Santa’s Coming to visit Billingham this year! The picture house will provide santa with his very own ‘billingham-based’ grotto so that children in Billingham can meet santa! He will be visiting every Saturday in December (before Christmas):

3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th December

Visiting Santa is free* however, Head elf has asked us to book children in to see santa, so that he knows how many toys to get made. If you would like to book, please call our team of elves on 01642 555795.

* There are optional presents and photos available when children visit Santa, these are not free and cover the cost of staff and the gifts. Please support us by getting presents and photos.

Christmas Fair

We also have a Christmas fair in the main hall on the same days that Santa visits. Everyone is welcome to have a wander and pick up a bargain at the Christmas Fair, Stalls Already confirmed are: Local Gift Vouchers (Dance Classes, Hair & Beauty etc), Christmas Cake Stall, Christmas Cafe etc. If you would like to book a stall, please call 01642 555795 and ask for Megan or Mattie.

Monday 24th October, start of half term for many company members and volunteers, we began by taking down feature blocks from the main wall where we would put the mirrors on. So far we had 4 mirrors which were kindly given. Through the day little jobs here ‘n’ there were done as we started to make changes to building. After working all day, we had to get the studio up to a clean and safe standard for Mattie’s first Zumba class in the new venue.

Tuesday 25th October, We had the help of Kirsty Hamilton & Kirsty Hall (who brought her electrician husband chris). Chris looked at the electrics around the building and helped to fix lights and other electrical appliances which helped the building to operate more safely. We also managed to get our first mirror up in the main studio (Studio 1) We started on the paint work of the building to give it a more clean and fresh look.

Wednesday 26th October, Chloe Dodds came in to offer her help and support around the buildings renovation. We all used our initiative to find little jobs in which would benefit the company. We all got together and started to put up another 2 mirrors in Studio 1 for the dance studio. Jayne Taggart (from 2nd’s owt) has been letting us use her van to transport these colossal mirrors!

Thursday 27th October, we had Hannah Mcghee, former student of Fracture and current Student at Laban came in to offer her help and motivation towards getting the building to its full operating standard. We all helped to paint little bits around the main studio to make it look more professional and put up more mirrors.

Wednesday19th October, we transported all our belongings from our old venue, and started to discuss our future usage on the massively usable and unique building.

Friday 21st, we started by removing all waste and unnecessary things in which the building had been left with, meaning we would have a clean and spacious venue where we could create our own image and bring it to life properly.

As the main hall had two partition walls in the middle, we decided to remove them as we would then be left with a bigger hall in which could be used for more practical events such as dance classes,party events and conferences.

Sunday 23rd, the company, friends and family all came together to drive straight into making this building usable and practical as it would be used as a dance studio as from Monday 23rd. We got hold of large mirrors and a ballet bar which would help to start a professional dance studio with multi-usage. Our reception area was cleaned down ready to be converted into a full working desk with a main office built.

So… we have …’ahem’…(drumroll please)… bought our own venue! I think you’ll agree that its pretty impressive, we decided to go for a ‘multi-use arts space’ as our main pitch for the building… which is what THE PICTUREHOUSE will become.

WE ARE PROPOSING A RESTORATION TO THE BILLINGHAM PICTURE HOUSE. WE WANT TO CREATE A MULI-USE ARTS SPACE THAT OFFERS MANY DIFFERENT ARTS EXPERIENCES INCLUDING; DANCE STUDIO, CAFÉ, COMMUNITY CINEMA, BAR, CONFERENCE AND COMMUNITY CENTRE. WE WANT TO MAKE A TOTALLY UNIQUE BUILDING AND RESTORE THIS BUILDING TO ITS FORMER GLORY FOR THE PEOPLE OF BILLINGHAM.

Idyllically located on a busy bus route, this venue will play host to many events and classes with its main function being a busy and vibrant dance studio space. Fracture Theatre will occupy this space on a weekly basis and will run classes in everything from tap dance to ballet, kids street dance, OAP’s ballroom, our PDG (performance & dance group), and many other performance related activities.

The building will also be available for parties, functions, corporate events and any other activities that you may have in mind.

THE MAIN FUNCTION OF THE SPACE WILL BE AS A DANCE STUDIO AND WILL BE UTILISED BY FRACTURE THEATRE’S CURRENT DANCE GROUPS, KIDS CLASSES, FITNESS AND ZUMBA CLASSES.

IN THE MAIN HALL, WE WANT TO MAKE THE WEST WALL OF THE MAIN HALL LEVEL (IE REMOVING THE EMBOSSED STUD WALLS) AND LINING THE ROOM WITH MIRRORS. WE WILL ALSO BE REMOVING THE CENTRAL PARTITION WALLS (MIDDLE OF THE MAIN HALL). WE WILL ALSO BE FITTING A STUDIO SOUND SYSTEM AND A BUILDING WIDE TANNOY SYSTEM.

Currently the building sits empty, situated at the end of Mill Lane in Billingham. We plan to change that, we plan to start renovating the building on Wednesday 19th October 2011 and have the majority of the work completed by Tuesday 1st November 2011. Meaning that in total we have just over two weeks to complete the renovation of the former Picture House.

WE ARE PROPOSING A REVIVAL OF THE OLD USE FOR THIS BUILDING AS A CINEMA VENUE. WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO SCREEN LOCAL FILMS, AND (WITH PERMISSION) OLD FILMS THAT WERE PLAYED UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF THE OLD PICTURE HOUSE BUILDING.

Watch this space for more information on the picturehouse as it develops. We are planning to keep a blog diary to record our renovation process, while also filming the process to create a documentary on its restoration.  TTFN