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National Theatre Studio’s £6 million makeover

London SE1 website team

The National Theatre Studio in The Cut re-opened in November following a 15-month, £6 million redevelopment of its 1950s building.

NT Studio

The project, by architects Haworth Tompkins (also responsible for the rebuilding of the nearby Young Vic), has effectively doubled the studio's development capabilities.

The "New Brutalist" building dates from 1958 and was originally the annexe of the adjacent Old Vic theatre. The National Theatre bought the building in 1998 for £1.1 million. It was listed in 2006.

The Studio now possesses a second large workshop space, new facilities for dance and music theatre – including dressing rooms and showers, sprung floors and sound-proofing – and new facilities for writers.

The refurbished Studio also provides a permanent home for the NT Archive and the education department's training and project work.

The Studio is the National's centre of research and development, playing a vital role in generating work for the National's three stages.

Recent projects include His Dark Materials, Stuff Happens, Coram Boy, A Matter of Life and Death, Rafta Rafta…, Waves, War Horse and Kwame Kwei-Armah's Statement of Regret.

It is also a resource for a wide range of artists working throughout British theatre, providing an environment in which writers, actors and practitioners of all kinds can explore, experiment and devise new work free from the pressure of public performance.

The new NT Studio is dedicated to the memory of Max Rayne, chairman of the National Theatre from 1971 to 1988.

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