Press Releases

Lights, camera, action! A new creative buzz for the University Whiteknights campus – University of Reading

Release Date : 09 July 2009

The University of Reading has submitted a planning application for a new purpose-built home for its Department of Film, Theatre & Television in the heart of the Whiteknights campus.

The £11.4 million project will create a dedicated space for three theatre performance areas, a screening room, film editing rooms, TV studio, costume and make up areas, rehearsal spaces and prop store as well as staff offices.

The three-storey building, which will sit alongside the Palmer Building and departments in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, will bring a new creative buzz to the heart of the campus. Subject to planning permission, it is hoped to start work in November and to occupy the building by Easter 2011.

The Department of Film, Theatre & Television has been a leader in the field for over four decades. It pioneered the teaching of film studies in Britain and has established an international reputation for research in the three media. Graduates from the department often go on to find work in directly related fields, working as film producers, film production assistants, theatre directors and playwrights, television producers, drama therapists, scriptwriters, or working in arts administration, acting, teaching, special effects production, public relations, advertising and journalism.

Professor Jonathan Bignell, Head of the School of Arts, English & Communication Design, said: "As well as doing conventional scholarship, our students and staff explore critical ideas by testing them out in screen and performance practice, so the new building will offer state of the art facilities for the exciting, integrated approach for which Reading is known."

ENDS

Further information from Alex Brannen, Media Relations Manager, on 0118 378 7388

Notes to editors:

A computer generated image of the new building is available on 0118 378 7388

The Department will be relocating from the University's Bulmershe Campus at Easter 2011