Oh You Beautiful Stage

VAPAC

Australian Design and Technical Benchmarks for Performing Arts Centres  

4th, 3rd and 1st Edition

WRA led a consortium of theatrical and engineering consultants in this major consultancy for the State Government in which we: 

• Developed Design and Technical Benchmarks for Proscenium, “Other Format” theatres and Concert venues, 

• Conducted facility audits of 30 performing arts centre venues throughout Victoria to assess them against the Benchmarks, 

• Recommended a Benchmark category and upgrade program for each centre, with a detailed audit report and upgrade costing. 

 The three-volume report has been adopted as part of the assessment criteria for performance venue funding applications to Government. The Benchmarks have been widely distributed throughout Australia and internationally. 

The study provided invaluable experience in examining 30 different venues, together with the opportunity to consult widely within the performing arts industry.

The audits revealed a disturbingly high level of misdirected capital expenditure (in millions of dollars) that had failed to achieve financially effective or operationally efficient facilities. This appeared to generally be due to lack of understanding of the specialist nature of these facilities.

The study findings demonstrated that there is a very real danger of the ineffective use of capital if project leaders are not supported by informed and experienced design and operational advice from the earliest stages of project inception. 

Since completing the first edition, WRA undertook a major revision in 2012 that has been published as an e-book.