The Winston Theatre is a traditional proscenium arch theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 located in the University of Bristol Students' Union

University of Bristol Union

BURST or Bristol University Radio Station is a student-run radio station, based in the University of Bristol broadcast online from the university's student union building, and occasionally via FM with a Restricted Service Licence. The station also holds an AM licence, and plans to begin...

 building, one of the largest students' union

Students' union

A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...

 buildings in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. The theatre seats 204 with permanent seating, and close to 250 with extra banks of temporary seating that can be added to the front of the auditorium

Auditorium

An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...

.

The Theatre boasts an ample orchestra pit

Orchestra pit

An orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required...

, fly galleries

Fly system

A fly system, flying system or theatrical rigging system, is a system of lines , blocks , counterweights and related devices within a theatre that enable a stage crew to quickly, quietly and safely fly components such as curtains, lights, scenery, stage effects and, sometimes, people...

 with winchable lighting bars, a large control room, an FOH sound location, two large dressing rooms, and a sliding scenery dock door at the rear of the stage. The theatre is well equipped for a student theatre.

History

The Winston Theatre was built in the 1960s as part of the Students' Union

Students' union

A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...

 building on Queens Road in Clifton

Clifton, Bristol

Clifton is a suburb of the City of Bristol in England, and the name of both one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells...

, Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

. The Union moved to this new location in 1965 from the Victoria Rooms

Victoria Rooms (Bristol)

The Victoria Rooms, also known as the Vic Rooms, houses the University of Bristol's music department in Clifton, Bristol, England, on a prominent site at the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road...

, as a larger premises due to the large expansion of the University and increase in undergraduate numbers.

Notable events and productions

• The UK National Student Film Festival, Screentest. Created as a platform to showcase student filmmaking talent from around the UK, the awards ceremony has been held in the Winston Theatre in Bristol since 2004. Guests at the festival have included:
  • BAFTA award winner Luis Cook
  • Director Ken Loach
    Ken Loach
    Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
    
    
  • Actress Emily Watson
    Emily Watson
    Emily Watson is an English actress. She gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.- Early life :...
    
    
  • Screenwriter David Nicholls
    David Nicholls (writer)
    -Background:Nicholls is the middle of three siblings. He attended Barton Peveril sixth-form college at Eastleigh, Hampshire, from 1983 to 1985 , and playing a wide range of roles in college drama productions...
    
    
  • Chairman of BAFTA Duncan Kenworthy
    Duncan Kenworthy
    Duncan H. Kenworthy, OBE is a British film and television producer, and co-founder of the production company DNA Films. He is currently a producer at Toledo Productions....
    
    
  • UK Film Council Chairman Stewart Till CBE
    Stewart Till
    Stewart Till, CBE is the chairman and chief executive of United International Pictures, the biggest film distributor in the world....
    
    

• The first UK amateur production of Footloose
  Footloose (musical)
  Footloose is a 1998 musical based on the 1984 film of the same name. The music is by Tom Snow , the lyrics by Dean Pitchford , and the book by Pitchford and Walter Bobbie.-Act 1:...
  
  was performed by Music Theatre Bristol at the Winston Theatre in June 2009. The rights for the show have been released by Josef Weinberger.