaret) and Paul Panting (Fletcher)
photograph by Jane Shaw

Internal Affairs (2002)

The cafe/bar in The Old Library is coming on.   You can see the mezzanine with the lighting for the bar and box office below, as well as the pile of oak flooring ready to be installed.

Vertigo

If you look closely, you should be able to see part of the airconditioning being swung in below a 30m crane on Friday 31st.   Despite it being Hallowe'en and the fact that the crane was the colour of a pumpkin, nothing ghoulish of note happened.

This is the last of the major bits of plant to be delivered.   You can see how tight for space the build has been - to get all the materials and trades on and off site has been a wok of logistical genius.

We wanted to make sure the E-W roof was restored so the the view from St Mary's tower was the same as before - the cross-hatching was tricky to do but now it's done...it looks beautiful.

Less than 2 months to go

Durtnell and Son have been working flat-out to complete the project on target.

The structure of the main auditorium has been completed.   It is watertight and the sedum roof is in place

Main Auditorium 28th October 2014

Roof of main auditorium 24th October 2014

At the same time, we are still focusing on the detail that will make the Kino-Rye a fantastic place to be.

The air conditioning vents in each row are being fitted

Air handling ducts 28th October 2014

And the banquette seating on the mezzanine is being built

Mezzanine seating 28th October 2014

The peg-tile roof over the projection room is being put back exactly as it was...but this time with insulation

Projection room roof 28th October 2014

Finally for this update...for those of you, like me, who revel in the beauty of pipework - here is the plant room in the process of being lagged.   Gorgeous isn't it

Plant room 28th October 2014 

On Friday - the compressor for the air-con will be craned-in over the building - we can't wait.

July update

Quite a lot has happened since the Pop Up Cinema...

Despite some pretty awful weather early in the year we have cracked-on with the build and are pretty much on schedule and on budget.   

There have been one or two hurdles along the way, but by September, Fletcher in Rye CIC will have completed the construction phase of the project and then it's over to The Kino for the fit-out - in preparation for the opening later this year.

The Old Library buiding has been insulated and re-roofed.   Although we're waiting to finish the lead-work as "Pearl and Dean" the Herring Gull chicks are taking longer to leave home than expected.   Never mind, we'll wait.

The fabric of the main auditorium is nearing completion.   This will be the "Red" screen and will seat approximately 100 people.

 Keep checking back for more photos

Pop Up Cinema in Rye

The Buttermarket - the vaulted area under the Town Hall was turned into a 20-seat cinema showing "It's a Wonderful Life".

As a little taste of what's to come - Fletcher and Kino got together on Saturday 14th December for the the first of (hopefully) many free, informal screenings of classic films.

On one of the coldest nights of the year, a hardy few sat through the whole film - but over 100 people came to see what we were doing, giving us a chance to explain the plan,   There was unanimous support and that wasn't just because of the free mulled-wine.

There's been a lot going on behind the scenes.

While it was business as usual for the rest of Rye, Architects, Engineers, acoustics experts and many other specialist trades have been working hard in the pre-construction phase.  In order to make sure that there are no surprises and that when the building starts, we can complete on time and in budget, we've had to organise…and pay for…

Asbestos removal

Many buildings of this vintage probably contain some bits of asbestos - usually in the pipe lagging or boiler room - and Lion Street is no different.    We have had two sessions of asbestos removal and the work is now  complete

Electricity Sub-station

You may know that there is an Electricity Sub-station sandwiched between the George and the Lion Street site.  The north-east corner of the the 100 seat auditorium would sit over the existing cables, and this isn’t allowed as UK Power Networks need to be able to get to the cables without knocking any buildings down.   Consequently, the cables had to be moved by a metre or so.   UK Power Networks and their sub-contractors turned up on time and during some of the nastiest weather over the last month have dug, cut, shoveled and drank tea and all is now complete.   It wasn’t cheap but it had to be done.

Archaeology

Also necessary was a survey to make sure that we weren’t about to disturb anything of archaeological importance.    Again more digging (and tea) and a few visits from the County Archaeologist and the result is a positive one.

Rye Studio School

The new Studio School is using the St Mary’s Centre (the old FE Centre) as temporary classrooms and offices as they build their new school in The Grove.    As well as giving the students from year 10 a guided tour, we’ve been very happy to host Art classes in the Old Library

Fund-raising

The total cost of the development of the site to create a state of the art 2-screen cinema is £1.4m.   And again...we’re nearly there!    

After many months of fundraising and fantastic reactions from local people and businesses as well as support from East Sussex County Council’s Rural Regeneration team, the project is in advanced discussions to secure the remaining £350,000.    We are optimistic that we can announce more details very soon.

This spectacular show of support for the project, combined with the contributions from Kino Digital means that the total figure of £1.5m has nearly been reached.   After a period of discussions and tendering, a letter of intent has been issued to Durtnell - our favoured Civil Engineering Contractor - and we hope to sign final contracts in the next few weeks.

The plan is to open the cinema in time for the Christmas holidays 2014