The Hexagon

The Hexagon
The Hexagon
	View of The Hexagon from San Francisco Libre Walk
	Location within Reading Town Centre
General information
Type	multi-purpose arts venue and theatre
Address	Queens Walk, Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom, RG1 7UA
Coordinates	51°27′14″N0°58′40″W / 51.453889°N 0.977778°W
Construction started	1977;47 years ago
Inaugurated	First performance 'The Gondoliers' performed by The Sainsbury Singers on 7 November 1977
Owner	Reading Borough Council
Design and construction
Architect(s)	RMJM
Other information
Seating capacity	1,200 seated; 1,686 standing and seated
Website
	whatsonreading.com/.../hexagon/...

Last updated January 27, 2024

The Hexagon is a multi-purpose theatre and arts venue in Reading, Berkshire, England. Built in 1977 in the shape of an elongated hexagon,^[1] the theatre is operated by Reading Borough Council under the name "Reading Arts and Venues" along with South Street Arts Centre and Reading's concert hall.

Architecture

The theatre was built in 1977 by Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall (RMJM),^[2] who also built the adjacent Civic Centre.^[3] The original design featured a proscenium but no fly tower.^[2] Upon opening, the venue was comparable to Derby's Assembly Rooms—which also opened in 1977—but the Hexagon was described as architecturally and acoustically superior.^[2]

As the building was designed to operate as a multi-use venue, the arena-style seating was used to avoid limited visibility. This proved useful for sports such as snooker or boxing, but rendered a number of seats unusable during performances that utilised the proscenium.^[1] A review of the Hexagon's architectural design in a 1979 edition of the Architects' Journal surmised that dramatic performances were seen as a low priority in the design—despite an estimated quarter of all events being of this type.^[1]

The stalls, which use removable and retractable seats, have less headroom than the balcony above. This results in shallow overhangs. The theatre floor, which usually holds stall seating, is adjustable to allow a contiguous service with the stage, providing a 517 square metres (5,560 sq ft) surface.^[1]^[4] The balconies, which are separated by gaps around the auditorium, are similar to those at Christchurch Town Hall in New Zealand. Similarly, the inclined panels around the room—to introduce reflections—may have been inspired by that venue.^[1]

The venue allows a number of different seating configurations, which affect the capacity. For performances with a proscenium arch, the capacity is 946. This increases to 1,200 for an all-seated concert and 1,686 for standing with balcony seating.^[4] The various seating arrangements affect the auditorium volume—8,280 cubic metres (292,000 cu ft) and 5,720 cubic metres (202,000 cu ft) respectively for music and drama performances, as well as the reverberation times—1.1 seconds for concerts and 0.9 seconds for drama.^[5] The theatre's diameter is roughly 30 metres (98 ft).^[2]

Acoustics

Originally, the Hexagon used an electronically assisted reverberation system;^[2] this has now been removed. In a review of the system, one author wrote that the system "seemed inaudible in the stalls but made a minor contribution in the balcony", concluding that it "still [left] an inadequate sense of reverberation."^[1] Acoustic panelling is used throughout the auditorium. The ceiling features rotatable acoustic screens to provide reflections to the balcony seats.^[1]

In acoustic tests performed by Sound Research Laboratories,^[5] the venue was found to have a short reverberation time—roughly one second in theatre configuration—which results in a high objective clarity. The assisted resonance system was found to increase this to 1.5 seconds at 200 Hz.^[6] The balcony seats have been described as having an inadequate level of early reflections and speech performance was judged to be poor.^[1] It has been concluded that rectifying the room's acoustics for the benefit of theatre and speech would be detrimental to other uses of the venue such as boxing.^[6]

Events include classical music, comedy, dance, drama, pop and rock concerts. In past years the venue has also been used for snooker.

Related Research Articles

The Bayreuth Festspielhaus or Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, built by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner and dedicated solely to the performance of his stage works. It is the venue for the annual Bayreuth Festival, for which it was specifically conceived and built. Its official name is Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus. It is the home of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.

Room acoustics is a subfield of acoustics dealing with the behaviour of sound in enclosed or partially-enclosed spaces. The architectural details of a room influences the behaviour of sound waves within it, with the effects varying by frequency. Acoustic reflection, diffraction, and diffusion can combine to create audible phenomena such as room modes and standing waves at specific frequencies and locations, echos, and unique reverberation patterns.

Symphony Hall is a 2,262 seat concert venue in Birmingham, England. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 12 June 1991, although it had been in use since 15 April 1991. It is home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and hosts around 270 events a year. It was completed at a cost of £30 million. The hall's interior is modelled on the Musikverein in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The venue, managed alongside Town Hall, presents a programme of jazz, world, folk, rock, pop and classical concerts, organ recitals, spoken word, dance, comedy, educational and community performances, and is also used for conferences and business events as part of the International Convention Centre.

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) is a grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is located in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon – Shakespeare's birthplace – in the English Midlands, beside the River Avon. The building incorporates the smaller Swan Theatre. The Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres re-opened in November 2010 after undergoing a major renovation known as the Transformation Project.

The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I listed building, the first post-war building to become so protected. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the London Sinfonietta, Chineke! and Aurora are resident orchestras at Southbank Centre.

An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and theaters, and may be used for rehearsal, presentation, performing arts productions, or as a learning space.

Kleinhans Music Hall is a concert venue located on Symphony Circle in Buffalo, New York. The hall "is renowned for its acoustical excellence and graceful architecture." Kleinhans is currently the home of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, a regular venue for the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, and is rented out for other performing groups and local events. The building was designed by father-and-son team Eliel Saarinen and Eero Saarinen, with help from local architects F. J. and W. A. Kidd, Stanley McCandless as lighting consultant, and Charles C. Potwin as acoustical adviser. Kleinhans has two performance spaces, as well as additional rooms for rehearsals or private events. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989 for its architecture, 49 years after its completion.

The Fox Theatre is a performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, near the Grand Circus Park Historic District. Opened in 1928 as a flagship movie palace in the Fox Theatres chain, it was at over 5,000 seats the largest theater in the city. Designed by theater architect C. Howard Crane, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

A theater, theatre, or playhouse, is a structure where theatrical works, performing arts, and musical concerts are presented. The theater building serves to define the performance and audience spaces. The facility usually is organized to provide support areas for performers, the technical crew and the audience members, as well as the stage where the performance takes place.

Hill Auditorium is the largest performance venue on the University of Michigan campus, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The auditorium was named in honor of Arthur Hill (1847-1909), who served as a regent of the university from 1901 to 1909. He bequeathed $200,000 to the university for the construction of a venue for lectures, musical performances, and other large productions. Opened in 1913, the auditorium was designed by Albert Kahn and Associates. It was renovated by the same firm beginning in 2002 and was re-opened in 2004.

The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at 240 S. Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite its name, the Academy has never contained a music school. It is located between Locust and Manning Streets in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City.

The RiverCenter for the Performing Arts is a modern performance space in Downtown Columbus, Georgia, United States.

Milton Keynes Theatre is a large theatre in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. It opened on 4 October 1999, 25 years after the campaign for a new theatre first started.

The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts is a 154,000-square-foot (14,300 m²) entertainment and music venue located in the Cerritos Towne Center of Cerritos, California. It is owned and operated by the City of Cerritos and it opened its doors to the public on January 9, 1993, and hosts opera, cabaret, jazz, dance, magic, drama, musicals and comedy performances as well as private functions. Its season runs from August of one year to May of the following year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts</span>

Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts is the premier location for cultural arts and entertainment in Raleigh, North Carolina. The center consists of four unique venues, Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, Meymandi Concert Hall, A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater, and Kennedy Theatre.

The Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts is a concert auditorium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It serves as an entertainment, cultural, educational, and assembly center for the citizens of El Paso County, the Pikes Peak region, and the surrounding area.

Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) is a venue and organisation for live music in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The organisation programs and presents more than 500 concerts and events a year across diverse range of musical genres including classical and chamber music, contemporary, pop, folk, rock, electronica, indie, jazz, cabaret and world music. Opened in 2009, the centre is Melbourne's second largest auditorium for classical music.

LARES is an electronic sound enhancement system that uses microprocessors to control multiple loudspeakers and microphones placed around a performance space for the purpose of providing active acoustic treatment. LARES was invented in Massachusetts in 1988, by Dr David Griesinger and Steve Barbar who were working at Lexicon, Inc. LARES was given its own company division in 1990, and LARES Associates was formed in 1995 as a separate corporation. Since then, hundreds of LARES systems have been used in concert halls, opera houses performance venues, and houses of worship from outdoor music festivals to permanent indoor symphony halls.

The Hyogo Performing Arts Center (HPAC) is a performing arts center in the city of Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station operated by Hankyu Corporation. The Center was opened in 2005 to mark the ten-year anniversary of the Great Hanshin earthquake which largely devastated Nishinomiya and the surrounding cities.

The Variable Room Acoustics System is an acoustic enhancement system for controlling room acoustics electronically. Such systems are increasingly being used to provide variable acoustics for multipurpose venues.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Barron, Mike (2005). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design (2nd ed.). London: Spon. p. 431. ISBN 0419245103.
1 2 3 4 5 Barron, Mike (2005). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design (2nd ed.). London: Spon. p. 429. ISBN 0419245103.
↑ Phillips, Daphne (1980). The story of Reading : including Caversham, Tilehurst, Calcot, Earley, and Woodley (Reprinted. ed.). Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. p. 168. ISBN 0-905392-07-8.
1 2 Reading Arts and Venues (2020). "The Hexagon: Venue Hire (Information for Promoters / Hirers)". Reading: Reading Borough Council. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
1 2 Barron, Mike (2005). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design (2nd ed.). London: Spon. p. 411. ISBN 0419245103.
1 2 Barron, Mike (2005). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design (2nd ed.). London: Spon. p. 432. ISBN 0419245103.

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Barron_2005_431-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Barron, Mike (2005). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design (2nd ed.). London: Spon. p. 431. ISBN 0419245103.

[Barron_2005_429-2] 1 2 3 4 5 Barron, Mike (2005). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design (2nd ed.). London: Spon. p. 429. ISBN 0419245103.

[Phillips_1980_168-3] Phillips, Daphne (1980). The story of Reading : including Caversham, Tilehurst, Calcot, Earley, and Woodley (Reprinted. ed.). Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. p. 168. ISBN 0-905392-07-8.

[Reading_Arts_2012-4] 1 2 Reading Arts and Venues (2020). "The Hexagon: Venue Hire (Information for Promoters / Hirers)". Reading: Reading Borough Council. Retrieved 12 January 2020.

[Barron_2005_411-5] 1 2 Barron, Mike (2005). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design (2nd ed.). London: Spon. p. 411. ISBN 0419245103.

[Barron_2005_432-6] 1 2 Barron, Mike (2005). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design (2nd ed.). London: Spon. p. 432. ISBN 0419245103.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]