Theatre Development Project

Wokingham Theatre is progressing a Building Development Project to add a “studio” block to the main theatre building.  The new block will be built in front of the barn and will join onto the existing theatre building.

The new development will be in the same style as the existing main theatre buildings as shown by these elevation drawings:

The ground floor will house the costume store, sewing rooms (which can be used as changing rooms), toilet facilities and a corridor providing access to other areas of the theatre:

There is a provision for a lift which will not only allow wheelchair access between the floors of the studio block, but also to the backstage area. 

The development also extends the roof of the theatre so the corridor between the back stage area and the barn is fully enclosed.

All of the upstairs will be the studio theatre which will be equipped with bleacher style seating to accommodate an audience of around 60 people.  As well as allowing the Theatre to  stage additional short run productions, the studio will be used for rehearsals and will also allow the Youth Theatre to continue classes on-site when there are performances in the main auditorium.  When not in use by the theatre the space could also be hired out to other organisations.

In order to maintain the fire exits from the main auditorium, and so allow the theatre to continue to operate without interruption, it is expected that the development will have to be completed in multiple stages. 

These plans were submitted to Wokingham Borough Council and planning permission was granted on May 1st 2025.  Unfortunately some conditions in the planning approval would prevent us from undertaking the development in phases so a further application was submitted to relax these conditions and and this was approved on March 31st 2026.

As of October 2026 we are in the process of preparing the detailed plans which are required by building control and which will be issued to developers when we go out to tender.  We hope to have these plans completed by the end of November 2026 so we can go out to tender at the start of 2027.