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Contractor Awarded Works For Marina Theatre Project

19 November 2024

Lowestoft Town Council, the Marina Theatre Trust and East Suffolk Council are pleased to announce that The Input Group have been awarded the contract to deliver the works to upgrade the Marina Theatre building in Lowestoft.

The project will see one of Suffolk’s leading venues for theatre, music and comedy be significantly upgraded with the creation of a new theatre entrance within a new link building between the existing Victorian Theatre and the more modern existing box office. The new link building will incorporate a lift to give access for all visitors to all floors of the Theatre, new toilets and a relocated and expanded box office facility.

Speaking about the project, the Mayor of Lowestoft, Cllr Nasima Begum said: “I am delighted that a contractor has been appointed to deliver these works.  The improvements will bring significant upgrades to the Marina Theatre which I hope will improve the experiences for everyone who visits and works at the Theatre.”

Sam Vallerius, General Manager of The Marina Theatre said: “The Marina Theatre Trust are pleased to be moving forward with these plans that will improve the level of service we are able to offer our customers. The improvements, which were highlighted in an audience consultation, will see us become a more accessible and updated venue. We extend our thanks to Lowestoft Town Council and East Suffolk Council for their support on this project.”

Cllr Sarah Whitelock, East Suffolk Council’s cabinet member for Communities, Culture, Leisure and Tourism said: “We are pleased to see these improvements progressing, which are funded through Lowestoft’s £24.9m allocation from the Government’s Towns Fund, secured by East Suffolk Council. These works will further enhance the theatre and increase access for everyone, as well as complementing the major redevelopment work being undertaken by East Suffolk Council at nearby Battery Green.”

Throughout the year the Marina Theatre hosts a variety of shows including their monthly Comedy Club and their upcoming and ever-popular Christmas Pantomime.  The theatre also offers cinema screenings, community classes and a café.  The works will not impact on the Pantomime Season.

The Marina Theatre Project is a Lowestoft Town Council (as building owners) Project, in partnership with the Marina Theatre Trust and East Suffolk Council, with funding from UK Government’s Towns Fund.

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Marlon Davis to headline November Marina Comedy Club

**Update 06.11.2024 Jack Skipper has been replaced with Marlon Davies**

With Marlon Davies, Radu Isac, Richard Spalding and hosted by Stephen DiPlacito!

Marlon Davis is a talented comedian, improviser and actor whose TV appearances include Live at the Apollo, Live From The Comedy Store, Stand Up Central, The Stand Up Sketch Show and Don’t Hate The Players.

Marlon made the final of two national competitions Laughing Horse New Act of the Year and So You Think You’re Funny? at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe the following year, very quickly and firmly cementing his status as a rising star on the comedy circuit.

Marlon has supported Kevin Bridges, Michael McIntyre and Alan Carr on tour and is performing at clubs, arts centres and theatres all over the UK. Marlon’s act is inspired from his upbringing, exploring urban Britain and tackling its social issues with skillful characterisations.

Opening the show is Radu Isac! Radu was a professional stand up comedian in his former home of Romania and was known as Romania’s “comedians’ comedian”. Shortly after moving to London, he was a finalist in the English Comedian of the Year competition. He’s made a name for himself as the king of the misanthropes, setting out his bleak world view one gag at a time. His sugar-coated depravity forces laughs out of those who should really know better – venomous but twinkly, like a snake dipped in glitter. His stand up has featured on multiple BBC and Comedy Central programs such as Stand Up Express (Comedy Central), What Makes The World Laugh (BBC World Service), Fresh From the Fringe (BBC Radio 4) and The Arts Hour (BBC World Service).

With Richard Spalding! Rich is an award winning, mild mannered and polite (or so he says) comedian from the Midlands. His immaculately crafted material and impeccable comedy timing ensures very well delivered jokes. Richard is one of the best acts breaking onto the circuit currently.

Hosted by Stephen DiPlacito!

Please note, that while we do our best to ensure that we deliver the published bill, line-ups can be subject to change at short notice.

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Marina agrees feasibility contractor as redevelopment moves to next stage

The Marina Theatre Trust has signed an agreement with Foster Wilson Size as lead consultants to undertake a feasibility study and draw up plans for their future redevelopment as part of the Towns Fund.

 

Foster Wilson Size is a leading architectural practice with an international reputation for the design of cultural buildings and creative spaces. Their previous clients include theatres from across the country and at a range of sizes, including well-known establishments like Polka, Trafalgar Theatre and Hammersmith Apollo in London; as well as the Everyman in Cheltenham and Norwich Theatre Royal.

 

Ed Wilson, Foster Wilson size said, “We are delighted to have been appointed to work on improvements to the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft. The Marina is a wonderful historic theatre, and a great space to see live performance. We look forward to helping the team at the Marina upgrade the theatre, improve spaces for the audience and achieve their vision for the future.”

 

Accessibility will be at the heart of improvement plans with audience experience being key to the Marina’s goal.

 

Marina Chef Executive Emma Butler Smith said: “all of us that work at the Marina have spent many hours in conversation about what we’d like to achieve in this redevelopment and having such experienced architects taking our dreams and turning them into reality is a great boost for our staff. There’s still many stages of planning and consultation ahead before the builders arrive, but this is a really encouraging step in the right direction. We look forward to sharing prospective plans with our customers in the coming months.”

 

The projects is part of the £24.9M Towns Deal developed by East Suffolk Council & the Lowestoft Place Board and announced earlier this year. The Marina Theatre has been allocated £3.5M of this fund for planned redevelopments. As the building owner & principal stakeholder of the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft Town Council are looking forward to working with the Marina Theatre Trust in assessing and agreeing any plans for the future redevelopment of the Theatre.

 

Speaking about the project, Cllr Alan Green, Mayor of Lowestoft said, “I am delighted that this important step towards drawing up plans to redevelop the Marina Theatre has been taken.  This appointment will help to make sure that everyone in Lowestoft will have access to a 21st-century theatre experience into the foreseeable future. I look forward to seeing how the plans develop.”

 

With projects under the Towns Fund expected to be completed by March 2026, the Marina intends to submit plans for consultation and agreement in the next 12 months.

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The Young Reviewers verdicts are in!

Two lucky winners were invited to our press night and here’s what they thought…

Ella-Rose Cook, aged 9

It starts off with the Evil Queen, “hahaha” she said. The evil Step-Mother of Snow White, the Princess of the town, but the Queen does not like Snowy, so she wants to kill her so she put Herman the Henchman under a spell and put her heart in a box but the others: Dame Dolly Doolittle and Muddles saved Snowy by undoing the spell. They all left and the Forest Fairy told Snowy to go to a safe place. So she headed to a cottage that belonged to the Seven Dwarfs. Inside the cottage Snowy found seven beds “I am a bit tired” Snowy said and goes to sleep in one of the beds. When she awoke she saw: Fun-Guy, Hoarder, Petal, Rummage, Tuffty, Twitch and Whittle…”Oh dear, sorry if I frightened you” she said.

Go to the Marina Theatre to see what happens next…

What I loved:

I loved the ending and all the jokes. I loved the ending because the Prince got married to Snowy and their suits and dresses were amazing and beautiful. Also I hated the part when we had to go home because I wanted to watch more.

Grace Ogilvie, aged 7

I was invited to the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft to watch their pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I was very excited as I love pantomimes and find them very funny.

When it was time to start, the curtains went up and it started with the queen talking to her magic mirror, who made lots of funny jokes. My nanny told me that the lady in the magic mirror was Jo Brand who is a comedian. Then we met the forest fairy who looked beautiful, she had a light up fairy wand and her dress was green, blue and yellow and she had pretty flowers in her hair. She introduced the first part of the story and also was the narrator during the show.

The first time we met snow white, it was her birthday and she had birds flying around her head and I thought it was very clever as they had been made on sticks so the male dancers behind her was swinging them over her head so it looked like they were flying.

All of the costumes used in the show were very colourful. They all suited the characters and looked great on stage. Dame Dolly Doolittle had a different costume for every scene and her costumes were very funny. My favourite costume of Dolly’s was the bright stripy dress she wore when they sang the 12 days of Christmas.

The dwarf costumes were really cute, and I loved all of their big hats. They had different names to the dwarfs I know from the Snow White film. I can’t wait until I’m old enough to audition to be in the pantomime.

The music and dancing in the show was fantastic. My favourite dance was when the forest fairy danced ballet with the angels. Then my favourite song was Your Song sung by Snow White and Prince Michael. They sung it so lovely, but I also laughed because Muddles wasn’t happy that they were in love and kept doing silly things behind them.

My favourite character in the show was Muddles. Terry Gleed is always very funny, and I love him being in the show. He always makes lots of jokes and makes the audience laugh. I was chosen to go on the stage during the show to dance to Grey Squirrel. The actions were easy but that made it lots of fun for everyone. I had to score my part of the audience and I gave them 7 out of 10.

Out of the whole show my favourite part was the 12 days of Christmas song because they changed the words to make everyone laugh and then at the end muddles let go of the toilet rolls and they went flying round the audience. I couldn’t stop laughing!

I am really lucky as I get to go and watch snow white again with my school next week; and I can’t wait! I think everyone should buy tickets and go and enjoy the show!