ONE of the country’s iconic studio theatres is set for a revival.

Work will begin this month to reinstate the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon as part of the RSC’s plan to open a new festival theatre, including research, development and rehearsal spaces, and it’s all in conjunction with a ground-breaking new collaboration with the University of Birmingham.

It should see The Other Place re-opening in 2016 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

The project is being made possible thanks to the support of private and public funders, including very generous donations from The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and The Backstage Trust, a £3m Lottery grant from Arts Council England and the new joint initiative with the University of Birmingham, founding partner of The Other Place.

Originally built in 1973, The Other Place was home to the RSC’s developmental and new work, housing many landmark productions with RSC alumni such as Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. The theatre closed in 2006 to make way for the temporary Courtyard Theatre, where the RSC performed during the recent transformation of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

The new Other Place will include a 200-seat flexible studio theatre, built within the external steel structure of The Courtyard Theatre, two new rehearsal rooms, and a new home for the RSC’s 30,000 piece Costume Store, giving people access for the first time via theatre tours.

Under the leadership of Erica Whyman, the RSC’s deputy artistic director, the theatre will be a festival venue for RSC productions, with new work festivals taking place twice a year.

As a creative hub, it will house rehearsals, research and development, and training for artists throughout the year and local amateur groups will be able to use it for rehearsals and performances, and the venue will provide additional performance space for the company’s work with young people and the local community.

The Other Place will also be available for commercial hire, raising valuable income to support the RSC’s artistic programme.

The RSC’s new five-year partnership with the University of Birmingham and its Stratford-based Shakespeare Institute is a relationship rooted in the vision of The Other Place as a centre for creative and academic exchange. At its heart are three practice-led research projects taking place each year, where students, academics and artists develop, critique and respond to provocations.

Students will also have access to creative and teaching spaces at The Other Place, with RSC artists and practitioners providing input to undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The collaboration will develop a laboratory for theatre artists working with scholars and students in creative experiments that stimulate connections between the arts, the academy, and society at large.

Erica Whyman said: ‘I am hugely excited about re-imagining The Other Place as a vibrant, creative space, embodying the challenging and alternative spirit of the original. It will be an exemplary home for theatre artists, and a space where students, our actors, visiting theatre makers and our audiences can really feel part of the ‘engine room’ of the RSC”.

The Other Place is one of two major building projects taking place at Stratford - the other is the Swan Wing project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which is restoring the fabric of the oldest part of the RSC’s estate and sits adjacent to the Swan Theatre.